Rory,

A good offer is relative. Boeing’s offer might look good to you or I, but we’re not the ones being asked to accept it. Apparently over one-half of the union’s membership didn’t think it was good enough, and that’s what matters.

Neither does the public’s sympathy, or lack of it, matter, except to the extent it influence’s management’s decision to hold firm, cave, or negotiate. Nor does it matter if other people get the same kind of deal or not. Are you really this uninformed? The Boeing machinists are worth whatever they can get from Boeing. Those are the basic economic facts of life, and the only things that directly matter in the issue.

What other people make in wages and benefits in the same or similar trades is a reference point, but is not a benchmark for what these machinists ought to be making.

So, should your salary be pegged to what a person doing similar work in Alabama or China makes?

Sincerely,

Salmo g.