Boeing bosses are staring down the barrel.
The twists and turns of the past week paint a picture of managers badly wrong-footed by the depth of fury among workers who tossed out a 25% pay rise deal and launched strike action.
“They probably didn’t think that we had enough people for the strike,” Kushal Varma, a Boeing mechanic, told Reuters. “But this is a movement of people who are willing to put their livelihoods on the line to get what’s fair.”
The Reuters authors are far too generous to corporate leadership. No, the bosses weren’t blindsided. No, the bosses weren’t surprised. All of the demands and expectations are ones you would predict.
This kind of situation is exactly when strikes happen, and if anyone in management wasn’t prepared for it, they’re unqualified for their job. Or they’re liars. Or both.