It is hard to do business, make sales, and drive profits when your company is shut down by a strike. It also aids the competition.

Boeing Co. is finding that out the hard way. According to Bloomberg, "Airbus SAS, starting its first aircraft assembly today outside Europe, said it may buy up to $1 billion of components from China by 2020, as the world's most populous nation may need 3,000 planes in the next 20 years."

By putting a plant inside China and offering to put money into the economy, Airbus is making best friends with the central government, a move that is almost certain to garner significant orders from the nation's commercial airlines.

Boeing management made a huge mistake by allowing its machinists to go out on strike instead of improving their compensation packages enough to keep the company operating. Boeing said that its margins could be hurt by the size of the deal the union wanted. The machinists knew better. They could see the size of the Boeing back-orders for products like the new Dreamliner going out for years and year driving higher and higher sales.

Each day that the strike goes on, Boeing risks losing more customers to Airbus. Management has not done the shareholders any favors.