IN THE DAYS BEFORE BOEING Co.'s 18,300 machinists walked off the job on Sept.2,management thought it had a smart strategy for avoiding a strike.True,the aerospace giant wasn't ready to jack up its traditional defined-benefit pension plan nearly as much as the International Association of Machinists(IAM)was demanding.But Boeing had an alternative:Offer as much as US9,000 in cash bonuses,including a generous new match to the 401(k)that IAM members get along with their pension.Managers hoped the juicy stack of cash would tempt the roughly 4,000 mostly younger workers who had been recalled recently as orders picked up.If so,that would have sufficed to bring about a repeat of 2002,when the IAM failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed to sanction a strike.
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