Boeing machinists reject contract offer, go on strike

Boeing Factory workers assemble Boeing 787 airliners at the Boeing factory in Everett. (Vince Streano/Getty Images)

Thousands of Boeing workers who build commercial airplanes in Washington went on strike Friday after they overwhelmingly rejected a deal their union reached with the aerospace giant last weekend.

The International Association of Machinists District 751 said 94.6% of voting members rejected the contract and 96% voted in favor of the strike. The union represents about 33,000 workers, mostly in Washington.

“This is about respect, this is about addressing the past and this is about fighting for our future,” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden said last night before announcing the strike vote tally to cheering members.

Holden said it would be an unfair labor practice strike, accusing Boeing of discriminatory conduct, coercive questioning, unlawful surveillance and unlawful promises of benefits.

“Boeing has to stop breaking the law, it has to bargain in good faith,” he said. “We will be back at the table whenever we can get there.”

The failed contract proposal included a 25% wage increase over four years, plus a commitment to make the company’s next commercial airplane in the Puget Sound region. But pay remained a sticking point, and machinists argued the loss of a bonus ate into the wage increase.

Boeing emphasized Thursday that average annual machinist pay would’ve climbed during the four-year contract to $106,350 from $75,608 and that this does not include overtime or a “zoom” increase to maximum pay that machinists receive after six years.

“The message was clear that the tentative agreement we reached with IAM leadership was not acceptable to the members,” the company said in a statement following the strike vote. “We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our employees and the union and we are ready to get back to the table to reach a new agreement.”

Machinists last went on strike in 2008. That strike lasted about eight weeks .

The halt in airplane production comes as Boeing posted a quarterly loss of more than $1.4 billion in the second three months of the year and saw its debt rise to nearly $58 billion from $48 billion during that time.

Boeing is trying to recover from a turbulent period.

A door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max in midflight in January.

In July, the company reached a plea deal with the federal government over plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The agreement called for the company to pay a fine of at least $243.6 million and to invest $455 million in safety, quality, and compliance programs. A 2021 legal settlement related to the 737 Max included a $2.5 billion penalty.