The Latest

Since the last time I blogged, things have been pretty hectic.

One daughter lost her job at Downtown Harley Davidson, and the other got evicted from her apartment. I had to replace the differential and half-shafts in the 77' 280Z, and the mechanics went on strike at Boeing. I also saw the doctor about the severe pains in my right sholder, and will be going in for arthoscopic surgery to remove a wicked bone spur on October 4th.

We also went with Morning Light for a show at Maple Lane. The band had made some serious modifications to the sound system, and it sounded great. This weekend we are going for a two day gig in Moses Lake. The whole thing in Moses Lake is pretty disorganized, with no one knowing exactly what is going to be available when we get there as far as facilities and acommodations go. We are bringing along a tent just in case, and have made reservations at Potholes State Park for a camping site, about 20 miles outside of town.

Since the Mechanics are on strike, I am back at my old desk in ECAT. The company has halted any activity on the airplanes, so there really is no reason to have shipside support. There isn't a whole lot to do in ECAT either, so mostly we try to find something to do, and do a very thorough job of whatever you can find. I don't know why the Boeing Company chose to play lowball hardball with the union at this time. The last time the contract came up with the IAM, it was right after 9/11 and the transportation industry was in the toilet, aircraft sales were down, and the company stock had taken a real tumble. For all those reasons, the IAM settled for a borderline contract. Acutally they voted down the contract, but couldn't get the 2/3 majority to sanction a strike. This time, the Transportation Industry is in recovery, The stock is almost double what it was, and there is a very good backlog of orders. The offer that they made would erode the financial standing of the mechanics. They would be effectively making less at the end of the contract than they make now.

The Union I am in (SPEEA) has it's contract coming up in December, so the present state of things is unsettling, since SPEEA usually gets offered slightly less that the IAM. I would prefer not to be marching the picket line at Christmas.