Biz

Union “Red Shirts” On The Rise At Boeing’s SC Facility

IAM “PRESENCE ON THE GROUND” REPORTEDLY EXPANDING Every Friday, aircraft manufacturer Boeing’s North Charleston, S.C. facility permits its employees to dress casually – in clothes of their own choosing. An increasingly popular fashion choice?  The bright red “I Want The IAM” shirt (pictured above ) affiliated with the International Association…

IAM “PRESENCE ON THE GROUND” REPORTEDLY EXPANDING

Every Friday, aircraft manufacturer Boeing’s North Charleston, S.C. facility permits its employees to dress casually – in clothes of their own choosing.

An increasingly popular fashion choice?  The bright red “I Want The IAM” shirt (pictured above ) affiliated with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the union with which Boeing negotiates at its main Everett, Washington manufacturing facility.

IAM is pushing hard to unionize the North Charleston facility, established in 2011 as “leverage” for the company in its negotiations with Big Labor.

FITS has reported often about various goings-on inside Boeing’s South Carolina facility (read our most recent report on that HERE), but our sources tell us the number of red shirts at the facility continued to rise last month.

“The IAM presence on the ground is expanding so you’re gonna see more red shirts on the floor,” one source familiar with the push for unionization told FITS.

Another source told us that the IAM has recently expanded its “ground operations” in anticipation of a big push at the North Charleston facility.

South Carolina taxpayers have shelled out more than $1 billion worth of incentives for Boeing’s facility, which manufactures several variations of the company’s 787 Dreamliner passenger jet.  We oppose those incentives, just as we oppose the ongoing taxpayer subsidization of organized labor.

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46 comments

GrandTango August 4, 2014 at 3:18 pm

Hold a vote. Are you a Dumb@$$?

PS: They voted in a union at the Mack Truck plant in Winnsboro in the 90s, and as soon as the union got in, the low seniority locals got laid off, and the union favorites from PA. took their jobs. I’d LMAO for any Dumb@$$ joining a union at Boeing, just get kicked out the door. PLEASE, PLEASE…do it…Hahaha…

I love seeing stupid liberals get screwed by the ignorance, fed to them by their corrupt leftwing masters…

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Sandi Morals August 4, 2014 at 3:36 pm

Let em unionize. Goodbye job.

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Old Ball Sack August 4, 2014 at 3:21 pm

I hear IAM has hired Trikki as their lobbyist. Something about needing a job starting in January.

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Manray August 4, 2014 at 4:54 pm

We should be so lucky!

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Jackie Chiles August 4, 2014 at 3:30 pm

Maybe they just like wearing free t-shirts.

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shifty henry August 4, 2014 at 6:54 pm

Maybe, in their confusion, they think they’re asking for dog food….

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To be, or not to be August 4, 2014 at 3:37 pm

Once the Union gets a foothold in the plant, will the same workers be wearing their “I want a job” shirt while in the picket lines?

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sparklecity August 4, 2014 at 8:41 pm

No. They will caught on tape drinkin ’40’s’ , smoking pot and crack while fuckin ‘Limbaughsaphatkhunt’ on the hood of his Pinto.

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Sylvia Smith April 13, 2015 at 11:50 pm

It doesn’t matter. Boeing will mess with the economy of the area/state, union or no. If you want to merely make this an argument of about unions, that’s your problem. You have been warned.

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Tazmaniac August 4, 2014 at 4:22 pm

Worrying about the need for a Union in 2014? The folks up North are trying to get rid of the Unions, South Carolina is waaay behind. Who are these people, little dirty faced children working 18 hour shifts? Don’t they know that ship has sailed a long time ago? What do they want, a discount on Members Only jackets? Jeez.

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RogueElephant August 4, 2014 at 5:33 pm

These unions paint a rosy picture of how great it will be when the union comes. In reality it will be about the same only they will take a chunk out of their paycheck to pay another set of bosses. Been there done that. It is the same every time. Don’t be fooled. The company can afford to pay more “union dues ” than the workers , so the workers always come up short and pay for it .

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Vanguard16 August 5, 2014 at 7:41 am

Yeah that two hours pay for dues is a bitch!

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badcatt August 4, 2014 at 7:31 pm

The only people up north trying to get rid of Unions are the big corporations and their puppet politicians. I work for Boeing in Everett, we are not happy with the leadership at the IAM or Boeing. Unions are not the fix all some people think. But when working for a large corporation they become a necessary evil. Otherwise WE ALL will be cowering. That makes such a good work environment.

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truthmonger August 4, 2014 at 11:50 pm

Yeah, that non-union mine that collapsed in West Virginia was a paradigm of corporate responsibility and safety. Employees were threatened if they reported violations, and no union to stand up for them. Men died from corporate greed…..

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GrandTango August 4, 2014 at 4:29 pm

La-Z-Boy chair in Florence was the only union plant in their conglomerate. It cost more there to build a chair, than any other plant in the world. When over-seas competition began to bite La-Z-Boy…guess which plant was the first one to get shut down?

Dumb@$$#S listen to FITS and the Greedy democrats. Idiots breed idiots…

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Lay-Z-BoyT August 4, 2014 at 5:11 pm

Very sorry about your pop losing his job, GT. I see you’re still using the chair he got at wholesale prices.

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Shades of the Tangos August 4, 2014 at 5:49 pm

Mom burnt a whole in that orange La-Z-Boy when she fell asleep smoking and watching The Price is Right. Own it punk, you found that chair in front of the trailer when you got home from KFC. What a sight, there was mama, fat ass sitting in the middle of your bed in her mumu, chain-smoking, hollering at Aunt Percy over the telephone and trying to adjust the rabbit ears on your Radio Shack 6 inch black and white. Damn, GrandTango, I bet you still can’t get the image of that cotton-eyed-joe mama gave you that afternoon. You’ve been sleeping on the floor every night since then. Grow up dude. Move out! There is a whole big old world out there just screaming your name.

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shifty henry August 4, 2014 at 6:56 pm

You seem to know waaaaay too much about T’s mama….

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truyhmonger August 4, 2014 at 11:56 pm

So american workers should be happy and thankful to be allowed to work for the same wages as some guy in Cambodia?

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Karadion August 5, 2014 at 8:41 pm

Wait hold on. People in Cambodia makes $15 an hour?

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Manray August 4, 2014 at 4:54 pm

Ultimate irony — SC bribes Boeing to come to the state and ends up with a large and vocal union presence.

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RogueElephant August 4, 2014 at 5:28 pm

More like a large and vacant building. I feel for the families that are going to suffer for the stupidity of those who vote for any union.

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truthmonger August 4, 2014 at 11:46 pm

So you’re all for employees “cowering” (that is how the CEO put it)? Is there anything wrong in employees bargaining for pay and benefits? Scared that employees might be able to live better, educate their kids and compete for better jobs alongside the current plantation set?

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RogueElephant August 5, 2014 at 8:06 am

“is there anything wrong in employees bargaining for pay and benefits ?” Nothing at all wrong except it usually doesn’t work that way. A company can only give so much. Why did Boeing come to SC to start with ? The unions have put them at a disadvantage against their competitors . To make up for it they have to cut somewhere. Plain and simple business. Down through the years unions have gone from very much needed to hindering companies trying to compete. The endless “what you gonna get for me this time ” attitude of many in the unions has driven the negotiation process farther than it was ever intended. Here again a little common sense would come in handy.

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Tom August 5, 2014 at 11:13 am

Such nonsense. Boeing’s largest competitor builds planes in France, Germany, and Spain. All three countries are far more unionized than the US. In fact all their manufacturing facilities are unionized; and their Employees are paid more, have more benefits and more vacation time. The only benefit Airbus has is it does not have to pay for health insurance for employees.

Typical Repugnut scare tactic. Republicans think the key to business success is employees who are poor, dumb, and frightened.

vicupstate August 5, 2014 at 11:49 am

Yes, but I bet the CEO at Airbus doesn’t make as much as the one at Boeing. Doesn’t that count for something?

Some guy August 4, 2014 at 5:10 pm

I’ll just leave this here and y’all work it out amongst yourselves. (WARNING: auto-play video embedded.) http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/04/news/companies/bathroom-break/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

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shifty henry August 4, 2014 at 9:31 pm

This is a serious subject for both management and workers.

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Tazmaniac August 5, 2014 at 5:04 pm

I have been in some form of management in my different careers for over 30 years. Let me tell you, the bathroom issue is crazy. I’ve had countless people, male and female, devote up to 4 hours a day in the bathroom, some sleeping in a hot, steamy port-a-let, nice. Most normal people see a video like that and think of their own actions, as probably normal people in the personal responsibility department, so they view this company’s policy as ridiculous. What people don’t realize is there are many who aren’t as responsible and make work in to some form of juvenile “War game” of screw the company. Some folks just get off on thinking they got paid the same as the others while doing less work. In a non union situation you can discipline these types, but in a union atmosphere, everyone has to bear the burden of a few jacklegs.

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shifty henry August 4, 2014 at 7:10 pm

Pre-Labor Day Sale Notice–
Walmart/Kmart/Dunhams/Dicks/..and other fine stores in your neighborhood—–
Baseball Bats — CloseOut Bash —- $3 and up

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CorruptionInColumbia August 4, 2014 at 7:22 pm

Did Will ever file a complaint about the dipshit security guard who snatched his phone and deleted even pics of his kids?

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CNSYD August 4, 2014 at 7:47 pm

What do you think? It is on his agenda the day after his book on his “affair” with Haley is published.

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Tazmaniac August 5, 2014 at 8:49 am

And you just know that Guard has an app with every PD around……..Sad state of Law Enforcement today.

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Smirks August 5, 2014 at 12:49 pm

Nah, he won’t. They didn’t delete his porn at least. If they had, it would have been war.

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CorruptionInColumbia August 5, 2014 at 1:53 pm

I wish he’d share it with us on here like he used to do.

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Limbaughsaphatkhunt August 4, 2014 at 7:43 pm

Good luck guys. It would be AWESOME to organize at the Boeing site in South Carolina. Hopefully the beginning of reversing the anti-union, pro Uncle Moneybags approach to the South’s abysmal record on worker’s rights and fair protections.

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Smirks August 5, 2014 at 12:48 pm

It would be AWESOME to organize at the Boeing site in South Carolina.

Ehh, for me, it would just be mildly amusing.

Unions are nice when employees are getting screwed over and really need a voice. Not sure that is happening at the Boeing plant in Charleston, though. Either way, it’s for them to decide.

It will take several generations for SC to change it’s mind on being anti-union.

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Sylvia Smith August 4, 2014 at 9:36 pm

South Carolina gave Boeing more than a billion dollars?! How long is it going to take to get that money back? Looks like the SC taxpayers were sold down the river so the local politicians could raise money for their re-election campaigns. (It’s happened in WA, too) I’ve lived in this state all my life (60 years) and Boeing has messed with their workers over and over and over again. Laying them off, hiring them back on. I think they call them cycles, whatever. I’ve always thought WA State would be better off if Boeing would just go away and we could get some stable industry here. I may get my wish, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be to South Carolina’s benefit. Union or no union, it won’t matter much. I wish you all luck.

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Just Another Guy August 4, 2014 at 9:57 pm

Ask Winnsboro how that turned out for them. Bc they were unionized at one time, no company will come within 50 miles of that place. Mack Truck turned out great for that area.

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dm10ae August 5, 2014 at 12:30 am

Mack Truck moved to SC and union came in and they moved back to Pa.

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Vanguard16 August 5, 2014 at 7:42 am

Mack was bought out by Volvo.

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Slartibartfast August 5, 2014 at 12:54 am

People have a right to organize and bargain collectively. It is a complete waste of time and surrender of freedom, but they have every right to commit professional suicide, if they wish. Unfortunately, every union I have knowledge of has become a group ruled over by strutting martinets, who eventually get kicked out for stealing from and selling out the membership, usually too late to prevent harm to union and business.

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Adam August 5, 2014 at 1:29 am

I have not seen a single red IAM at the plant in SC

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nitrat August 5, 2014 at 11:12 am

Please, you can’t mean FITS lies?

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Karadion August 5, 2014 at 8:17 pm

Neither have I. I’ve seen one IAM bumper sticker w/ WA plates on them in the parking lot in front of 88-30 but nothing significant.

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Vanguard16 August 5, 2014 at 7:44 am

If the CEO has a contract, why would the worker not want one?

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