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18 Long Beach Business Journal
March 3-16, 2015
PERSPECTIVES NEWSWATCH
At a February 23 press event at the Port of Los Angeles, Mayors Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, left, and Robert Garcia of Long Beach expressed their gratitude that months-long contract negotiations for West Coast longshore workers had come to a conclusion. On the docks behind them, International Longshore & Warehouse Union workers resumed full-force operations after months of work slowdowns and heated discussions with the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents employers. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Thomas McConville)
Tentative Longshore Contract Agreement Is Reached, Workers Return To Docks ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer After months of negotiations over the contract for West Coast longshore workers, not even the presence of a federal mediator was able to bring the two
negotiating parties to agreement, leaving many to wonder what would. In the end, it was a visit – and then a threat – from U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez that brought the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents the workers, and the Pacific Mar-
itime Association (PMA), which represents their employers, to agreement. Shortly after arriving on the West Coast, Perez gave the parties a same-day ultimatum: either they would come to an agreement by the end of the day on Friday, February 20, or he would haul them
to Washington, D.C., to negotiate there. The pressure of the U.S. government proved to be the tipping point – by the end of the day, the parties came to a tentative agreement. Details of the agreement have not been (Please Continue To Top Of Next Page)
Honing The Edge: Boeing Opens Engineering Career Development Center In Long Beach ■ By MICHAEL GOUGIS Contributing Writer Boeing has established an Engineering Career Development Center at its Douglas Park Center in Long Beach, the first of a nationwide series of training centers for the organization’s engineering and technical staff members, the company said. “Technology moves quickly. We wanted to be sure our employees can keep up, and we wanted to give them the best training they can possibly get,” Cassaundra Bantly, communications specialist, engineering, mission assurance & product support with Boeing Defense, Space & Security, told the Business Journal. The goal of the centers is to ensure that the company’s technical staff remains at the forefront of knowledge in their areas of expertise. The company views this as a long-term investment in its principal resource – engineering and technical know-how that is ahead of its competitors. The establishment of the centers is part of the company’s strategy to provide development and training for its tech-
nical and engineering employees, an initiative known as “Engineering Central,” the company said in a statement. “As our people continue to develop their capabilities and knowledge, Boeing will become an even stronger and more competitive company in our second century,” said John Tracy, Boeing chief technology officer and senior vice president of engineering, operations & technology, who oversees engineering within the company. “We have always been a company that values the career growth and development of our people. With Engineering Central, Boeing is intensifying its pursuit of engineering excellence,” Tracy said in a news release. The center will be based around classroom instruction at Douglas Park, and will be open to any employee performing engineering and technical tasks for the company, Bantly said. New engineers and technical personnel joining the company straight from college also will have access to the training and development programs, depending on their assignments and the demand for more specialized knowledge. The size of the classes and training sessions will be dictated by demand and the training offered, Bantly said.
Economists and others describing the need for continuing training for engineers use the phrase “half-life of knowledge.” This is the period of time it takes for half of the knowledge in a particular field to be replaced with new knowledge. Depending on the field of engineering study, estimates of the “half-life” of an engineer’s knowledge base range is from seven years down to less than three. The need for constant continuing education is critical, especially so for a company that engineers solutions in broad, challenging areas like aerospace and spacecraft. Engineering Central also emphasizes existing employee development resources, including the company’s corporate education and tuition assistance program. Employees pursuing most engineering-related programs at approved schools can get tuition and other education expenses paid by the company. The company plans to open centers in Seal Beach and Huntington Beach, St. Louis, Ridley Park in Pennsylvania, Charleston in South Carolina, Salt Lake City, the Puget Sound region of Washington state and Huntsville, Alabama. ■
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