The eyes of the labor world were on Boeing’s 3,000 workers in South Carolina this week. Nearly 95 percent of them turned out to vote in an election on whether they wanted to be represented by the International Association of Machinists — the same union that represents their co-workers in Washington State. Whatever the outcome, it would be known before President Trump visits on Friday for the unveiling of the new 787-10 Dreamliner.
The workers’ answer? No way, and there won’t be a recount. Seventy-four percent for the workers in North Charleston voted against joining the union.
Joe Seiner, a labor law expert with the University of South Carolina, called the IAM’s loss “embarrassing” and said it is a setback to organized labor throughout the state.
“This is a major hit to the union,” Seiner said, adding that recent talks of layoffs and cost-cutting at Boeing had given the IAM its best shot at gaining a foothold.
“If they can’t get a strong vote in this kind of environment, it sends a signal that South Carolina isn’t interested in unionization,” he said. “Unions might think twice about whether they are going to spend time and resources in a state that they just can’t seem to turn.”
As of last year, South Carolina remained the least unionized of the 50 states, with only 1.6 percent of its workers belonging to unions. But aside from a strongly anti-union local culture, the workers in North Charleston may have been wary of joining a union whose intransigence probably brought the company to South Carolina in the first place.
A strike by the Machinists’ union at the company’s unionized facilities in the Seattle area brought Boeing’s operations to a halt there for 58 days in 2008. At the time, the company had thousands of planes on back-order, and the union used the occasion to maximize its leverage in negotiations.
Boeing was forced to make major concessions after that strike. But afterward, its executives plotted to expand into South Carolina for purposes of “rebalancing an unbalanced and uncompetitive labor relationship.”
