Boeing's Union Presence

Boeing's Union Presence

Boeing is a monumental aircraft manufacturing company with a heavily unionized workforce in Seattle, Washington (Foust, 2009). Boeing has not had the best of luck with the union presence because of higher pay demands, strikes, and lawsuits. Because of this, within the past decade, the company has tried to spread its wings by making the union presence less powerful in the execution of company decisions.

In 2009, the company decided to open up another production facility for the 787 Dreamliner in North Charleston, SC (Foust, 2009). The decision was heavily based on the fact that South Carolina is a "right to work" state. As of 2011, Boeing has experienced many costly labor disputes, with four union strikes since 1989 (DeMaria, 2011). The company lost $1.8 billion during a 58 day strike in 2008 (DeMaria, 2011). Boeing decided to invest two billion dollars into the facility in Charleston, which created over 1,000 jobs with the average pay being only $15 per hour versus $26 per hour to the unionized workers in Seattle (Foust & Bachman, 2009). The workers in SC were given the opportunity to join the union, but those that joined withdrew due to results of lost work during a strike headed by the International Association of Machinists' (IAM) union at the plant in Seattle (Demaria, 2011).

The IAM filed a formal complaint against Boeing on the basis that it was believed the reason for opening a facility in South Carolina was meant to punish the unionized workers for past strikes, which violates federal labor laws (Lohr, 2011). However, in the contract with the union, it states that Boeing can locate anywhere (Lohr, 2011). Not only was the state of South Carolina a desirable location because it is a "right to work" state, Boeing was offered a lot of money saving incentives by the Governor and other politicians in SC. Also, Boeing made no changes in production plans or employment in the Washington State facility.

In 2011, Boeing and the union reached an agreement. Boeing had not violated any laws the company was accused of violating. However, legal issues and obstacles could rise again in the future. The company was experiencing union strikes on the average of every four years. Legal issues that could arise can be very similar to the company's history of legal issues concerning the union. For instance, the unionized factory workers