Australian and American unions have joined forces to uphold the rights of Boeing workers to collective bargaining.

The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) and the US-based International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) have forged an alliance.

AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten and two mechanical engineers from Boeing's Newcastle operations will fly to America today to meet with the IAM, whose 18,000 Boeing members are on strike for better conditions.

Mr Shorten said the delegation also hoped to meet with senior Boeing International executives to urge them to get Boeing Australia to come to the table on a collective agreement with the company's striking workers in Australia.

"With the support of our American friends, we hope to draw international attention to the plight of our Newcastle members, and put pressure on Boeing Australia to sit down with us and thrash out the issues," Mr Shorten said.

Mr Shorten will be highlighting the injustice whereby Boeing workers in Australia have no right to bargain collectively whereas their American counterparts do.

"These workers should not have to go without pay for 113 days just to defend a basic right that should be guaranteed to every worker, no matter where they live," Mr Shorten said.

Mechanical aircraft engineers at the RAAF Williamtown base, near Newcastle, began a legally protected strike in June 2005, fighting for their collective bargaining rights. The company has refused to negotiate with these workers and their union, the Australian Workers Union' (AWU). Boeing has been flying in workers from other sites to do the jobs of the striking workers.

In the US, three weeks ago, 18,000 Boeing workers began their first strike in 10 years - over pay, pensions, job security and lower healthcare costs - shutting down production at the world's largest aircraft maker.

ACTU President, Sharan Burrow said, "US law recognises this right. Boeing's US executives should respect Australian workers with the same rights. The Boeing workers in NSW are at the forefront of the fight of workers in Australia to retain the right to bargain collectively with their employer."

"Under the industrial relations changes proposed by the Howard Government, workers like these, highly skilled people, will be denied even the most basic right to negotiate with their fellow workers. And this is with a company of the size and power of the world's biggest aircraft maker, that has recently announced even bigger profit margins" Ms Burrow said.

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