Boeing strikers picket but also hunt, improve homes

By Daisuke Wakabayashi and Laura Myers

EVERETT, Washington (Reuters) - Visit a Boeing worker's picket line expecting to find hundreds of workers worried about putting bread on the table because they were driven to strike by an uncaring employer and you might be surprised.

Boeing strikes are different. There is a sense of ritual, a sense that this happens every few years -- and that both the company and the workers know that in a few weeks they will reach a compromise and be back building planes.

And while some workers will talk of the bitterness felt toward the company about the outsourcing of work and about contributions for health care, some also will tell you this is a great opportunity to do work on their houses or even to go hunting in the forests of Washington state.

Ron Strempel, for example, has worked at Boeing Co for 20 years, been through eight contract negotiations with company management and is now standing on a strike picket line for the fourth time since 1988.

An electrician and team leader on Boeing's 767 assembly line in Everett, Washington, Strempel said he has lived through enough work stoppages to know that the stand-off will be resolved eventually and sees the strike, which started on Saturday, as a much-needed break from a busy factory schedule.

"I've got a to-do list a mile long," said Strempel, noting that he has neglected projects around the house while racking up extra hours due to Boeing's backlog of orders. "I used to get worked up about it, but now I know how these things work."

Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) are locked in a dispute over wage increases, health care contributions and the company's outsourcing policy in the next three-year contract.

If a strike stretches from days into weeks, the impact at Boeing -- at the cost of $100 million a day -- will begin to reverberate to the company's suppliers around the world. Nearly 27,000 Boeing machinists, mostly in the Puget Sound region, also will feel the sting.

However, the around-the-clock picket lines outside the main Seattle-area factories were sparsely attended over the weekend and on Monday.

While no one is ready to predict that anger won't increase if the strike extends beyond several weeks, currently the atmosphere is surprisingly civil.

TIME TO HUNT

Some picketers said union leadership's decision to delay a work stoppage by 48 hours sapped a little of the initial enthusiasm for a strike, while others cited another factor: hunting season.

"We don't take this lightly, but some people vote to strike just to get some time off. It's hunting season," said Richard McCabe, 38, a wing-line mechanic in Renton, who added that the overtime work is taking its toll on the rank-and-file.

Hunting season for some game birds and deer started September 1 in Washington state. Elk hunting started on Monday.

"I voted 'no' just to get a vacation. You work a lot of hours and you just get tired," said assembly-line mechanic Brian Gross, 46, referring to Wednesday's vote on whether to accept Boeing's "best and final" offer.