(Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. has started offering workers at a planemaking factory in South Carolina “education sessions” about the implications of joining a union, as a crippling strike at its sites in the Pacific Northwest puts the spotlight on the resurgence of organized labor in the US.
The company is holding the voluntary meetings in response to “questions and concerns from many of you about union organizing activity taking place” at the facility in North Charleston, according to an Oct. 7 memo by Scott Stocker, a Boeing vice president and general manager of the 787 Dreamliner program.
Workers at the site, which isn’t unionized, will gain insights into the legal consequences of signing cards authorizing a union vote and what to do should a labor organizer knock on their door, according to the memo viewed by Bloomberg.
The move highlights how the US planemaker is on the lookout for any uptick in pro-union sentiment as it seeks to overcome a debilitating strike by 33,000 workers at its main manufacturing facilities for the 737 aircraft.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers has been trying for at least a decade to make inroads at the plant Boeing that makes the 787 Dreamliners. Boeing created the facility in South Carolina, a state traditionally wary of organized labor, in the wake of a 2008 strike by its Seattle-area factory workers.
The IAM union, for its part, has sought to gain workers’ support at the South Carolina facility, including with social media posts that urge employees to “take pride in how you’re treated.”
A website aimed at Boeing South Carolina workers allows employees to fill out the authorization card online and lays out the benefits of IAM membership.
“Workers in Seattle building the exact same plane as you earn more money,” the site said. “Managers will most likely start to rehash talk of ‘cost-of-living’ differences and so forth. It’s nothing more than a distraction. You deserve more money. Period.”
Stocker is also site leader for Boeing South Carolina, which has remained open while the strike shut down work at other commercial jet manufacturing sites in the Pacific Northwest.
Boeing didn’t immediately have a comment on Stocker’s memo.
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