Boeing's Key Labor Union Wants Seat in Company's Board Amid Surge in Flight Incidents

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Boeing's largest labor union, the International Association of Machinists District 751, has proposed taking up a seat on the board of directors of the company to enable it address concerns of passengers and regulators amid a surge in flight incidents, district president Jon Holden told the US media .

"We'll be proposing that we have a seat on the board of directors. We believe that we have a unique ability to understand the production system ... With what's going on these days, we are oftentimes the last line of defence, and we have to save this company from itself," Holden was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The labor union, which represents about 32,000 employees at Boeing's production plants in the US state of Washington, entered into talks with the firm's board earlier in March, with one of its aims to have a "greater voice" at the company," Holden told the media.

The union expects that its representative present in Boeing's board would bring "a grounding and a balancing" to the 13-person body, the district president reportedly said.

On January 5, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 with 171 passengers and six crew members on board made an emergency landing shortly after takeoff in Portland, Oregon after a door plug detached midair. No injuries were reported at the time, but several days later, some passengers filed a lawsuit against the jet-producing company, demanding compensation for the physical, emotional and economic harm. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the grounding of all Boeing 737 Max 9 planes in the United States.

Boeing's aircraft have seen a string of in-flight incidents in recent months. In January, the US Federal Aviation Administration ordered Boeing's 737 MAX jet grounded after a cabin panel blew out in midair on a flight from Oregon. In a separate incident, an oxygen leak was discovered on board of a Boeing 737 that was supposed to transport US Secretary of State Antony Blinken from the Davos World Economic Forum. The leak proved impossible to mend, making the plane unsafe to fly.

In one of the last incidents that took place on March 11, around 50 people were injured as a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane of Chile-based LATAM Airlines experienced a "technical problem" en route from Australia's Sydney to New Zealand's Auckland.