Comment on Boeing offers staff 25% pay hike in bid to avoid strike
JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 2 weeks agoI realize the math is marginally inaccurate - precision wasn’t really the goal of what I wrote. We’re on the same page so far as the disingenuous headline goes.
Where we disagree I suppose is the contract being binding. You’re right of course, from a legal perspective, a signed contract is an agreement that must be upheld. When I wrote that it was taking Boeing at its word, I was leaning more into a possibility of leadership changing their minds.
As a hypothetical example:
Two years down the line the executives decide to ‘review’ the contracts and determine an alternative understanding of the principles of the agreement which leads to them reverting to the previous payscale. Then the union threatens to strike again, legal action might ensue, maybe months go by of back and forth with the corporation dragging their metaphorical feet at every opportunity. Eventually this ends up in court with Boeing being told to quit the shit and pay what they agreed, maybe plus 5% as a ‘pemalty’ for bad faith operation. Finally, the agreed upon payscale resumes with backpay, plus that 5%. Workers aren’t exactly happy, but they aren’t angry anymore. All the while, those extra tens of millions were sitting somewhere, collecting interest for Boeing. By the time it all gets straightened out and they accept a fine, they’ve made an extra few million. At the end of the quarter, or the year, the executives that set out on this path take a generous bonus.
All I was really getting at by commenting about the contract was that corporate greed exists - in Boeing of all places this is a certainty.
Giant companies pull these maneuvers all the time at the expense of the people they employ, their own customers, or both. I don’t think most of what I wrote was wrong. Inaccurate maybe? I can live with that.
Hildegarde@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
your hypothetical shows a complete lack of understanding.
if they do these things all the time as you say, you would have a real example rather than a purely hypothetical one.
your delusional fantasy is not reality
JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Hahaha cheers mate for the laugh. Didn’t realize I was wasting my time with you.
Hildegarde@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You’re wasting everyone’s time by making up problems with a contract. Multi year contracts are standard. There may be a lot wrong with the contract, but the fact that its a multi year contract like every normal union contract isn’t one of them.
No one who negotiates union contracts is worried that an employer might randomly decide to revert a negotiated payscale.
JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The point I was trying to convey is that companies are run by people and people are corruptable. You’re correct to say there’s no reason to think any specific contact would be violated. It’s folly however, to think companies never take action against a union as a whole or a worker individually.
Given the recent whistleblowers that have stopped being alive in recent Boeing memory, I don’t think it’s alarmist to suggest they might not be a trustworthy bunch.
Either way, my apologies for the way I half heartedly wrote something the other day.