Time to Bridge Boeing, IAM Impasse - Jerry Chandler Lets Fly

With the near calamitous economic events of the past three weeks, here's a story that has flown under our collective radar screen: the ongoing inability of the Boeing Commecial Airplane Company and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) to end a strike that has crippled this country's ability to produce airliners.

A second round of mediated talks between the two parties has just crashed. IAM has been on strike against the aircraft maker since September 6. No new talks are scheduled.

Commercial airliners are one of the few things the United States manufactures anymore, one of the few things foreign countries pay very large sums to purchase from our otherwise withered manufacturing base. The Boeing jets that rolled off the assembly lines near Seattle projected not just an American presence around the planet, but enabled airlines to field safer, far more fuel-efficient fleets.

From the Far East to Europe, carriers complain - rightfully so - that they can't take delivery of the highly touted Boeing 787 "Dreamliners" they've ordered. The 787 is a purported game-changer of an airplane, one that promises new levels of passenger comfort, extraordinary range, and wondrous fuel-efficiency. Airlines want it, and so do passengers, but they're not going to get it until Boeing and the IAM settle.

I'm not going to discuss the issues of the strike here. The only issue that matters to America, and American flyers, should be getting those lines operating once again.

If the government can inject liquidity into the capital markets, it can also make a concerted effort to infuse lucidity into these negotiations. Make the parties understand that the fate of our national aircraft industry is at stake. Help them move beyond parochial concerns. Get them to see a quick resolution is a matter of national concern. That might jump-start stalled talks.

There's another aircraft company out there called Airbus. Its new mega-jumbo A380, quite literally, blots out the sun. Somebody needs to throw on the light switch at Boeing and IAM and very soon. If they don't, this country's ability to compete in an arena we once all but owned could curl up and die.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Cheap Flight News.

Comments

[ray]

I'd rather see Boeing move to China than a bunch of spoiled machinists win this one. How would they feel if all their favorite NASCAR drivers struck every time their contracts expired.

That's not the way the game is played and that's not how life is played.