Boeing Co has put forward a modified contract for about 2,500 union members at three defense locations in or near St Louis, Missouri, days after the workers voted to reject a previous draft and were set to begin a strike this week.
“This new offer builds on our previous strong, highly competitive one and directly addresses the issues raised by our employees,” a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday. “We are hopeful they will vote ‘yes.’”
Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 acknowledged the new contract offer on the union’s Web site and said negotiations had been extended through Wednesday.
Photo: AFP
Priorities in the negotiations are wages, strengthening retirement plans and eliminating a two-tier wage system, the union said.
“We cannot accept a contract that is not fair and equitable, as this company continues to make billions of dollars each year off the backs of our hardworking members,” it said earlier last week.
The new contract would provide a US$8,000 lump sum that can be taken in cash or deferred to independent retirement plans while maintaining an existing Boeing retirement plan. It would also increase the hourly second-shift pay differential and provide wage increases for everyone in every year of the contract.
The workers in St Louis, nearby St Charles and Mascoutah, Illinois, build military aircraft including the F-15, F-18, T-7A trainer and the MQ-25 uncrewed refueler.
Boeing in May said it is moving its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia, to be nearer decisionmakers at the Pentagon and elsewhere in the US government.
Separately, the company received preliminary US regulatory clearance to restart deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft, paving the way for the end to a drought that drained cash and dented the company’s reputation for quality.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the company’s plan to repair manufacturing flaws in the Dreamliner’s carbon-composite frame, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
The jet manufacturer had largely halted deliveries since late 2020, when its engineers found improperly filled gaps in about 20 locations.
The FAA agreement is a milestone for the company, but it would not immediately resume sales.
Boeing must still make required fixes and get FAA inspectors to approve each aircraft, the people said.
While timing of delivery resumptions remains unclear, the company is aiming to begin in the week of Aug. 8, one of the people said.
A total of 120 of the jets, which retail for as much as US$338 million each, had been constructed, but were parked and waiting for FAA approval to resume sales, Boeing said in a statement.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last