In rejecting the contract, workers singled out the company’s takeback demands on health coverage and proposals to contract out work formerly done by union members.

The document’s provisions of a 8 percent bonus in the first year, and increases of 2 percent in the second year and 2.5 percent in the third, along with a slight raise in pension payments, are offset by an increase in health premiums of several thousand dollars a year.

The new contract gives Boeing the go-ahead to carry out wholesale subcontracting, including the right to bring subcontractors and vendors onto the union shop floor. In recommending that workers vote to reject the company’s offer and authorize a strike, IAM negotiators said that this provision would threaten the jobs of thousands of union members.

A number of workers told reporters they were disappointed by the outcome and the fact that they would not be striking. "It leaves a bad taste in your mouth," said John Valenzuela, an inspector on engine shrouds in Wichita.

"We have a contract that’s ratified basically under protest," said Diane Goodwin, a quality assurance inspector at a plant in Auburn, Washington. "But we don’t have a choice. I’m going to do my job whether I like it or not."

David Clay, a tool maker, said, "The company kept saying, ‘Times are tough. This isn’t going to be good for our customers,’ and all that talk affected some workers." Citing "economic reality," the company used the steep decline in aircraft orders as the basis for its concession demands.

Added to the impact of the overcapacity in air travel and the resulting drop-off in orders by crisis-ridden airlines like United Airlines, Boeing faces intense competition from its European rival Airbus. Industry ob–servers said that the company expects to deliver some 380 commercial jets this year and 275 to 300 next year, down from 527 in 2001.

"Nobody can guarantee jobs and security.... Capitalism and the markets will decide," Alan Mulally, chief of Boeing’s commercial division, said at a press conference. He said Boeing could implement even more layoffs beyond the 30,000 underway for this year if "pivotal orders" are not secured within the next two or three months.

Negotiations will begin October 29 on a new contract between the aerospace company and the Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA). The present contract, won after 40 days on the picket lines in early 2000, expires December 1.

Meanwhile, the day after the Boeing ballot 1,400 workers at the company’s helicopter plant near Philadelphia went on strike in opposition to the company’s contract offer, which includes an attack on their health coverage. The walkout will reportedly slow deliveries of the CH-47 Chinook, a transport helicopter used by the U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan. The unionists are organized by the United Auto Workers.  
 
 
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