Three thousand workers are scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to join a union at a Boeing aircraft factory in South Carolina. The factory builds some of Boeing’s 787 commercial jetliners.
The company says the union is making promises it cannot keep, and argues that $800 in annual union dues would be a pay cut for workers.
The union says workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers at other Boeing facilities get better pay and benefits, far outweighing the cost of dues.
This sometimes bitter campaign is being waged online, on television and in the workplace, with each side calling the other inaccurate or dishonest.
South Carolina has the lowest level of union representation in the nation, at 1.6 percent. State officials say businesses are more likely to bring jobs to an area where companies don’t have to cope with unions.
If the union wins the right to represent workers at the plant, it will begin negotiating a contract seeking higher wages and more generous benefits.
Boeing is the largest aerospace company in the world, and the largest U.S. exporter with 148,000 employees.
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