Boeing Factory Workers Vote To Reject Contract And Continue 6-Week Strike

SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing manufacturing unit employees voted Wednesday to reject the corporate’s newest contract provide and to proceed a six-week strike that has halted manufacturing of the aerospace big’s bestselling jetliners.

Native union leaders in Seattle mentioned the proposal fell wanting nearly all of help wanted from members of the Worldwide Affiliation of Machinists and Aerospace Staff who forged ballots on Wednesday.

The provide included pay raises of 35% over 4 years. The model that union members rejected after they voted to strike final month featured a 25% improve over 4 years.

The union, which initially demanded 40% pay boosts over three years, mentioned the annual raises within the revised provide would complete 39.8%, when compounded.

Boeing employees instructed Related Press reporters {that a} sticking level was the corporate’s refusal to revive a conventional pension plan that was axed a decade in the past.

The labor standoff comes throughout an already difficult yr for Boeing, which grew to become the main target of a number of federal investigations after a door panel blew off a 737 Max aircraft throughout an Alaska Airways flight in January.

The strike has disadvantaged the corporate of much-needed money that it will get from delivering new planes to airways. On Wednesday, the corporate reported a third-quarter lack of greater than $6 billion.

Union machinists assemble the 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling airliner, together with the 777 or “triple-seven” jet and the 767 cargo aircraft at factories in Renton and Everett, Washington.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg instructed workers in a memo this month that about 10% of the corporate’s worldwide workforce of 170,000 can be laid off in coming months if the strike didn’t finish.

He mentioned the corporate additionally would additional delay the rollout of a brand new aircraft, the 777X, to 2026 as a substitute of 2025, and would cease constructing the cargo model of its 767 jet in 2027 after ending present orders.

Earlier than the third-quarter outcomes have been introduced Wednesday, Boeing had reporting shedding greater than $25 billion for the reason that begin of 2019.

Boeing has mentioned that common annual pay for machinists is at present $75,608.

Early within the strike, Boeing made what it termed its “finest and remaining” provide. The proposal included pay raises of 30% over 4 years, and angered union leaders as a result of the corporate introduced it to the putting employees via the media and set a brief ratification deadline.

Boeing backed down and gave the union extra time. Nonetheless, many employees maintained the provide nonetheless wasn’t adequate. The corporate withdrew the proposed contract on Oct. 9 after negotiations broke down, and the 2 sides introduced the most recent proposal on Saturday.

The final Boeing strike, in 2008, lasted eight weeks and price the corporate about $100 million each day in deferred income. A 1995 strike lasted 10 weeks.

Koenig reported from Dallas. Lindsey Wasson in Everett, Washington, contributed to this report.