NORTH CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - Officials with Boeing say the company will not negotiate with the International Association of Machinists, the union which a group of Lowcountry workers voted to join, until their appeal is resolved.
"Boeing has declined the IAM’s demand to begin the contract bargaining process on our Flight Line teammates’ behalf," read a statement by Boeing. "We continue to strongly believe that this micro-unit is prohibited under federal law and we are appealing to the NLRB."
Last month, a team of Boeing flightline readiness technicians and inspectors voted to unionize.
The vote was 104 to 65 to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers.
According to Boeing, the company does not intend to recognize the IAM as the "lawful representative of our teammates while the appeal is pending."
This affects the 176 flightline workers at the North Charleston campus where there are a total of 7,000 workers.
Boeing released the following statement Monday evenng:
Boeing has declined the IAM’s demand to begin the contract bargaining process on our Flight Line teammates’ behalf. We continue to strongly believe that this micro-unit is prohibited under federal law and we are appealing to the NLRB. We do not intend to recognize the IAM as the lawful representative of our teammates while the appeal is pending. While the Flight Line appeal process unfolds, our teams and teammates will continue to build and deliver great airplanes, working closely together as we always have.
The International Association of Machinists also released a statement on Monday:
The Machinists Union represents 35,000 members at Boeing locations throughout the nation. For some reason, Boeing executives are choosing to ignore the wishes of hard-working men and women in South Carolina.
Boeing workers in South Carolina have the same rights to freedom at work as every American worker. We will continue to call on Boeing to treat every worker with respect and join us at the negotiating table to continue our partnership for the betterment of every Boeing employee.
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