EVERETT, WASH. — A dozen Boeing Co. machinists huddled over an oil-drum fire in the chilly morning drizzle, hooting as white trucks periodically cruised past them and into the gates of the massive airplane assembly plant.
Belonging to a North Carolina contractor, the trucks carried parts for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner -- which would be under construction inside were the union machinists not hurtling catcalls outside, locked in a seven-week-old strike that some estimate is costing Boeing $100 million a day.
The trucks symbolize a revolution underway in American aircraft manufacturing that is at the heart of the Boeing contract dispute: outsourcing. Components from New Breed Inc.'s 100,000-square-foot warehouse nearby are ferried straight to the assembly line, bypassing Boeing workers who for generations have stockpiled, inventoried and transported aircraft parts at comfortable union wages.
The aerospace company over the last few years had turned commercial aircraft manufacturing on its head by farming out much of the super-efficient 787. The Dreamliner's wings are built by Mitsubishi Corp. in Japan, its doors by Latecoere in France. Fuselage sections are manufactured by a U.S.-Italian team in South Carolina. Little but the plane's final assembly takes place in Everett, a suburb of Seattle -- long known as Jet City. Now, Boeing wants to outsource some of the union jobs still left here, hiring contractors to handle more warehousing, forklift operations, materials processing and hazardous waste disposal.
The result is a standoff between two of the nation's strongest unions and one of its biggest exporters.
With talks resuming before a federal mediator this week, the strike has cost Boeing 38% of its third-quarter profits and left 27,000 machinists out of work in the middle of an economic downturn. Some analysts are predicting the dispute could drag on for another month -- or more. Boeing's 21,000 engineers, who are to launch their own contract negotiations this week, said they could easily become deadlocked on the same outsourcing issue.
For Boeing, what is at stake is the ability to remain globally competitive at a time when Airbus and a growing number of smaller manufacturers are gaining traction.
For the workers, it is the fear of slowly losing the union jobs that have offered high wages, excellent retirement, three trips a year to the dentist and the promise of work for their children and grandchildren.
