Boeing faces first strike in 25 years

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- With each passing day, a strike looms ever larger at

the Boeing Co.

Negotiations have resulted in no breakthroughs since a union representing

about 1,500 local workers authorized a strike on Sunday, company

spokeswoman Erin Lutz said.

The “cooling off” period before strike activity begins will end Monday,

Nov. 1, she said.

“Anything can happen,” she said. “These things are very fluid. Certainly

a strike is in no one’s best interest.”

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers demands

a 6% pay hike, about twice as much as Boeing is offering, she said.

The company, headquartered near Bolsa Chica Street and Bolsa Avenue,

can’t afford to pay more, Lutz says, because business has cooled off

recently. One of its major clients, a satellite constellation company,

Iridium, went bankrupt.

Also, Boeing has nearly completed expensive construction of large-scale

components for the International Space Station, she said. On top of

everything, the company’s bread and butter rocket launch program has

suffered major setbacks.

In May, Boeing’s newest rocket, the Delta III, failed to boost a

satellite into orbit. That followed a launch that self-destructed in

August 1998.

But union representative Earl Lain said the company worries more about

its stockholders than its employees. “That’s the nature of the beast.”

He said the union only wants what’s fair, but “sometimes they don’t

exactly play fair.”

If no agreement can be reached, Boeing will face its first strike in

nearly 25 years, Lutz said. In 1975, workers walked off for nine weeks

after the company shut down its Santa Monica plant.