Contract Negotiations
Boeing/IAM contract negotiations get underway on Thursday. Main issues include changes to the pension system and healthcare provisions, though look for a broader conversation about strategic direction of outsourcing. That particular point could be like nailing jell-o to a wall, each side has an idea of where the company should go strategically, and a labor negotiation is not likely to be the place to settle that debate.
A few devil's advocate questions to ponder:
- Would Boeing want a strike on which to blame more non-labor related 787 delays?
- Even if the IAM gets what it wants in the contract (wages, pensions and healthcare), is a strike a way to make the "I told you so" point about outsourcing?
- How will SPEEA use what it learns from watching IAM's negotiations?
September 3 is 17 days away.
More on GTF
A few more details about GTF phase one flight testing wrapping up last week that didn't make it into my story:
- The flight test program was continuously being hammered with bad weather in the Upstate New York, Vermont and Canada area. The longest flight of the program clocked in at seven hours, which was actually a combination of two flights compressed into one because of severe thunderstorms, typical of the summer months in that part of the United States.
- The geared PW6000 engine core demonstrator was trucked to New York City from P&W's Plattsburg test facility, flown to Paris and then trucked to Toulouse. Currently, the engine is having components reinstalled that were removed for shipping and is set for delivery to Airbus the third week of August.
- Looking past the short range applications, Pratt & Whitney speculated that a widebody application would have a fan diameter about 15-20 inches beyond the 777 and A380, making it as large as 140-150 inches in diameter. That is one HUGE engine.
Olympic Dreamliner?
The summer Olympic games have features loads of new ads from a lot of companies. United Airlines new and very "visually creative" ads were featured here in last week's open thread. This week, GE ran an ad called "Crane" high lighting the GEnx engine. You might just recognize the plane they show in flight.
Boeing/IAM contract negotiations get underway on Thursday. Main issues include changes to the pension system and healthcare provisions, though look for a broader conversation about strategic direction of outsourcing. That particular point could be like nailing jell-o to a wall, each side has an idea of where the company should go strategically, and a labor negotiation is not likely to be the place to settle that debate.
A few devil's advocate questions to ponder:
- Would Boeing want a strike on which to blame more non-labor related 787 delays?
- Even if the IAM gets what it wants in the contract (wages, pensions and healthcare), is a strike a way to make the "I told you so" point about outsourcing?
- How will SPEEA use what it learns from watching IAM's negotiations?
September 3 is 17 days away.
More on GTF
A few more details about GTF phase one flight testing wrapping up last week that didn't make it into my story:
- The flight test program was continuously being hammered with bad weather in the Upstate New York, Vermont and Canada area. The longest flight of the program clocked in at seven hours, which was actually a combination of two flights compressed into one because of severe thunderstorms, typical of the summer months in that part of the United States.
- The geared PW6000 engine core demonstrator was trucked to New York City from P&W's Plattsburg test facility, flown to Paris and then trucked to Toulouse. Currently, the engine is having components reinstalled that were removed for shipping and is set for delivery to Airbus the third week of August.
- Looking past the short range applications, Pratt & Whitney speculated that a widebody application would have a fan diameter about 15-20 inches beyond the 777 and A380, making it as large as 140-150 inches in diameter. That is one HUGE engine.
Olympic Dreamliner?
The summer Olympic games have features loads of new ads from a lot of companies. United Airlines new and very "visually creative" ads were featured here in last week's open thread. This week, GE ran an ad called "Crane" high lighting the GEnx engine. You might just recognize the plane they show in flight.
on August 19, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply
Jon, I don't think Boeing management would even consider that thought. Far too risky.
As for the IAM, they are totally spoiling for a strike, and BA will have to throw a ton of money at them to get out of this one, something I believe they are prepared to do. Main problem is that the union sincerely believes the company is going offshore solely to save money and refuses to grasp that the main reason is them
on August 20, 2008 1:17 PM | Reply
'You might just recognize the plane they show in flight'.
Surely not the 330! The nose looks 'Airbus' but the camera pans away from the wing so I could not recognize it.
A330 with GEnx engines??? Does GE have a surprise up their sleeve?
on August 21, 2008 5:26 AM | Reply
it's the c-series
on August 21, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply
The C-series will launch with the GTF from PW and not the GEnx which is too big
on August 21, 2008 4:46 PM | Reply
How does the speculative 140-inch fan diameter compare with the size of the standard Boeing single-aisle cross-section? Weren't there claims when the 777 was launched that those new big-fan engines were the size of a 737 (707/720/727/757) fuselage...?