C-17A employees voting on pension contract today

USAF C-17A (P-32) 95-0107 "Charleston" taxies at Long Beach Airport (LGB/KLGB) on September 20, 2012.

(Photo by Michael Carter)  

A thousand Boeing Co. C-17 employees on Thursday will cast a pivotal vote that could shape the fate of mechanics and other workers linked to the soon-to-be-shuttered Globemaster III military airlifter program in East Long Beach.

Members of the United Aerospace Workers Local 148 are expected to vote on a proposed contract that, if approved, would give 300 workers who are less than a year short of their retirement their full medical and pension. The current contract allows for those full benefits for employees who are at least 55 and have 30 years with the company.

However, there are 80 members whose pensions would be penalized if they left or were laid off. The current contract allows employees between ages 49 and 55 who are laid off to receive their pension from Boeing at 55 without penalty. That is not part of the proposed contract, so if the proposal is approved, those laid off in that age range could see their pension cut by as much as 42 percent, according to Local 148 President Stanley G. Klemchuk.

The proposed contract is a lose-lose situation that has pitted members against each other, said Klemchuk, who expects the vote on Thursday to be close.

“It’s torn our union apart,” he said of the company’s final proposal, which Boeing offered Monday. “It’s damned if we do, damned if we don’t.”

Thursday’s vote comes more than a week after Boeing announced that it would hasten the closure of the C-17 program by three months to mid-2015.

Despite efforts to expand its customer base beyond the U.S., Boeing lacked the sufficient orders needed to keep the assembly plant open and decided in September to close the program that employed roughly 2,200 people in Long Beach and thousands more nationally who supply parts and services for the military airlifter.

Since its maiden voyage on Sept. 15, 1991, the four-engine planes have been used on various peacekeeping and disaster relief missions by the U.S. and its foreign partners.

Boeing officials, who declined to go into detail about the contract, issued the following statement Tuesday: “Boeing and UAW 148 concluded talks about the effects of the C-17 Globemaster III closure on the collective bargaining agreement — talks known as effects bargaining. During effects bargaining, the parties meet and bargain in good faith. The company presented the union with a fair closure agreement that recognizes the valuable contributions by C-17 employees.”

Some members do not agree.

“The offer that has been made to us by Boeing is not only substandard, but is an insult,” Erik Radcliffe, a mechanic who works on the C-17’s landing gear, said in an email. “People who have spent 28 years with this company will be put out on the street with no options, no pensions and nothing to show for their hard work.”

The proposed contract offers 13 weeks of severance pay, a bump in pension and a $4,000 signing bonus, which some say isn’t comparable to what was given to employees in St. Louis or Tulsa, where Boeing plants were also shuttered. Many of those employees received 26 weeks of severance pay and a $10,000 signing bonus.

Thursday’s vote will take place from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. A majority vote is required for ratification.

“It’s a very emotional time for the members,” Klemchuk said. “It’s a contract that’s going to affect them for the rest of their lives.”

(Karen Robes Meeks - Long Beach Press Telegram)