However this saga ends, whether Boeing machinists eventually give up their pensions in exchange for keeping 777 production in the region, or whether Boeing management ultimately caves in the face of higher costs and almost certain production delays elsewhere, or whether both sides lose and production does actually move out of state, one thing is for certain: Boeing CEO Ray Connor and the rest of the company's top executive team are a bunch of dicks.

How else to describe the executives of a profitable company who so despise and disrespect their workforce? And how else to describe their dickish move yesterday in which they used their PR machine to blast the news that Boeing machinists had rejected their "last, best offer" before the rank and file machinists even had a chance to vote on it?

“Boeing’s offer Thursday was contingent on union leadership recommending acceptance,” Wroblewski said. “This we could not do.”

Really? It's not enough for rank and file machinists to vote to give up their pensions? The offer was contingent on the union leadership effacing themselves by formally recommending acceptance of a contract they personally found unacceptable?

Rank and file machinists will be given a chance to vote on the contract, and if they approve it, it will be up to Boeing's management to decide whether it really was a good faith offer. But let's be clear: This isn't about profits. And it's no longer just about breaking the unions. This is about humiliating the unions.

What a bunch of dicks!