By The Opinion
Sep 13, 2024, 02:02 AM EDT
More than 30,000 Boeing workers were preparing to strike on Friday, halting production of most of the company’s aircraft after staff overwhelmingly rejected a new labor contract.
It is a costly development for the manufacturer, which has struggled to ramp up production and restore its reputation after safety crises involving its planes.
Workers in Seattle and Oregon voted 94.6 percent against a tentative agreement that Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers unveiled Sunday. Workers voted 96 percent in favor of a strike, far more than the two-thirds vote needed for a work stoppage.
“We will strike at midnight,” said IAM District 751 President Jon Holden, at a press conference announcing the results of the vote. He called it an “unfair labor practices strike,” alleging that factory workers had experienced “discriminatory behavior, coercive interrogations, illegal surveillance, and were illegally promised benefits.”
Holden said that Boeing needs to negotiate in good faith.
Boeing did not immediately comment, but Stephanie Pope, chief executive of Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, told machinists earlier this week that The tentative agreement was the “best contract we have ever presented.”
“In previous negotiations, the idea was that we had to hold back something so we could ratify the contract in a second vote,” Pope said. “We talked about that strategy this time, but we deliberately chose a new path.”
The deal would have raised wages by 25%, reduced employees’ share of health care costs and increased company retirement contributions.
Boeing also promised that the company’s next plane would be built at its Pacific Northwest facility, rather than at Boeing’s non-union plant in South Carolina.
But Many rank-and-file union members were unhappy with the offer, which did not cover the 40% increase and pension changes sought by the union.
The strike vote comes at a difficult time for Boeing, which is already grappling with a safety crisis after a door stopper panel exploded in mid-air on a 737 Max jet in January.
That forced the company to cut production of its best-selling plane as it works to shore up quality control at its factories and supply chain, and rebuild trust with airlines, regulators and the traveling public.
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