"As for the machinists... I find it disturbing that a bunch of pilots will stand around and criticize a labor group that voted to hold the line on compensation, after what we've collectively gone through in the last 20 years. Their contract wasn't even up for a few more years, and management wanted frozen pensions and a gutted pay scale."

It has never been about what the Unionist want or think is fair. It has always been about what they can do and how much they want for their services compared to everyone else. The entire notion of unionism is anti-competitive -- you hold an employer hostage to interuptions from strikes and/or having to rehire and retrain a large portion of their workforce, and use that leverage to ask for higher wages and benefits than there are similarly skilled and willing individuals in the economy is willing to work for.

Regardless, now that they have rejected a readjustment of their expectations based on the current market value of their skills and labor, my prediction is as follows:

Washington (Puget Sound) gets to keep final assembly of the 777X. The large composite wing goes to Spirit Wichita Kansas (if they can get a decent labor contract there), or it goes to Mitsubishi in Japan which has a ready workforce and has the facility. Fuselage sections get parcelled out to Long Beach, Charleston, Utah or Texas. Propulsion nacelles go to Charleston in the new composite facilty already being built for this purpose.

Basically, the IAM unionists get to keep about 1/3 the work and the 777 workforce drops from 22,000 to about 7,000~8,000. Boeing gets to keep final assembly in skilled if pricey hands, and it gets to keep the use of the existing massive 747/777 facility in Everett. The wing and prefab fuselage sections go elsewhere. Propulsion nacelles go to Charleston. ISM union rolls in Puget Sound go from about 55,000 to 40,000 in 2020.