Airbus and Boeing products running behind schedule

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Eighty-seven percent of the Union membership voted to strike, but their leadership agreed to postpone the strike for 48 hours during which time they will sit down with Boeing and try and reach an agreement.

 

Scally,

 

Casting aside the A v B arguments for a bit ......... I read something that suggested that they were wanting to impose a condition that the employees pension rights died with them i.e. there was no spouse/partners pension payable after the death of the employee. Is that correct, or was I reading a fairly brief version of what was on the table?

Edited September 4, 2008 by CheshireTom

[wacmedia 277]

Singapore Airlines has taken delivery of its fifth Airbus A380, paving the way for more flights to London using the aircraft.

The latest A380 to come into the airline's possession arrived in Singapore in the early hours of the morning of June 29th.

Singapore Airlines now has the capacity to upgrade more of its flights from London Heathrow to Singapore that currently use the Boeing 747-400 to A380 operations.

 

The specific services to see changes will be the lunchtime departure from Singapore to Heathrow Airport and the late-evening return flight from London, which will be operated by the A380 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from July 16th.

 

These flights will run alongside Singapore Airlines' existing A380 connection between the carrier's base and the English capital, which operates on a daily basis.

 

.The Singapore Airlines A380 is equipped with the carrier's first-class suites, as well as its four-abreast business class seats and a newly configured economy cabin.

[Samsonite 181]

Casting aside the A v B arguments for a bit .........

Ha!

 

I read something that suggested that they were wanting to impose a condition that the employees pension rights died with them i.e. there was no spouse/partners pension payable after the death of the employee. Is that correct, or was I reading a fairly brief version of what was on the table?

Yep. They are trying to do something like that:

 

"Similarly, while the company is willing to boost pension contributions, it's also trying to limit death benefits for survivors, giving spouses of deceased Boeing workers a flat $4,000 payment instead of guaranteed monthly payments for life. Such problems, says Wise, are "in the fine print" of the proposed contract."

 

Now I understand why 87% of the membership voted to strike and are mad because they didn't go on strike this last Wednesday at midnight.

Can't say that I blame then.

Corporate greed out of control. That attitude is something I've never understood. They all, management and employees, work for the same company and there is nothing to be gain by management, except a fatter bottom line, so why are they always so eager to screw over their employees.

I've been on both sides of the desk and while some may think the unions are out of control, I can tell you they have a long, long way to go before they could even compare to the abuses perpetuated by management.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

"Similarly, while the company is willing to boost pension contributions, it's also trying to limit death benefits for survivors, giving spouses of deceased Boeing workers a flat $4,000 payment instead of guaranteed monthly payments for life. Such problems, says Wise, are "in the fine print" of the proposed contract."

 

Now I understand why 87% of the membership voted to strike and are mad because they didn't go on strike this last Wednesday at midnight.

 

We'll have to stop agreeing on points ...........

 

It seems like a bit of a kick in the balls if you are in the least bit concerned about providing for your family .......

 

Don't know what tactics the company is employing though ...... perhaps they held some stuff back from their offer so that they could be seen to be making concessions later.

[eltib 54]

Ha!

Yep. They are trying to do something like that:

 

"Similarly, while the company is willing to boost pension contributions, it's also trying to limit death benefits for survivors, giving spouses of deceased Boeing workers a flat $4,000 payment instead of guaranteed monthly payments for life. Such problems, says Wise, are "in the fine print" of the proposed contract."

 

Now I understand why 87% of the membership voted to strike and are mad because they didn't go on strike this last Wednesday at midnight.

Can't say that I blame then.

Corporate greed out of control. That attitude is something I've never understood. They all, management and employees, work for the same company and there is nothing to be gain by management, except a fatter bottom line, so why are they always so eager to screw over their employees.

I've been on both sides of the desk and while some may think the unions are out of control, I can tell you they have a long, long way to go before they could even compare to the abuses perpetuated by management.

 

 

Scally,

 

Now I besides Tom have something to agree with. This never used to happen before Boeing bought out McD.

Heck I remember I just back from vacation and found out Boeing gave us a floating holiday in 1996 on the 4th of July. So I used one less day of vacation. I can tell you now that hasn't been the case since 1997.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Looks like the strike is on. Not very good news at all.

 

 

 

Boeing, machinists talks fail; strike is on

By MANUEL VALDES – 4 minutes ago

 

SEATTLE (AP) — Despite a 48-hour contract extension, negotiations between Boeing Co. and Machinists union officials have failed and the union declared: "The strike is on!"

 

The Machinists bargain for about 25,000 aircraft assembly workers in the Puget Sound area and about 2,000 more in Wichita, Kan., and Portland, Ore.

 

Picket lines went up in Wichita early Saturday and West Coast machinists were due to walk out at 12:01 a.m. PDT.

 

This is the Machinists' second strike in as many contract negotiations. They struck for 24 days in 2005.

 

The company said it would not try to assemble planes during the strike.

 

Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said the company is open to further discussion, but both sides were too far apart to reach agreement. He added no additional talks were scheduled.

[eltib 54]

Looks like the strike is on. Not very good news at all.

Boeing, machinists talks fail; strike is on

By MANUEL VALDES – 4 minutes ago

 

SEATTLE (AP) — Despite a 48-hour contract extension, negotiations between Boeing Co. and Machinists union officials have failed and the union declared: "The strike is on!"

 

The Machinists bargain for about 25,000 aircraft assembly workers in the Puget Sound area and about 2,000 more in Wichita, Kan., and Portland, Ore.

 

Picket lines went up in Wichita early Saturday and West Coast machinists were due to walk out at 12:01 a.m. PDT.

 

This is the Machinists' second strike in as many contract negotiations. They struck for 24 days in 2005.

 

The company said it would not try to assemble planes during the strike.

 

Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said the company is open to further discussion, but both sides were too far apart to reach agreement. He added no additional talks were scheduled.

 

Glad to see the IAM is not giving selling out its membership like the UAW887 did

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Glad to see the IAM is not giving selling out its membership like the UAW887 did

 

If the strike extends beyond three or four weeks we could be looking forward to a BigD "787 on Schedule to Fly in 2007 2008 2009" thread.

[BigDUSA 71]

One reason Boeing may have pushed for a strike and I could be wrong on this. If they have a strike they may have written into the contracts for commercial airplanes an automatic extension of delivery dates.

 

Years ago General Electric had many factories in the Philadelphia area and if they had a strike they would receive a 6 month extension on their contracts. GE would become a SOB to work for and push the union into calling a strike and once they were out for a week the company would relent and restore all benefits and GE would make up the lost wages by having the employees work overtime.

 

 

8 days till wheels UP....................

Edited September 7, 2008 by BigDUSA

[CheshireTom 1,377]

One reason Boeing may have pushed for a strike and I could be wrong on this. If they have a strike they may have written into the contracts for commercial airplanes an automatic extension of delivery dates.

 

:

 

You are not wrong . you were asked to do a cut and paste in Post #949 on the subject.

 

I'm sure I read that Boeing wouldn't particularly mind a strike becaue it would get the off the hook re some late delivery payments. Can't remember the nitty gritty but I'm sure Stooge #1 could do a cut and paste to fill us in.

Edited September 7, 2008 by CheshireTom

[eltib 54]

You are not wrong . you were asked to do a cut and paste in Post #949 on the subject.

 

Tom,

 

Isn't it going to hard for them to justify late deliveries with a strike, when Boeing was behind schedule originally with no labor stopages?

[Samsonite 181]

DATE:07/09/08

SOURCE:Air Transport Intelligence

Unspecified electrical issue keeps Emirates A380 out of service

By David Kaminski-Morrow

 

Middle Eastern carrier Emirates has yet to clarify the nature of an electrical matter which is keeping its first Airbus A380 from returning to service while it undergoes engineering work.

 

The Dubai-based airline is not expecting to return the aircraft to flight operations until at least 12 September.

 

Engineers are working on an "electrical issue", says a spokesperson for the carrier, which was "noticed at the end of a training mission when the aircraft was parked in front of the hangars". The aircraft remains parked in Dubai.

 

The A380, delivered to Emirates at the end of July, has been used for training purposes in between twice-weekly flights on the Dubai-New York JFK route.

 

 

Emirates admitted last week that it had suspended A380 services, initially stating simply that planned engineering work had overrun.

 

The airline says its next scheduled commercial flight with the 489-seat aircraft is 12 September. In the interim period it is using Boeing 777-300ER twin-jets twice-daily on the JFK route. The carrier states that it is working to minimise any inconvenience to passengers.

 

Emirates is acquiring 58 A380s in total but delivery of its second, due this month, has been delayed - although there is no indication that this is linked to the engineering work on the first aircraft.

 

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/...of-service.html

Edited September 8, 2008 by Scalawag

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Middle Eastern carrier Emirates has yet to clarify the nature of an electrical matter which is keeping its first Airbus A380 from returning to service while it undergoes engineering work.

 

Scally,

 

Word has it that the double insulated switches in the showers were a bit dodgy.

 

 

Good article from Business Week below .............. Stooge #1 might be interested in the comment about Airbus laying off workers ..........

 

 

Boeing's On Strike, So Why Isn't Airbus?

Posted by: Carol Matlack on September 08

Take two companies—let’s call them A and B—competing head-to-head in the same business. Rank-and-file worker salaries at both are roughly comparable. But Company A is struggling financially. Most employees got a 1.5% raise this year, and management has announced plans to eliminate about one in five jobs.

 

Company B, though, is in pretty good shape. Management recently offered workers an 11% pay raise over the next three years, along with bonuses of more than $5,000 and a 14% boost in company payments into their pension plan.

 

So, guess which company’s employees are out on strike?

 

OK, so the headline gave it away: Airbus is Company A, and Boeing Co. is B. On Sept. 6, members of Boeing's biggest union walked off the job, halting production and throwing the timetable for the already late-to-market 787 Dreamliner into confusion.

 

Contrast that with Airbus, based in Toulouse, France. It has suffered only minor labor protests as it moves to eliminate 5,000 jobs over the next two years as part of its so-called Power 8 restructuring plan. Union leaders also agreed to that 1.5% pay raise, well below France's 2.5% inflation rate in 2007.

 

What happened to those famously militant French labor unions? At Airbus, most of the rank-and-file is represented by the Force Ouvrière, or Worker Power union, one of the country's most hardcore labor groups.

 

Sounds ominous--but the truth is, private-sector strikes in France are exceedingly rare. Transit workers, teachers, even doctors, frequently walk off the job, but factory workers almost never do.

 

At Airbus, union leaders may realize that a strike could aggravate an already precarious situation. The company has posted operating losses for the past two years as production delays on the A380 mega jet knocked billions off the bottom line. The euro's rise against the dollar has seriously dented its competitive edge against Boeing.

 

And, it must be said, Airbus is still a pretty good place to work. Starting pay for the least-skilled production workers is about $15 an hour, and experienced machinists make $26 or $27 an hour--roughly the same as the average machinist salary at Boeing, though it's difficult to make direct comparisons because French workers get more-generous benefits than Americans. Among other things, they pay practically nothing out-of-pocket for health care, and under French labor law, most can expect nice severance packages if they're laid off.

 

Moreoever, Airbus isn't laying anyone off: The job cuts are being made through attrition and early-retirement buyouts. To the unions' relief, Airbus also has scrapped plans to sell some of its French and German factories, a move that had sparked fears that the new owners would shift jobs to lower-cost countries. Airbus abandoned the idea after it was unable to find buyers. "We were afraid of outsourcing, but things have calmed down," says Matthieu de Georges, a Force Ouvrière representative. For the moment, he says union members have no major complaints about Airbus. "Of course if they say they aren’t happy, we’ll act."

 

Asked if Force Ouvrière would care to comment on the Boeing strike, de Georges politely demurs. But it's hard to avoid the conclusion that Airbus stands to benefit if Boeing's unions stage a long and crippling strike, or if they win concessions from management that significantly drive up production costs.

[eltib 54]

Tom,

 

Thanx for posting that I'm glad I held on to the puny 9 shares of stock Boeing gave me last month from Share Value Trust. I'm gonna make sure next time there's a vote I give a "no vote" to recommendations management @ boeing wants a Yes.

[Samsonite 181]

Quantas is due to take delivery of it's first A380 on 19th September and is due to take delivery of the next 2 before the end of the year. Emirates is also taking delivery of another 2 before the end of the year.

Not going to happen.

Qantas will get theirs on Friday and one more maybe delivered by the end of the year, but that's it. Eight for the year. Actually, only 8 in the 14 months since the first delivery.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Not going to happen.

Qantas will get theirs on Friday and one more maybe delivered by the end of the year, but that's it. Eight for the year. Actually, only 8 in the 14 months since the first delivery.

 

We'll file that under Scally's Greatest Predictions ........... along with the others.

[TheFiend 1,187]

Not going to happen.

Qantas will get theirs on Friday and one more maybe delivered by the end of the year, but that's it. Eight for the year. Actually, only 8 in the 14 months since the first delivery.

 

The Emirates deliveries are being held up by the suppliers of the interior fittings, which Emirates selected, not Airbus. This delay is not the fault of Airbus. Further Emirates deliveries are being held up because of this supply problem.

 

It is not affecting the other deliveries.

 

The Qantas jet VH-OQA (MSN014) will be handed over on Friday and will arrive in Sydney on the 21st via Singapore. The second is due for handover in November.

 

Singapores 6th one, 9V-SKF (MSN012) has just been delivered (17/09/08)

 

Look here for a pic of the Qantas/SIA A380s

 

So that is 8 deliveries in the 11 months since the first delivery last October - not 8 in 14 months that you claim Scally.

 

6 for SIA

1 for Emirates

1 for Qantas

Edited September 18, 2008 by TheFiend

[whilliam_mancon 2]

39 pages of talk about an airoplane, Boooring! Get a life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Not going to happen.

Qantas will get theirs on Friday and one more maybe delivered by the end of the year, but that's it. Eight for the year. Actually, only 8 in the 14 months since the first delivery.

 

Surely you mean by the end of the week ........ not end of the year?

 

Or do we just add it to the Scally list of predictions.

 

 

SIA receives sixth A380

 

Thu, Sep 18, 2008

AsiaOne

 

 

Singapore Airlines (SIA) received a sixth member to its A380 family today.

 

The superjumbo touched down in Singapore at 8.23am, following a delivery flight from the Airbus Delivery Centre in Toulouse, said SIA in a news release.

 

The new A380 will operate on the Singapore-London route commencing September 20, complementing an existing A380 daily service.

 

"The Singapore-London route is the first in the world to be operated twice a day by the superjumbo," said SIA.

Edited September 18, 2008 by CheshireTom

[TheFiend 1,187]

39 pages of talk about an airoplane, Boooring! Get a life!

 

Why? It's quite fun baiting the 3 Boeing stooges - BigD, Scallywally and MrMongo

 

They always bite

[CheshireTom 1,377]

39 pages of talk about an airoplane, Boooring! Get a life!

 

Whilliam ....... 1,088 posts in how many months have you made? And only two of them are worth anything.

 

Go back to the funnies section or listen to some ABBA.

[eltib 54]

Why? It's quite fun baiting the 3 Boeing stooges - BigD, Scallywally and MrMongo

 

They always bite

 

Cheap shot at BigD. He can't defend himself when he's busy giving or getting rim jobs in Pattaya. Building his journal for all of us to read here once he returns. Maybe he'll then tell us of the big move to LOS.

 

 

[wacmedia 277]

Cheap shot at BigD. He can't defend himself when he's busy giving or getting rim jobs in Pattaya. Building his journal for all of us to read here once he returns. Maybe he'll then tell us of the big move to LOS.

 

Hi,

 

Amybody who reads his posts are aware of how many talents he has!!! May I suggest a Nobel Prize for Literature(Fiction) for him?

[Samsonite 181]

Looks like airbust is threatening to take its ball and go home.

 

"AEROSPACE EADS threatens to freeze airlifter production

Saturday 20 September 2008

 

Aerospace giant EADS said it may freeze production of its Airbus subsidiary's flagship military airlifter that has become "a heavy loss-maker" for the company, according to a German news report

 

Saturday. Saturday 20 September 2008

 

By AFP

 

Aerospace giant EADS has threatened to freeze production of its Airbus subsidiary's flagship military airlifter if clients do not drop penalty clauses for late delivery, a German news report said Saturday.

 

Der Spiegel weekly, trailing its Monday publication, cited a letter sent by Louis Gallois, the French chief executive of both companies, to the governments of seven countries who have ordered the A400M plane.

 

In the letter, Gallois is quoted as saying the military carrier is "a heavy lossmaker" which is creating "considerable difficulties" at EADS, weighing down on the group's financial performance.

 

The "anticipated profits" from 180 orders on Airbus's books have already been "invested" with Gallois adding in the letter that the present position could become "untenable" within months unless a deal is agreed that "keeps everyone happy."

 

EADS wants clients to waive their contractual right to reductions in their bills due to late delivery, but Der Spiegel said Germany's defence ministry would be "standing firm," the magazine saying Berlin is of the view that "financial concessions" should only be discussed upon receipt of the planes.

 

Business daily Financial Times Deutschland also reported this week that Gallois sent a letter pleading for "understanding" on the A400M.

 

Last week, Gallois said the plane's first flight would take place "before the end of the year," but the French press reported soon afterwards that costs had risen astronomically and that the first flight was being put back to 2009.

 

Germany has ordered 60 A400Ms, making it the biggest customer.

 

Airbus has been struggling with four important delay announcements having been made since 2006 on delivery of its A380 superjumbo civil airliners."

 

http://www.france24.com/en/20080920-eads-a...on-freeze-A400M

Edited September 21, 2008 by Scalawag

[whilliam_mancon 2]

Hey, eltib, I have no idea what ever gives you the right to making fun of me moving to Pattaya or not!

 

Not that it is your concern asshole, but after living for years in Bangkok I was moving down to Pattaya when my father died and I had to get back to Europe and the State to take care of his estate and a bundle of legal problems that have dragged out in time!

 

Since you don´t have any way of knowing anything about my personal reasons for having to postpone my move to Pattaya, I really can´t see your right to make flames like that in this case!

 

Believe me, if I had a choice I would go to LOS tomorrow instead of working my ass of here, but until the lawyers have settled this I can´t!

 

Think before you open your trap the next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilliam