| Boeing at Peace with Striking Machinists |
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Chetan Anand, 24x7 Updates
The Boeing Co. and its machinists union have reached a tentative contract agreement, which if approved would end a three-week strike that shut down the company’s airplane production. Mark Blondin, president for Machinists District Lodge 751 in Seattle, said members would vote on the deal Thursday.
"I’m just proud of our membership," Blondin said. "They stood solid, unified, and that solidarity is what finally got the company to do the right thing."
Boeing spokesman Charles Bickers said the company believes the agreement is reasonable and reflects compromise on both sides.
According to Blondin, the deal calls for Boeing to make no changes to its current health care plan, despite huge increases in health care costs nationwide.
That’s a major change from the premium and other increases Boeing had demanded.
Pension payouts for union members would increase to $70 per month for every year served, up from $60 currently; the previous offer was $66. The company also agreed to continue offering medical benefits for retirees, Blondin said.
There would be no general wage increase, but workers would receive an 8 percent signing bonus, or about $5,000, plus $3,000 payouts in the second and third years of the contract, he said.
The workers represented average 49 years of age, meaning many have set a priority on retirement benefits. They are paid an average of $59,000 a year.
One feature dropped from the original offer was an incentive pay program that would have provided bonuses if the company met or exceeded financial targets.
In another change, the offer terms are the same for workers in the Puget Sound area, Gresham, Ore., and Wichita, Kan.; previously some terms were less for Wichita workers.
The strike came as Boeing’s commercial airplane business, which had sagged under the weight of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a weak U.S. economy, started to improve. Boeing workers, some of whom were unhappy with a contract negotiated in 2002, had said they deserved a contract that more generously shared in the improving fortunes.
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| Are Charities Geared Up For Rita? - Sep 24, 2005 9:38 IST |
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The American Red Cross asked Americans to give more to help hurricane victims, saying the $853 million donated for Katrina is less than half what’s needed. Rita will require even more. "We have a long way to go in our fundraising to meet the needs of people from Katrina, let alone what we need to do for the people of Rita," Senior Vice President of Preparedness and Response Joe Becker said Friday. "As fast as the money is coming in, we are spending it."
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| Houston Joins Evacuation as Rita Strengthens - Sep 22, 2005 16:42 IST |
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Hurricane Rita is heading for what could be a direct hit on the Texas Gulf Coast in three days, and has already strengthened to a category 5 storm, the most powerful and potentially devastating in life and property,
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| Extradition Approved for London Bombings Suspect - Sep 13, 2005 19:11 IST |
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Rome, Italy(24x7updates) -- Highest Court of Italy has upheld the extradition of Hamdi Issac, a suspect in the failed July 21 bombing attempts in London. He was captured later in the city of Rome.
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| US, Iraqi Forces Attack Tal Afar, 150 Dead - Sep 11, 2005 20:14 IST |
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Baghdad -- Iraqi and US troops pressed on Saturday with an all-out offensive to wrest control of a town from Sunni Arab insurgents, with the Iraqis reporting nearly 150 rebels killed and the town mayor resigning in protest.
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| John G. Roberts to Replace William H. Rehnquist as Chief Justice - Sep 5, 2005 23:28 IST |
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Washington (24x7Updates) -- President Bush nominated Judge John G. Roberts Jr. today to replace Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, whose death late Saturday opened a second vacancy on the Supreme Court and a new front in the ideological battle over the judiciary.
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| Indonesia Airliner Carrying 109 Crashes on Take-Off - Sep 5, 2005 11:2 IST |
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Jakarta (24x7Updates) -- An Indonesian Boeing 737-200 operated by low cost airline Mandala Airlines crashed soon after taking off from Polonia airport in the northern city of Medan on Sumatra Island.
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| 3 Carnival Cruise Ships Deployed for Refugees - Sep 4, 2005 17:56 IST |
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Carnival Cruise Lines announced Saturday that the U.S. government has chartered three luxury cruise liners - Ecstacy, Sensation and Holiday - for the next half year, to provide temporary housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
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| Bush pumping in more support for Gulf Coast - Sep 3, 2005 22:34 IST |
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Washington (24x7Updates) -- President Bush, seeking to stem criticism that a slow federal response has contributed to needless misery, said Saturday he is ordering additional active duty forces to the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast.
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| European Union seeks to address Turkey Membership Talks - Sep 2, 2005 19:40 IST |
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Foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) will meet on Thursday seeking to remove last-minute obstacles to membership talks with Turkey, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported.
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| 843 Dead in Baghdad Stampede - Sep 1, 2005 8:6 IST |
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THE death toll in the worst single loss of life since the start of the Iraq war was last night heading towards 1,000 after a crowd of about one million Shiite pilgrims making their way across a bridge in Baghdad panicked at reports of a suicide bomber in their midst and stampeded.
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