Aerospace Industry Labor Relations

For an indication of what Boeing Co. is like as a corporate citizen, consider the concert hall rising up from a block-size cavity in downtown Seattle. Not only did Boeing plunk down $3 million in cash to help build the new home for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, it also loaned an executive to serve as project director at the construction site. As an employer, too, Boeing is generous. It pays well, offers good benefits and makes all the right noises about partnering with workers.

McDonnell Douglas Corp. and its Machinists union Friday reached a tentative agreement to end a 3-month-old strike by 6,700 workers at the aerospace company's St. Louis plant. After bargaining for 30 straight hours Thursday and Friday, negotiators emerged with an agreement that union officials said will be submitted for ratification to the International Assn. of Machinists District 837 as early as next week.

McDonnell Douglas Corp. machinists authorized a strike that could start next week after their union failed to reach agreement on a new contract with the aerospace and defense company. Members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union, which represents 6,700 at the company's aerospace division based in St. Louis, authorized the strike after the company failed to submit a new contract proposal.

American workers are winning a few battles lately in the long-term war to keep aerospace industry jobs from flying off to foreign lands. The most recent example is the four-year labor contract that Boeing union machinists approved late Wednesday, by an 87% majority, after a 69-day strike. Although it is based on the understanding that new foreign customers will demand that some production be performed on their own soil, the pact also is designed to prevent an exodus of jobs overseas.