האגודה הישראלית לחקר יחסי עבודה

North Charleston campus.

They also wonder what the union's future will hold for the company's West Coast workers.

"This vote pretty much kills off the notion that there is support for unionization at Boeing South Carolina," said Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at London-based Strategic Aero Research. "If anything, the IAM needs to step away, not come back and evaluate just what it is that it represents."

Nearly three of every four Boeing workers who voted in last week's election said they do not want union representation. A total of 2,828 of the approximately 3,000 workers who were eligible to vote actually cast ballots, with 2,097 of them voting against the IAM.

The IAM had to get at least 30 percent of eligible workers to sign authorization cards calling for an election, and unions usually wait until they have a much larger percentage before filing a petition for a vote with the National Labor Relations Board. Last week's totals show many of the workers who signed authorization cards wound up voting against the IAM.

"Our house is going to remain union-free," Joan Robinson-Berry, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina, said to a loud ovation Friday as employees gathered to hear President Donald Trump speak during the roll-out of the company's first 787-10 Dreamliner.

Boeing built the North Charleston campus, which builds the 787 Dreamliner, in South Carolina largely because of the state's right-to-work laws, which ban mandatory union membership. It gives Boeing negotiating leverage against union workers in the Seattle area.

The decision by North Charleston workers to remain union-free means Boeing will be able to continue to use the threat of moving work to South Carolina to gain concessions from IAM members on the West Coast.

"Boeing will be able to continue to hold non-union North Charleston over Seattle's IAM," said Scott Hamilton, an aerospace analyst and editor of Leeham News and Comment.

He said Boeing also "will certainly ask Washington state for more incentives as well," referring to billions of dollars in tax breaks the state approved for Boeing starting in 2014 to keep the 777 program in the Seattle area.

Mike Evans, the IAM's lead local organizer, called the North Charleston loss disappointing and said he's unsure what the union's next move will be. The IAM's office on Dorchester Road likely will close as the union largely scales back the local recruiting it has conducted for years.

Not everyone is convinced Boeing workers in North Charleston have seen the last of the IAM.

"My guess it that the IAM will take some time, regroup and try again, just as the United Auto Workers decided to do with the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee," said Susan Schurman, professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. "Unions have to find a way to persuade manufacturing workers in the South to join if they expect to remain relevant going forward."

South Carolina has the nation's lowest percentage of union members in the U.S., at 1.6 percent of the workforce, federal statistics show. Union membership fell nearly 46 percent between 2006 and 2016, from roughly 59,000 workers to 32,000, the biggest percentage drop nationally.

Joe Seiner, a labor law expert with the University of South Carolina, attributes the low union membership in part to politicians that have long railed against organized labor as a threat to economic development.

Those politicians were vocal in their support of last week's vote to turn away the IAM.

"Out of state unions, who have undermined and criticized the credibility of South Carolina workers, have continually tried to tear down South Carolina's successes, and in some cases move jobs already in place in South Carolina elsewhere," Republican Sen. Tim Scott said after last week's IAM loss.

Lindsey Graham, the state's other Republican senator, said last week's "decision will keep in place a business model that attracted Boeing to South Carolina in the first place."

Scott said he does "not begrudge anyone the right to join or create a union" but added the state's economy is dependent on "South Carolina's right to work laws and laser focus on job creation ..."

It's a message promoted by the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, which helped Boeing fight the IAM's efforts with a series of television commercials critical of the union.

Last week's vote "sends a clear message that South Carolinians do not need corrupt third-party organizations to represent their interests or have their voices heard," said Lewis Gossett, the alliance's president and CEO.

Schurman said the IAM faced a near insurmountable challenge because of the political opposition and propaganda campaign waged on Boeing's behalf.

"It would have been extraordinary if the vote had gone in favor of unionization given the fierce campaign Boeing mounted and the support the company received from public officials," she said.

This was the second time in two years that the IAM scheduled a vote at the Boeing campus. In 2015, the union canceled the vote days before it was scheduled to take place, citing political interference and misinformation from Boeing management.

Ahmad, the London-based analyst, said there probably won't be a third attempt.

"I doubt the IAM will want to tackle this again and be hit with yet another hard fist and get another bloodied nose," he said. "In my mind, that should draw a line in the sand."

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