Union releases Boeing documents

Union releases Boeing documents

WASHINGTON

Documents released Friday by a union in a high-profile labor dispute with Boeing Co. suggested the aerospace giant opened a new plant in Charleston, S.C., partly to escape its labor problems in Washington state, despite considering South Carolina the highest risk option.

The Machinists union said the documents bolster the National Labor Relations Board’s lawsuit accusing the company of retaliating against unions in Washington state by opening a second production line for its 787 aircraft in Charleston.

The internal documents — presented to Boeing’s board of directors in 2009 — show Boeing officials believed opening the South Carolina plant was the highest-risk option they studied with the highest likelihood of failure. Another option was to open the second line in Everett, Wash., where the company already was building the plane.

But the documents also say the South Carolina plan, dubbed “Project Gemini,” would help in “rebalancing an unbalanced and uncompetitive labor relationship.”

Dish Network to start movie service

LOS ANGELES

Seeking to challenge Netflix without undermining its own satellite television business, Dish Network has launched a new service, available only to its television subscribers, that will stream movies and TV and send DVDs by mail under its newly acquired Blockbuster unit.

Called “Blockbuster Movie Pass,” the service includes DVDs and video games by mail along with 3,000 movies and television shows available to stream on TV and an additional 1,000 for computer. It will launch next Saturday.

The offering costs $10 per month, the same price that Netflix previously charged for a combined streaming and DVD service before it unexpectedly raised the price in July, leading to public outrage and the loss of an expected 400,000 subscribers by the end of September.

To entice new Dish subscribers, the Blockbuster Movie Pass will be free to them for the first year.

Drug shortages painful, costly

TRENTON, N.J.

A drug for dangerously high blood pressure, normally priced at $25.90 per dose, was offered to hospitals for $1,200. Fifteen deaths in 15 months have been blamed on shortages of life-saving medications.

A growing crisis in the availability of drugs for chemotherapy, infections and other serious ailments is endangering patients and forcing hospitals to buy from secondary suppliers at huge markups because they can’t get the medications any other way.

An Associated Press review of industry reports and interviews with nearly two dozen experts found the shortages — mainly of injected generic drugs that ordinarily are cheap — have delayed surgeries and cancer treatments, left patients in unnecessary pain and caused hospitals to give less- effective treatments. That’s resulted in complications and longer hospital stays.

Vindicator wire reports