The 12th Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) conference in Chicago this past June included a stimulating panel on the aerospace industry. Moderated by Joel Cutcher- Gershenfeld of MIT, the panel included Bob Thayer, vice president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; Jerry Calhoun of The Boeing Company; and Morris Kleiner of the University of Minnesota.The U.S. aerospace industry’s problems were laid out in stark terms: job contraction has resulted in the lowest level of domestic aerospace employment in over 50 years; competition from Europe, Brazil, and Asia has intensified; and the industry’s persistent boom and bust cycles have hurt productivity. These are the core challenges that practitioners, neutrals, and scholars find so compelling about the aerospace sector. At the same time that domestic aerospace production dominates the global marketplace for defense-related products and remains competitive in the commercial market, jobs continue to leave.
