The article:
Boeing’s roughly 33,000 factory workers on the West Coast of the United States have voted overwhelmingly to strike in the latest blow for the beleaguered aircraft giant.
Machinists at the company’s factories in Seattle and Portland, Oregon on Thursday voted to walk off the job from midnight after rejecting management’s latest offer for better pay and conditions.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said that 94.6 percent of its members voted to reject the contract and 96 percent backed a strike.
Boeing’s offer would have raised pay by 25 percent over four years, reduced workers’ share of healthcare costs and increased the company’s retirement contributions.
The aircraft maker’s offer also included a commitment to build its next aircraft at its facilities in greater Seattle after the company angered union members by moving production of the 787 Dreamliner to a non-unionised plant in South Carolina.
Workers had demanded a 40 percent wage rise, the restoration of a pension scheme that was axed a decade ago, and a stronger guarantee that future production would not be moved out of the Seattle region.
Jon Holden, IAM’s lead negotiator in the contract talks, said workers had spoken “loud and clear”.
“This is about respect, this is about addressing the past, and this is about fighting for our future,” Holden said.
“We strike at midnight.”
The strike, the first by Boeing workers since 2008, puts a halt to production of the best-selling 737 MAX and other aircraft as the company grapples with output delays, heavy financial losses and intense scrutiny of its safety record.
It also comes just weeks after new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg took the helm of the company with a pledge to “reset” the company’s relations with the union.
Ortberg had on Wednesday urged workers to vote against a strike, warning it would “put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together”.
Boeing did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Adam Smith, a Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives representing Washington State, urged the two sides to return to the negotiating table.
“Across corporate America, so much of the wealth has wound up in the hands of so few people,” Smith said in a statement.
“Large corporations have increasingly prioritised their own profits and shareholders at the expense of workers. It is crucial that Boeing behaves as a responsible steward for its employees, so that every employee at their company is respected with fair wages and working conditions.”
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said that 94.6 percent of its members voted to reject the contract and 96 percent backed a strike.
Workers had demanded a 40 percent wage rise, the restoration of a pension scheme that was axed a decade ago, and a stronger guarantee that future production would not be moved out of the Seattle region. [Sic: to a non unionized plant]
This is fantastic!!
95%? That’s insane numbers.
I was reading about how Boeing engineers were shocked that SpaceX was getting the NASA contract. Boeing’s name has gone way down in reputation, and yet we still haven’t seen a shakeup of leadership.
Looks like it’s up to the workers to rebuild and get rid of all these MBA grads who maximized stock value over human lives.
You know what is truly insane? The union leaders suggested to accept the deal 🤷
Industry experts have also been bullish on the news of the offer, as Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu noted. “[W]ith IAM leaders unanimously recommending a vote to accept the proposal, the deal is unlikely to be rejected."
This aged like milk. Source: https://leehamnews.com/2024/09/12/critical-labor-contract-vote-for-boeing-iam-751-today/
More about the Boeing’s offer: https://leehamnews.com/2024/09/10/boeing-iam-vote-in-2-days-approval-a-hard-sell/
My guess is that they were exhausted and exasperated by the experience and didn’t realize that they actually hold all the power.
And by stopping production they are saving lives by having fewer shitty 737 maxs in the world.
Unions should demand that the worker salary per year should be equal to the highest paid employee of the company’s total pay averaged monthly.
That way the CEO will only be able earn 12-times more than the lowest paid union member.
Also CEO/Board member benefits / bonuses / gifts are ILLEGAL unless the exact same is automatically provided to every unionized worker.