On Thursday an odd local ritual returns when Boeing and Machinists union officials lock themselves in a SeaTac hotel for 10 long days and nights to negotiate the terms of a new contract.

"It's a lockdown," said International Association of Machinists (IAM) leader Tom Wroblewski, comparing the SeaTac Doubletree to the "Hotel California," where "you can never leave."

"It's not quite as enjoyable as the song," said Wroblewski, who took office last year and for the first time leads the union side in the contract talks.

Boeing and the IAM each have booked blocks of rooms. Subcommittees will meet late into the night and the principals may take calls at all hours for consulting or signing off on interim agreements.

"This is a very tense, emotional process," said Doug Kight, Boeing's top labor negotiator, who took the post in 2006 and is also new at the head of his side. "You are always drained when you are done."

The process, which occurs every three years, will determine whether 26,000 Machinists, most of them in the Puget Sound region, will go back to work with a new contract after a vote Sept. 3, or strike for the fourth time in the last two decades.

In exclusive interviews, the two leaders acknowledged an urgent need to move past the bad history between company and union.

But the pressure on each to deliver is intense.

"Boeing has been successful and employees deserve to share in that success," conceded Kight. "We also need to make sure we can sustain that success. ... There must be a bottom line."

And when Wroblewski meets IAM members these days, the constant question isn't about whether there will be a strike.

"They ask: 'How long are we going to be on strike?' " said Wroblewski.

His standard response: "My job is to negotiate you a contract, not negotiate a strike."

Business & Technology | Boeing, Machinist head into final negotiations this week | Seattle Times Newspaper

From Seattle Times:
About 7,000 Machinists marched in solidarity at Boeing's wide-body jet plant in Everett on Friday morning, a large banner, hanging from a balcony, emblazoned with just one word: "Strike!"

Workers at the rally declared their rejection of the company's Thursday contract offer with chants of "Paint the Lines," a reference to the green perimeter lines that Boeing security traditionally has painted on sidewalks around the plants to mark where strike pickets cannot cross.

Within an hour of the rally's end, the leadership of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) had heard enough from the rank-and-file to make a decision.

"It's official," Mark Blondin, IAM national aerospace coordinator, said in a phone interview. "We are recommending to reject the contract and to vote to strike."

Local News | Machinists union calls for Boeing strike | Seattle Times Newspaper

From Associated Press and KING5:
SEATTLE - After contract negotiations failed, Boeing machinists say they'll strike at one minute after midnight tonight.

The announcement came after representatives from Boeing Co. and the Machinists union traveled to Florida for talks.

The negotiations were under way at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort hotel, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., reported The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The hotel is also the site of the International Association of Machinists' Grand Lodge convention, which runs through Sept. 14.

"Boeing knows what it takes to reach an agreement. The union knows what it takes. It's making it work," Tom Buffenbarger, IAM international president, told The Times by telephone. He was already in Florida and planned to join the negotiations. "It only takes an hour to reach an agreement."


Buffenbarger did not immediately return an Associated Press request for comment left late Thursday at his Disney hotel room. A man who answered the phone at a room in the same hotel registered to Mark Blondin, chief machinists' negotiator, hung up when asked for comment.

Tom Wroblewski, president of Machinists District Lodge 751, had a room reserved at the same hotel but had not yet checked in late Thursday, the hotel said.

Members of the union representing 27,000 aircraft assembly workers at the aerospace giant voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to strike for an unprecedented second time in three years, then learned both sides had agreed to a 48-hour contract extension at the request of Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and federal mediators.

"We have agreed with the federal mediator to meet in a neutral place with the union and hope to reach an agreement," Boeing spokesman Tim Healy told The Associated Press late Thursday afternoon.

Union spokeswoman Connie Kelliher in Seattle said she was unaware union representatives had traveled to Florida.

"Tom and Mark said they were going back to the table but weren't going to disclose where they were going so they could get the job done," she said. The union leaders have called for a media blackout, she said.

Boeing workers, including Paul Burton, lower center, rally in favor of a strike against the Boeing Co. Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008, at Machinist union headquarters in Seattle.
"They want to get the work done at the table, which is where it should have been done all along," she said.

Gregoire spokesman Pearse Edwards said Thursday he knew the two sides were talking but had no details.

The contract had been set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Thursday before being extended to the same time Saturday morning.

The last-minute move to avert a potentially bruising strike was met with frustration from rank-and-file members who had voted 80 percent against Boeing's last offer and 87 percent to strike, far more than the two-thirds required for a walkout.

Under union rules, anything less than two-thirds for a strike meant the offer would have taken effect by default regardless of the vote to reject it.

Machinists leaders were repeatedly shouted down at the union hall Wednesday night with catcalls of "Sellout!" and "What was the strike vote for?"

For Boeing, the rejected offer took "the best contract in the industry and we made it better," Vice President of Human Resources Doug Kight told a news conference.

He repeatedly turned aside questions of whether Boeing was relieved to get another chance to avert a strike by offering a sweeter deal.

"Responding to a request from the federal mediators is appropriate for both sides," Kight said. "My job at this point is to listen to the union."

Boeing's "best and final" three-year offer, presented Aug. 28 after talks that began May 8, included bonuses totaling at least $5,000 and averaging $6,400, raises averaging 11 percent, pension increases and a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment -- $34,000 in average pay and benefit gains per employee, according to the company.

The average Boeing machinist earns $27 an hour, or about $56,000 a year, before overtime and incentives.

The Machinists union represents about 25,000 workers in District 751 in the Seattle area, 1,500 in District 24 in Gresham, Ore., a Portland suburb, and about 750 who do military work for Boeing in Wichita, Kan.

Analysts say a strike could cost Boeing about $100 million per day in deferred revenue. During the last strike -- a 24-day walkout in 2005 that was one of the shortest in company history -- Boeing was unable to deliver more than two dozen airplanes on schedule.

At the union hall Wednesday night, Blondin insisted it was worth one more try to reach agreement at the bargaining table without a strike.

"They've got 48 hours to bring a deal acceptable to you," he told more than 100 shop stewards and others who had been chanting "Strike, strike, strike!"

"We have told you all along that our job as negotiators is to negotiate a contract that is acceptable to you, not to negotiate a strike," Blondin said.

From Business Week:
When a stunning 87 percent of Boeing machinists voted on Sept. 3 to go on strike, second-guessers wondered whether these skilled plane builders had a few screws loose. After all, management was offering wage hikes that would top 11 percent over three years and bonuses of more than $5,000. Boeing was even offering to hike its traditional pension payments, rather than scrap them, as the company first proposed.

"You guys are crazy!" wrote one reader on a BusinessWeek.com message board. "Those numbers are great. Most people would die to get those raises in the midst of an economic slowdown."

Why machinists decided to strike Boeing - BusinessWeek.com - MSNBC.com