Chicago/Washington — Boeing employees in South Carolina voted overwhelmingly against unionisation, dealing a blow to the labour movement’s efforts to expand its ranks under President Donald Trump. The vote is a loss for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers but not a surprise in a right-to-work state traditionally hostile to collective bargaining. It comes two days ahead of the factory launch of the largest 787 Dreamliner, Boeing’s marquee carbon-fibre jet, an event Trump is expected to attend. The labour defeat is the latest in a long-running struggle between Boeing’s management and the Machinists’ union, with the South Carolina plant a crucial battleground. An earlier attempt to organise workers in the state fizzled before a vote in 2015 amid anti-union campaigning and political pressure led by then governor Nikki Haley, who is now Trump’s ambassador to the UN. Boeing decided to place a new final assembly line for its Dreamliners in the southern state t...
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