Interesting news came out of the procedural arguments in the Boeing case on Tuesday in Seattle. Boeing lawyer William Kilberg said the company agreed to a settlement the Board proposed before filing the complaint. “The NLRB made Boeing an offer, which Boeing accepted….we thought we had a deal…We were told that the board consulted with the union and decided to withdraw the deal.” Boeing had agreed not to lay off anyone from the 787 line in Everett before the current IAM contract expires in 2012. The company has never before guaranteed against layoff. In other words, the Board proposed a ban on layoffs as reasonable remedy for the substance of the complaint. And Boeing continues to be open to a settlement, Kilberg said. “What Boeing is not open to is commitments or guarantees as to where they will put work in the future.” Meanwhile, the union doesn’t seem to have its story on that settlement offer quite straight yet. An assistant to the IAM District 751 president said he knew of no such offer, and claimed such a settlement would make no sense. “They’re hiring like crazy,” he noted. “There’s nobody to lay off.” But IAM spokesperson Connie Kelliher said Boeing now has 3,300 people working on 787s in Everett but plans to scale that down to 1,200 after the Charleston plant is fully operational this year. “There’s going to be job loss,” she said. Well, sort of, as those jobs to be cut were added after the decision to open the South Carolina line. Representatives of the Board wouldn’t discuss details of the settlement offer, but spokeswoman Nancy Cleeland said they have been pushing for a deal from the start. “We would like nothing better than to have this settled.” Meanwhile, the administrative law judge conducting Tuesday’s hearing, reminded everyone he expects to be dead before the matter is settled in the courts and that both sides must work together without “acrimony” as the IAM and Boeing are effectively tied to each other like parents in a custody battle. There are no reports of discussions on the cost of this litigation to taxpayers, Boeing shareholders and dues paying IAM members.
