Boeing Union Calls Job Threat 'Unacceptable'

The president of Boeing's largest union called "unacceptable" a threat by Boeing chairman Jim McNerney to move jobs due to the uncertain future of the US Export-Import Bank.

"The only Boeing job that should leave this country is his," said Jon Holden, president of International Association of Machinists District 751, which represents more than 30,000 workers at Boeing.

"This is one more example of how Jim McNerney operated during his years as Boeing's CEO - threatening the livelihood of his employees and jeopardising the communities they live in order to get what he wants. Enough is enough. It is time for him to go," Holden said.

McNerney, who stepped down as chief executive on July 1, said that Boeing was actively considering moving "key pieces" of its operations to other countries because Congress has not re-authorised the Ex-Im Bank's charter, which expired on June 30.

Holden said the machinists union, like McNerney, supports the Ex-Im bank, which it says provides important financing to allow airlines to buy Boeing aircraft built by union members.

"Any politician who is fighting reauthorisation of the bank is working to destroy" an institution that helps the US economy, workers and taxpayers, he said. "We share his frustration with Congress."

But for McNerney "to continue to threaten to take our jobs away is unacceptable," he added.

The comments follow a bitter fight between Boeing and its machinists in 2013, when Boeing threatened to move production of the 777X out of Washington state unless union members voted for a contract extension that would sunset their defined-benefit pensions.

The contract was narrowly approved in early 2014, and later that year McNerney joked on a conference call that employees were "still cowering." Though he quickly apologised for the comment, it inflamed union members.

Members of Boeing's other major union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, said they also support Ex-Im reauthorisation, but declined to comment on McNerney's remarks.