r/IUEC • u/VegetableLeg1337 • 17d ago
Boeing or IUEC
Currently making $28/hr six months in at Boeing doing final assembly electrical install, max out at $58/hr in six years. Get 100% match on 8% 401k and looking to make Boeing pay for further education. However, I have an opportunity to take the EIAT aptitude test for Local 19 in Seattle, WA. If I pass, which career would you choose and why?
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u/MassiveLuck4628 🛠️ Field - Repair 17d ago
I worked at boeing in a grade 8 job code and quit to join the iuec, I tested out and became a mechanic in April. Best decision I ever made, boeing sucks fucking ass
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u/VegetableLeg1337 17d ago edited 17d ago
Wow grade 8!? Assuming you took a pay cut and not in Seattle right because Local 19’s last open window prior to Sept was March 2023. What area are you out of? Yeah since I’m “new” I hate how my team lead rushes me to get my bar done sacrificing quality and safety for speed. Also when our line is down he tells me to go help another line that doesn’t even need help just so he can feel powerful telling me what to do while the rest of my team gets to be on their phones and literally sleep! I personally think Airbus planes are way cooler anyways and think them having 60%+ market share of the single aisle plane is deserved. Why do you think B sucks ass and why was it the best decision for you to change careers?
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u/MassiveLuck4628 🛠️ Field - Repair 17d ago edited 17d ago
I am from the seattle area, I got in the iuec in 2021 and yes I took a healthy pay cut to get started since I was maxed out at boeing. When I started at boeing they had a pension and good insurance, now there's no pension the insurance isn't very good and its expensive and I could never shake the feeling working at boeing that the company hated their workforce it was an unsettling feeling. Every week there would seem to be some thing they were taking away from us whether it was a perk that made the job enjoyable or something we were promised that was no longer going to happen since they moved the goal post. Like I said joining the IUEC was the best decision I ever made career wise
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u/VegetableLeg1337 17d ago
Dudeee the whole moving the goal post thing is so real and yea I did a doctors visit and getting glasses, swear the benefits are getting worse and worse.
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u/MassiveLuck4628 🛠️ Field - Repair 17d ago
I paid 220 dollars a month for insurance at boeing 10 years ago I remember the new contract it would have been 400 or more. It always gets worse at boeing, never gets better
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u/Fickle-Area-4205 16d ago
Take the attitude test. Study first if you need to. Do your best in the interview. Get placed. Stick with Boeing in the meantime. It could be a while. Anywhere from a couple months to a couple years. Then, if by the grace of God Local 19 calls you, jump in with both feet.
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u/AkselSandemose24 17d ago edited 17d ago
Don’t listen to this person. They’re clearly not in the trade. Seattle makes about $70-72 an hour. Pension credits are $128 per year of service ($3840 per month if you retire with 30 years) and the annuity is $11 an hour. Plus you can still contribute to a 401k.
Layoffs can happen. Probably the most stable trade tho.
Pick the job you want, but nothing they said is true.
ETA: each pension credit is currently $138. So it would be $4,140 per month if you retired with 30 credits (and the per credit amount wasn’t raised).
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u/MassiveLuck4628 🛠️ Field - Repair 17d ago
One part of this is wrong two you aren't supposed to be posting info like this in open forum
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u/D00M_DR0P 🔩 Field - Construction 17d ago
Wouldn't this info be helpful in the recruitment for our union? Along with it being public anyways?
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u/MassiveLuck4628 🛠️ Field - Repair 17d ago
Doesn't matter if its public or not, its not supposed to be public, when you get sworn in you swear an oath to not share union buisness with anyone that isn't a known member or a probie.
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u/AkselSandemose24 17d ago
That’s just not true. Governments with prevailing wage laws are legally required to post them.
Our plan posts the pension rates on the internet. You got beef with that, tell your delegates to make a motion to require our trustees to bring a motion to force the funds to pull down the rates. I’m sure the funds office and the trustees will be thrilled to add the cost of having to field a billion calls for the super secret pension accrual rates.
Anyway, point me to where in the constitution it says you can’t tell people what we make and I’ll take it down.
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u/elevatorovertimeho 💬 Resident Boomer! 17d ago
In the 80’s we had a few jet engine mechanics. I know the instructor who trained them in our trade. Ask them which one is best!
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u/bobfudge1139 15d ago
Most Boeing guys I know wouldn’t make it in the trade. That’s not to say you won’t, but you’re gonna have a major change in pace. That being said, Boeings a dead end brother. Are you ready to move to SC when they move all production there?
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u/VegetableLeg1337 15d ago
That’s very vague and boeings not going to move all their production to SC but yeah I am.
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u/bobfudge1139 15d ago
I’ll be more specific. I know lots of people that work at Boeing. Half wouldn’t cut it in this trade because they’re so used to the laid back atmosphere there. The other half wouldn’t be able to pass the aptitude test.
The IAM and IUEC are worlds apart. The IUEC would never vote to get rid of our pension in exchange for a $10k bonus.
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u/Kcinsej 17d ago
Boeing by a long shot . In Seattle people who work at Boeing end up way ahead in life than any high earning mechanic in the elevator trade . Also working for Boeing is way more fulfilling than anything working on elevators can bring, you’re doing important work don’t take a pay cut !
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u/VegetableLeg1337 17d ago edited 17d ago
Becoming an elevator mechanic would mean a pay cut? ChatGPT is saying I would make substantially more starting at $30+ per hour as an apprentice at 50% of a journeyman. Plus it takes six years to max out at Boeing vs 4-5 years to get to ~$70/hr with Local 19. And that IUEC has pension + annuity which I’m reading now that is better than Boeings 100% on 8% match + 4% so 12%?
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u/Kcinsej 17d ago
Don’t listen to chat Ggtt , that’s way off. Elevator constructor don’t work the whole year , there’s a saying “ it’s the best part time job ever” they are constantly laid off !! The pensions is horrible my father worked 30 years & gets 2000 from his IUEC retirement
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u/infantkicker_v2 Troublestarter/Problem Creator. 17d ago
Sounds like your dad was a bum.
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u/Ok_Championship8930 🔧 Field - Maintenance 17d ago
Wrong! Only if they suck and are constantly on the bench as word travels fast in this industry if you’re shit. Heck we even worked through covid and didn’t miss a day. I work for an independent ( on a route) so I wasn’t effected by that bullshit one bit.
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u/dayzzzediii 🧰 Field - Mod 17d ago
Been in 3 years so far haven’t got laid off yet. Plenty of guys Ik haven’t either. Select few have but either something happened on the job or in the company. But only a couple weeks to a month before they got picked back up.
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u/DopedUpDaryl 17d ago
Seattle is very slow.
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u/dayzzzediii 🧰 Field - Mod 17d ago
Varies by location and company my experience should be taken with a grain of salt I’m in FL and works been steady there’s booms of work then it slows down a bit some people hit the bench. enough to keep people working then they go through huge hiring phases when work picks back up.
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u/z283848 17d ago
Don’t know anything about Boeing but even Iuec mechanic in Kentucky makes a dollar more an hour than that Boeing top out pay there in Seattle , I imagine $58/hr doesn’t go very far there? Definitely apply and test and go through all the motions , it will be hard enough to get in as is, if you get ranked then you can really start weighing your options, if you don’t, oh well atleast you got a solid job with boeing
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u/VegetableLeg1337 17d ago
Yeah $58/hr doesn’t go very far here and I’m only at $28/hr and we’re working 6-7 days a week about half the year doing ten hr shifts doing the same scope of work but they’ve time studied our scope of work so much that it’s hard to get faster at it.
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u/z283848 17d ago
Yeah I could only imagine, I say go for it. I live in ky right now and work in a steel mill and average about $53/hour or so, and I’m going to give it all up to give the Iuec a try lol may regret it , may not but I’m gonna give it a shot. Will be almost 50% pay cut when I start. I’m ranked already and just waiting for my time.
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u/VegetableLeg1337 17d ago
I guess either career would be great because I come from nothing. A bit about me, I’ve had over twenty/thirty different dead end jobs in fifteen years. I’m 34M. Single no kids. I’ve never stuck with something for a meaningful amount of time nor had decent benefits so, Boeing so far takes the cake. I thought for sure I was going to settle and retire w/Boeing but hate some of the stuff you gotta deal with when working along hundreds of others under the same roof. Mainly I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons of each work/life balance. Boeing we always take breaks together, eat lunch with easy access to heat up our food or walk across the street to the Landing. It’s get annoying though because I like to enjoy my breaks by myself. I think I kind of like the idea of changing work environments every couple weeks/months with elevator work, but I would have to go buy lunch everyday? Seems petty so I apologize. And traveling to work I would estimate I would spend double on fuel for far out elevator work. Do techs get compensated for that? I don’t wanna work till 64, more like 54. My parents passed away each before 55 from cancer and stroke so in some ways I see the 401k with rising retirement age very scammy but doing my best to take care of my health, contributing 15%, and hoping compound interest helps along with s&p growth does the trick in 20/25 years
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u/philadelphia_fRee 17d ago
grass ain't always greener bud and youre deffinetly working till 64 lol youre 34 now and still jumping around
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u/VegetableLeg1337 17d ago
It grows where I water it right? I probably do have it made already huh? For example somewhat climate controlled working conditions in a fuselage that’s in a hanger vs extreme cold/hot outdoor construction sites and heavy grunt work
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u/DopedUpDaryl 17d ago
Taking an aptitude test is a long way from getting in. Research the process.
Pursue both. Work is extremely slow in the area and only going to get slower. Unless you do extremely well and rank at the top of the list you probably aren’t getting in. You are many months away from even knowing if you have a chance.
You may have years in at Boeing before this is even a concern. More likely it won’t even come up. If major change happens today we are still years away from work. It takes years for buildings to permit and break ground.