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By Associated PressThe machinists' union, however, says pensions, not pay, are the real issue.
SEATTLE - The Boeing Co. has submitted a revised contract offer that would boost cash bonuses by at least $1,500, but Machinists union leaders representing the 18,400 production workers covered by the contract say it missed the point: pensions.
Boeing spokesman Charles N. Bickers characterized the changes, which carry an immediate price tag of at least $27.2-million, as "an important improvement, a substantial improvement," and said early Monday that the company was awaiting a response from union negotiators.
Connie Kelliher, spokeswoman for Machinists District Lodge 751, said the two sides remained "far apart" and dismissed the three-year offer submitted late Sunday as a "minimal" advance.
"The company's latest offer showed no substantial improvements on our top three issues, which are pensions, health care and job security," Kelliher said.
Workers represented in the talks receive an average of $59,000 a year. No general pay increase has been offered, but Boeing estimates that cost-of-living provisions would boost base wages by about 1 percent in each year of the contract.
"Our top issue is pensions ... wages are not an issue," Kelliher said.
She said the latest offer made no changes in job security or pension provisions. Boeing has offered to boost pension contributions by less that the amount they were raised in the last contract, when the company was reeling from the worldwide economic and airline slump in the year following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Kelliher said.
The three-year contract with Boeing's biggest union expires Thursday. It covers mostly hourly workers who assemble passenger and cargo jets and build components for those aircraft in the Seattle area, Wichita, Kan.; and Gresham, Ore. Under a negotiating timetable cited by both sides, Boeing's final offer is due today.
The biggest apparent change in the latest offer was in bonuses - $4,500 on ratification, rather than $2,000 on ratification and an equal sum a year later, plus a new $1,000 payment in March "recognizing employees' contributions to Boeing's performance this year," according to a statement issued Sunday night.
The statement said the second bonus amounted to a "jump start" on an earlier incentive pay offer that would provide five days of pay to Seattle-area and Gresham workers if the company meets financial targets and up to 15 days' worth if the targets are exceeded.
Workers also could put all or some of their ratification bonuses into their voluntary investment plans - a Boeing version of 401(k) plans - and the company would match 50 percent of the first $2,250, rather than half of $2,000 as proposed Friday night, boosting the company's payout by as much as $125 per employee.
If all workers exercised that option, the difference between the latest offer and Friday's would amount to $1,625 each, or a total of $29.9-million in initial costs over the Friday offer. Without the matching investment-plan option, the difference is $27.2-million.
Bickers said he did not have aggregate cost figures that would cover other changes in the latest offer, including a new health coverage option that would require no premiums for a worker and partner and a premium of $10 per paycheck to add coverage of other family members.
The current zero-premium plan would be continued but with some premiums, while premiums would be lowered for two more comprehensive health plans.
Shares of Boeing fell 6 cents to $66.25 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded in a 52-week range between $48.10 and $68.38.