“Earning” the right to build airplanes at Boeing

The Boeing Co. seems to be at never-ending crossroads. The development of the 787 was to be a game-changer with an entry-into-service planned for May 2008. If this had happened on time, this innovative airplane would have set… Read More

Labor at Boeing and Airbus

The Everett Herald has a series of stories today about labor relations at Boeing and Airbus. The links are below. Note: The Herald’s website is one of the clunkiest in CyberUniverse, so don’t be surprised if it is… Read More

Wake up notice to IAM, SPEEA and WA State

The news that Boeing is leaning toward proceeding with a new airplane instead of a re-engined 737 serves as yet another wake-up call for Boeing’s labor unions and Washington State officials to get their act together. As we… Read More

IAM threatens Boeing strike in 2012

Bloomberg has this long story looking at the 787 development since last June, when Boeing officials then predicted the airplane would make its first flight by June 30. Only two days later, Boeing announced another delay for the… Read More

Outside the box

We spoke last week at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance (PNAA) annual conference in Lynnwood (WA) in which we made two proposals that were immediately labeled as radical–though we don’t think they are. One involved Boeing and the… Read More

787 Line 2 aftermath

Update, Oct. 30: We’ll be posting our post mortem Monday, Nov. 2. This isn’t the post mortem we’re working on but there is a lot of traffic to this site today, obviously looking for some thoughts, so here… Read More

SPEEA: We’ll organize Charleston engineers

If Boeing decides to put the second 787 line in Charleston, isolating this work from SPEEA engineers in Puget Sound, SPEEA told this column it will immediately begin an organizing effort of engineers hired in or transferred to… Read More

Boeing reorganizes Wichita ahead of strike vote

Boeing internally announced a reorganization of its Wichita Integrated Defense System ahead of a strike vote by the engineers union, SPEEA, that has an April 2 strike date. Renewed contract negotiations collapsed earlier this week without an agreement…. Read More

SPEEA to Wichita: Reject contract

SPEEA, the Boeing engineer’s union, today urged its members at Boeing Wichita/IDS to reject Boeing’s last contract. In this market, observers probably think SPEEA is looney, but SPEEA believes Boeing is gearing up to sell the plant and… Read More

SPEEA begins work-to-rules on 747-8

SPEEA, the Boeing engineers union, has begun a work-to-rules effort in Wichita (KS) on the 747-8 program intended to put pressure on the company as contract talks continue, we’ve learned. SPEEA also passed out 2,000 fliers at the… Read More