Despite voting down a final contract offer by a sixty-two percent margin last Friday, the 25,000 members of the International Association of Machinists employed by aerospace giant Boeing Co. did not vote to strike by the necessary two-thirds margin and under union bylaws were required to settle on management?s terms. The vote came after pressure from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) failed to bring Boeing back to the negotiating table after making its final offer in the often discordant talks (see WIT?s for Aug. 30, 28 and 22, 2002), and is the first time the union has rejected a contract offer but failed to approve a strike. Although IAM members will have to wait for the three-year contract to expire before they can negotiate a new contract, Boeing is still locked in negotiations with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) over issues similar to those in the IAM negotiations (see WIT for March 14, 2002).
See HELEN JUNG, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 16, 2002