Boeing plant strike ends as workers vote to accept contract | News, Sports, Jobs

SEATTLE (AP) — Workers at Boeing plants have voted to accept a contract offer and end a strike after more than seven weeks, clearing the way for the aerospace giant to resume production of its best-selling airliner and generate the cash it so desperately needs. necessary.

Leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Seattle said 59 percent of members who voted agreed to approve the company’s fourth official offer and the third ballot. The deal includes a 38 percent pay increase over four years and ratification and productivity bonuses.

However, Boeing has refused to meet the strikers’ demand to restore a company pension plan that was frozen nearly a decade ago.

Ratification of the contract on the eve of Election Day cleared the way for a major U.S. manufacturer and a government contractor to restart assembly lines in the Pacific Northwest that had been shut down for 53 days.

Bank of America analysts estimated last month that Boeing was losing about $50 million a day during the now-ending strike, which did not affect a non-union plant in South Carolina where the company makes the 787.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a message to employees that he was pleased to have reached an agreement.

“Although the last few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team,” Ortberg said. “We will only move forward by listening and working together. There is still much work to be done to return to the excellence that has made Boeing an iconic company.”

According to the union, the 33,000 workers it represents can return to work as soon as Wednesday or by November 12. Ortberg said it could take “a few weeks” to resume production, in part because some workers may need retraining.

Boeing’s average annual salary is currently $75,608 and will eventually rise to $119,309 under the new contract, according to the company. The union said the compound value of the promised wage increase would amount to an increase of more than 43 percent over the life of the agreement.

“It’s time to come together. This is a win,” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden told members as he announced the number Monday night. “You stood strong and you stood tall and you won.”

Reactions were mixed even among union members who voted to accept the contract.

Although he voted yes, Seattle calibration specialist Eep Bolaño said the result was “definitely not a victory.” Bolaño said she and her colleagues made a wise but nerve-wracking choice to accept the offer.

“We were threatened by a company that was crippled, dying, bleeding on the ground, and we, one of the largest unions in the country, could not extract even two-thirds of our demands from them. This is humiliating,” she said.

For other workers like William Gardiner, laboratory leader in calibration services, the revised offer was cause for celebration.

“I’m extremely excited about this vote,” said Gardiner, who has worked for Boeing for 13 years. “I didn’t fix everything – that’s okay. Overall, it’s a very positive contract.”

Union leaders backed the latest proposal, saying they believed they had gotten as much as they could from the negotiations and strike. Along with the wage increase, the new contract gives each worker a $12,000 ratification bonus and preserves a performance bonus that the company wanted to eliminate.

“It is time for our members to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” the local union district said before the vote. “We believe that asking members to stay on strike for longer would not be fair because we have achieved so much success.”

President Joe Biden congratulated the machinists and Boeing for reaching an agreement that he said supports workplace fairness and improves workers’ ability to retire with dignity. The contract, he said, is important to Boeing’s future as “a critical part of America’s aerospace sector.”

Biden’s acting labor secretary, Julie Su, intervened in the negotiations several times, including when Boeing made its latest offer last week.

A continued strike would have thrown Boeing into financial jeopardy and uncertainty. Last month, Ortberg announced plans to lay off about 17,000 people and a stock sale to prevent the company’s credit rating from being downgraded to junk status.

The strike began on September 13 with an overwhelming 94.6% rejection of the company’s offer to raise wages by 25% over four years – far short of the union’s original demand for 40% wage increases over three years.

The machinists rejected another offer — 35 percent raises over four years and still no pension revival — on Oct. 23, the same day Boeing reported a third-quarter loss of more than $6 billion.

The contract rejections reflected the bitterness that has built up over union concessions and small wage increases over the past decade.

The labor standoff — the first strike by Boeing’s autos since an eight-week walkout in 2008 — was the latest in a volatile year for the aerospace giant. The 2008 strike lasted eight weeks and cost the company about $100 million a day in deferred revenue. A strike in 1995 lasted 10 weeks.

Boeing has come under several federal investigations this year after a door plug exploded on a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Federal regulators have imposed limits on Boeing’s plane production that they said will last until they feel confident in the company’s manufacturing safety.

The door plug incident has renewed concerns about the safety of the 737 Max. Two of the planes crashed less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. The then-CEO, whose efforts to fix the company failed, announced in March that he would step down. In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday’s vote puts Boeing’s future back on a firmer footing.

“Washington is home to the world’s most skilled aerospace workers, and they understandably have taken a stand for the respect and compensation they deserve,” Inslee said in a statement congratulating the workers.

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Koenig reported from Dallas and Schoenbaum from Salt Lake City.