Odds and Ends: Boeing responds to SPEEA; Enders’ mystery injury revealed; AirAsia

Boeing v SPEEA, con’t: As ballots are mailed by SPEEA to its members to vote on the Boeing contract offer, Boeing issued this response to SPEEA executive claims about the offer.

Enders’ mystery injury: EADS CEO Tom Enders was supposed to accompany the German chancellor to China on a recent trip but had to cancel due to an undisclosed injury. This Bloomberg article reveals what happened in a profile of his efforts to get the French and German governments out of EADS.

AirAsia: Long-written about plans to buy 100 Airbus A320s are headed to the board for approval, according to this article.

13 Comments on “Odds and Ends: Boeing responds to SPEEA; Enders’ mystery injury revealed; AirAsia

  1. Boeings response to SPEEA’s assertions is in a very helpful and comprehensive format. It certainly clarfies the basis of disagreement.

    This should become the basis of further discussion and negotiation as it reduces the issues to less dramatic and controversial form and allows for a better way of presenting the issues and their relationship to the last contract as well as the basis for its industry comparison.

    • Did you read the response? It’s an admission that everything SPEEA says is correct. There’s some justification for WHY Boeing wants to do the things SPEEA is complaining about but there’s no refutation. This document was greeted with open laughter in the workplace. The laughter got even louder when Boeing had to retract the document and issue a new version because their original contained factual errors. There are several versions with commentary circulating through the workplace including an official one from SPEEA.

      • from the posted sept 20 BA version of ” can you top this ‘ funnybook

        …The income replacement ratio under our pension plan has grown to 121 percent for profs and 98 percent for techs at age 62 with significant increases to these pension factors over time..

        Somehow I doubt that – at BEST, the BCERP **** MIGHT**** REPEAT ***MIGHT**** replace about 40- 45 percent of income ( salary ) . Maybe they are trying to claim the so called average gains of 6 to 7 percent in your 401k ( riiiiight) plus subsidies from the planet pluto..?

        Or is that the new ‘post it math ” ???

  2. The link in the Enders story and the link in the Air Asia story kinda lead to the same article.

  3. BA Investor :
    Boeings response to SPEEA’s assertions is in a very helpful and comprehensive format. It certainly clarfies the basis of disagreement.

    Would you buy an used EDSEL from the salesman who wrote that response?

    Boeing will require you to waive your legal rights in order to obtain layoff benefits
    Yes, it is true. We are proposing to have employees sign a waiver and a release document before they receive layoff benefits.

    Keep in mind- the only right you cannot sign away today is to knowingly sell yourself into slavery. – that is assuming one follows and pays attention to the constitution and few amendments. ALL else is fair game.

    Sounds like a line from ” Mr Roberts” – “forget what I told you, do what I’m telling you ! ”

    IMHO- I think its time to throw the captains palm tree overboard !!!

    Boeing attempts to bypass pension plan legal documents- which few ever see or get- allows them to tweak pension formulas with little chance of discovery. They use the standard small print ‘ in case of confusion- the legal plan document applies .

    For those nearing retirement- try to get a copy from the plan administrator.

    You might be surprised at what it doesn’t say.

    In the online version – the company can mislead and lie and leave out, with little chance of discovery. And the legal plan document is the ONLY contractural document that applies ( CIGNA v AMARA-SCOTUS 09-804 0

    So what do I know – well in the late 90’s- a company called IBM changed its pension rules
    Some discovered they were getting hosed. A message board was started, and reported in the WSJ. Out of curiosity I joined the board. Suggested that they demand the legal plan documents to find out what really happened. The rest is history. From a recent post on the subject by Ms Cooper of Cooper v IBM

    …. We were fighting to keep the DB plans of America on the
    table, to force corporations to keep their promised pensions to us. We won round
    1 at the Federal District Court level. We lost round 2 at the Seventh Circuit
    Federal Court of Appeals. It then went to the U.S. Supreme Court. It couldn’t
    go any higher than that!!!
    After all that, IBM still wrote a check for $320 million.

    IMO Boeing is tying to pull the same shady type game

    • There is an arrogance at work in these negotiations that is stunning. Boeing issued an email to employees September 13 explaining how good their offer was that they had to retract TWICE because it contained math errors. This explainer had to be retracted within hours because they falsely asserted they weren’t imposing dental premiums and SPEEA pointed out on twitter exactly where in their proposal the dental premiums were.

      Mike Delaney often refers to engineering as “his Kingdom” and that’s becoming less of a joke. There’s a wide disconnect between company leadership and the employees (witness the spontaneous rally of 1500 members inside the Everett factory Wednesday) but even worse, there seems to be a disconnect in reality. Boeing leadership simply asserts that they know what is best for everyone and are dismayed when their workforce disagrees.

  4. And everyone wants to believe that a jet turbine at 100 percent spins fast.

    The BA power point rangers are just warming up . .

    “To infinity and beyond ” !!!

    • The SPEEA responses certainly invite additional discussion and negotiation.

      For those of us on the outside, this format and what follows has given us a better understanding of the issues. That is all I wanted. Now the negotiation and armwrestling begins and I just hope the parties are able to come to mutually satisfactory terms….and perhaps future postings can keep us informed of progress.

  5. If EADS wants to have US military sales then they better get rid of the governments, it would also get a better image by being a private enterprise. Who ever truts politicians to make wise decisions? I do not, I will never trust those who depend on others votes. Liars and criminals 🙂

  6. I can remember politicians also played a (minor, probaly moderating) role in landing the tanker deal for Boeing. It didn’t scare many on this site I think.

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