It may be the most under-reported chapter of the Boeing story and perhaps the most compelling – the story of how employees at the controversial new Boeing facility in South Carolina kicked out the Machinist’s union in 2009 and why. 
The same South Carolina workers whose jobs are now in jeopardy due to the NLRB complaint against Boeing voted to join the IAM by a slim margin in the fall of 2007 when the plant was still owned by Vought, a major supplier of Boeing fuselage. And just a little over a year later, on the exact same day the union’s one year grace period expired, a contract was ratified under circumstances that so infuriated the rank and file they decertified from the IAM as soon as the Boeing purchase left them free to do so. Rumor has it only 13 members (out of close to 300) attended that fateful midnight hour ratification vote in 2008 and 12 voted for the contract. (As is typical, the IAM business agent would only say the contract was ratified by an incontrovertible 92%.) Vought honored the contract (it was the same deal the company put on the table) but at the time the company spokesperson expressed surprise at the ratification vote as there were future negotiation dates scheduled and neither side had yet made a final offer. 
The IAM claimed it had to rush the ratification vote to lock in seniority rights before Vought could announce massive temporary lay-offs the next day due to a production slowdown. Ironically, the slowdown was caused by the 57 day IAM strike against Boeing in Everett, WA. Of course that sorry fact could have left newly laid off IAM members in South Carolina more than a little miffed at their new union, perhaps enough to decertify prior to first contract. According to Vought, other than those recall rights, the agreement included “terms and conditions substantially similar to those in effect at the time of the union’s certification”. So, put simply, 280 South Carolina Vought workers were paying dues for a do-nothing IAM contract forced on them through a sneaky midnight vote only to be laid off the next day because IAM members in Everett were out on strike to prevent Boeing from outsourcing any future work to vendors like Vought. Got that? Dennis Murray, a quality inspector at the plant told the Seattle Times he was unaware of the ratification vote until it was done and he scoffed at the notion that the union-recall rights were worthwhile. With the lack of trained labor in the area, he said, Vought had no option but to recall everyone it has trained at the state’s expense. Mechanic Pam DeGarmo said the 1.5 percent annual wage hike wouldn’t even cover the union dues and inflation. “It’s a horrible contract,” said DeGarmo. “I didn’t gain anything. It’s going to cost me money.” Paul Gaudrault, a quality inspector and the sole vote against the contract said at the time that the contract was so poor he predicted some laid-off workers would not come back. But newly laid-off assembly mechanic Jay Fleckenstein perhaps said it best. “We got screwed,” he told a reporter as he worked his second job delivering pizza. Livid over the secretive nature of the vote, the cost of the contract and the cavalier attitude of the union, workers contacted the NLRB immediately and were told their only recourse was to decertify 60-90 days before the sham contract was due to expire in 2011. All that changed in 2009 when the purchase by Boeing reopened that same contract. (Boeing had agreed to recognize the union.) So in September of 2009, by a vote of 199-68, and for what sure sound like good reasons, workers at the new Boeing facility in South Carolina told the IAM to get lost. Now as the NLRB contends Boeing is retaliating against Everett workers by increasing the production capacity of the South Carolina plant, one has to wonder if the IAM, and its proxy the NLRB, are not retaliating against South Carolina Boeing workers for daring to decertify and muck up IAM plans for wall-to-wall domination over Boeing. And, Right to Work state or not, it goes without saying that this particular Boeing plant could remain uniquely immune to IAM organizing rhetoric for many years to come.
