Boeing Workers Resoundingly Reject New Contract

Malik Miah

Posted October 26, 2024

IAM Local 251 strikers and supporters on the picket line. Photo from IAM District 251 facebook page

BOEING’s LARGEST UNION, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), rejected a tentative labor contract on October 13 by a wide margin, extending their powerful strike. The majority “No” vote extends a nearly six-week long strike at facilities where the company makes its best-selling commercial plane.

Given the November 5 presidential election, this is a setback for the Biden administration, which sent its Acting Labor Secretary in order to get a deal before then.

Deep Mistrust and Determination

The contract, the second that workers have voted down, was opposed by 64% of those voting, according to the union. The union represents about 33,000 workers.

“There’s much more work to do. We will push to get back to the table, we will push for the members’ demands as quickly as we can,” said Jon Holden, president of District 751 of the union, which represents the vast majority of the workers and has led in the talks. He delivered that message at the union’s Seattle headquarters to a room of members chanting, “Fight, fight.”

At the main voting location outside of Seattle, a few strikers held signs urging a “No” vote. Others passed out flyers calling for a “No” vote.

“No Pensions, No Planes”

Machinists at Boeing can start at $20 an hour — just above the area’s minimum, so strikers saw the company’s offer of a 35% wage over four years was inadequate. They demand 40%.

More importantly, they demand the restoration of the defined benefit pension frozen a decade ago. Many workers have spoken about how frustrated they are by the lost pension, which was replaced by a 401k plan dependent on the ups and downs of Wall Street.

The rejected offer included a $7,000 one-time bonus (up from the first offer of $3,000) and additional contributions to the health care and 401k plans. It also would have preserved a union-wide incentive bonus program that would not be less than an annual four percent of their wages. But if the second offer was better than the first one members rejected, it still wasn’t good enough.

By threatening to move more work away from the Puget Sound area a decade ago, Boeing blackmailed the union into an agreement that not only eliminated pensions but shifted health care costs and led to stagnating wages. As Jon Holden, wrote in a statement after the vote, “This contract struggle began over ten years ago when the company overreached and created a wound that may never heal for many members.”

He continued “I don’t have to tell you all how challenging it has been for our membership through the pandemic, the crashes, massive inflation, and the need to address the losses stemming from the 2014 contract.”

Another issue is Boeing’s extensive use of overtime, The just rejected contract banned a second consecutive weekend of mandatory overtime, and limited days to ten hours, but still allowed up to 112 hours of mandatory overtime over a three-month period.

Boeing’s Deepening Crisis

Strikers reject the Boeing claim of that it may be forced to go out of business. Boeing is the world’s largest commercial aircraft maker and has major military contracts with the government.

Boeing is important to the United States as an economic engine. It employs almost 150,000 people across the country — nearly half in Washington State — and is one of the nation’s largest exporters. The company also makes military jets, rockets, spacecraft and Air Force One.

The rejection of the new contract comes as Boeing is trying to recover from a crisis that began when a panel fell off a 737 Max jet during an Alaska Airlines flight in January, reigniting concerns about the quality and safety of Boeing’s planes. Five years earlier, two fatal Max crashes led regulators worldwide to ground the plane for nearly two years.

After the January episode, the Federal Aviation Administration limited production of the Max, Boeing’s best-selling plane. The company has since increased inspections, added training for new hires, started to simplify procedures and limited tasks performed out of sequence.

The contract’s defeat is also a blow for the manufacturer’s many suppliers. Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the body of the 737 Max and has agreed to sell itself to Boeing, recently announced plans to furlough about 700 employees, starting next week, because of the strike.

Workers feel that the company’s problems are not ones that they should be paying for.