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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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Leaders of Boeing Co.’s Machinists union called for a strike today after deciding a proposed labor contract the aerospace company called its “best and final” offer wasn’t good enough, The Associated Press reports.
They urged members to reject the offer in an upcoming vote.
Boeing had hoped the proposal, which provides added pay and incentives to workers over three years, would help it avert a labor standoff. The talks come as Boeing tries to keep up with a backlog of plane orders and avoid more penalties caused by production delays of its next-generation passenger jet, the AP reports.
The union has planned a news conference later Friday to explain details of the decision, said Connie Kelliher, a spokeswoman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 751.
A Boeing spokesman said the company was “extremely disappointed” by the union’s response.
The sides have been negotiating over a new 3-year contract since May 9 and round-the-clock talks began Aug. 21 at a Seattle airport. In 2005, about 18,400 machinists in the Pacific Northwest and Wichita, Kan., struck for four weeks, forcing the company to halt commercial airplane production. The machinists assemble Boeing’s commercial planes and some key components.
The proposal, Boeing’s third offer, was delivered to the union Thursday. It would have increased pay by 11 percent on average for more than 27,000 union workers in Washington state, Kansas and Oregon, the company said.
The tentative deal also included a $2,500 bonus for workers if the agreement was ratified by Wednesday, when the current contract expires and a union vote is scheduled.
Boeing said it had withdrawn certain contentious proposals, such as plans to cut early retiree medical coverage and create a new defined-contribution retirement program for future employees.
The union held a preliminary vote to authorize a strike in July. On Wednesday, members are scheduled to cast two ballots: one to accept or reject Boeing’s latest offer and another on whether to launch a strike. A simple majority is required to reject the contract, and a two-thirds majority is needed to call a strike, which would trigger a work stoppage at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
Tim Healy, a Boeing spokesman, said: “We’re extremely disappointed that the union is recommending that our employees reject what adds up to the best contract in the aerospace industry.”
