The overwhelming majority of votes against signing a deal are likely to lead to a halt in production in the Seattle area – the center of Boeing’s commercial aircraft production – and a disruption to the company’s supply chains.
Union members at Boeing overwhelmingly vote for strike
Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAEA) have spoken out against a contract with Boeing and have gone on strike instead.
- Of the approximately 30,000 union members, 96 percent voted for the strike.
- The deal proposed by Boeing called for a 25 percent wage increase over four years, well below the 40 percent workers had demanded.
- The decision also comes at a time when Boeing is facing intense scrutiny from regulators and customers following a series of crises, including when a door panel on an Alaska Air 737 Max passenger plane was torn off in January.
Boeing workers walked off the job Friday morning and began picketing outside the company’s Seattle-area plants in Washington state after voting to strike for the first time since 2008.
The overwhelming vote against a deal is expected to halt operations in the Seattle area – the center of Boeing’s commercial jet production – and disrupt the company’s supply chain, Reuters reported. The decision also comes as Boeing faces intense scrutiny from regulators and customers in the wake of a series of crises, including the mid-air rupture of a door panel on an Alaska Air 737 Max plane in January.
Tens of thousands of machinists voted Thursday against a proposed deal between the company and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), whose members produce Boeing’s 737 MAX and other jets in the Seattle and Portland areas. The rejection came despite the significant pay and benefit increases the deal would have brought, according to multiple reports.
Of the union’s roughly 30,000 members, 96 percent reportedly voted in favor of the strike. Only two-thirds were needed to agree to a work stoppage, Reuters reported.
The strike could be seen as a blow to new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took over in August with a mandate to restore the company’s image as a leading American aircraft manufacturer. Ortberg’s offer included a 25 percent pay increase over four years, well below the 40 percent workers had demanded, Reuters reported.
Workers reject Boeing’s contract offer
As recently as Sunday, an agreement seemed imminent when Boeing announced it had reached a tentative agreement with a union to avert a crippling strike.
The proposed four-year contract included concessions such as a 25% across-the-board wage increase and a commitment to build the next commercial aircraft in the Seattle area if the program was launched within the four-year contract term. The deal also included better retirement benefits and gave the union more influence over the safety and quality of the production system.
Although union leadership called it “the best contract we’ve ever negotiated,” many workers were upset about the loss of an annual bonus, larger pay raises and other original demands.
“It’s about respect, it’s about dealing with the past, and it’s about fighting for our future,” said Jon Holden, who led negotiations for Boeing’s largest union, before announcing the vote on Thursday evening (according to Reuters).
Strike begins; Boeing wants to return to the negotiating table
Even before Thursday’s vote, workers at Boeing factories in the Seattle area where the Boeing Max 777 and 767 aircraft are assembled had protested this week.
With the strike now in effect, workers gathered outside the factory entrances shortly after midnight, waving signs reading “Strike against Boeing.” Some passing motorists honked in support, according to Reuters.
Some workers said they were willing to continue the picket line in the long term.
“I’m willing to strike for two months or even longer,” said James Mann, a 26-year-old who works in Boeing’s wing division. “Let’s keep going until we get what we deserve.”
But Boeing management hopes to get union representatives back to the negotiating table as soon as possible.
“We remain committed to rebuilding our relationships with our employees and the union, and we are ready to return to the bargaining table to reach a new agreement,” the planemaker said in a statement to Reuters on Thursday.
Holden told reporters that “we will get back to the negotiating table as soon as possible,” Reuters reported. He did not say how long he thought the strike would last or when talks would resume.
“This is something we tackle day by day, week by week.”
The Biden administration had been closely monitoring the talks, with Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su urging the sides in an interview with Reuters last week to negotiate a “fair contract.”
Boeing is facing a series of crises
The strike is the latest in a series of spectacular setbacks for Boeing.
The aerospace company has been plagued by numerous safety incidents, starting with two crashes of 737 Max jets that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. Those accidents were ultimately blamed on poorly designed, undisclosed flight control software, and Boeing agreed to plead guilty to one count of criminal fraud in connection with the case.
In January, an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 lost a door panel that tore off part of the fuselage shortly after takeoff. No serious injuries were reported, but more than 100 planes were grounded again and Boeing came under increasing scrutiny.
In late June, a Korean Air plane crashed about 26,246 feet due to an apparent defect in the Boeing 737 Max 8’s pressurization system, causing earaches and hyperventilation in several passengers. The incident followed another flight problem the same month in which a Southwest Airlines pilot performed a roll on the Phoenix-Oakland flight, damaging the plane.
Boeing also experienced major setbacks with its Starliner spacecraft, which the company designed and built for NASA to one day carry out crewed missions to the International Space Station. The Starliner’s first crewed test flight encountered a series of technical problems that forced NASA last week to return the spacecraft to Earth without its crew, which remains in the space station.
The task of bringing the Starliner astronauts back to Earth will instead fall to Boeing’s space competitor SpaceX.
Contributors: Zach Wichter, USA TODAY; Reuters
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
