SEATTLE — Boeing workers picketed outside the company’s plants in Washington state early Friday morning after voting overwhelmingly to strike. Tens of thousands of machinists voted Thursday to reject a proposed deal between the company and the union that would have significantly boosted pay and benefits even as it fell short of other union demands.
Some 96 percent of members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 voted in favor of the strike — far more than the two-thirds needed to launch the work stoppage.
The walkout is a stinging rebuke for Boeing and could represent the most disrupting challenge yet for a company that has spent much of this year in damage control as it careened from crisis to crisis.
The strike risks derailing the aerospace giant’s recovery from ongoing financial and safety challenges and could cost the cash-strapped company an estimated $1 billion per week, according to analysts. The union plays a key role in assembling some of the company’s best-selling aircraft.
The most direct impact is on Boeing’s assembly plants in Washington, especially in Everett and Renton. An extended work stoppage could also impact Boeing suppliers and possibly shrink its share of the aerospace market.
Machinists in Seattle said the strike was long coming: “We just want to be treated right and they’re not doing it,” said mechanic Charles Fromong, who has worked for Boeing for more than 37 years. “So I guess we’re going to get it done.”
Boeing said early Friday that it would return to the bargaining table: “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. “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.”
After a string of tense, marathon negotiating sessions over the last several weeks, the IAM and Boeing announced Sunday that they had reached a tentative four-year agreement, including a 25 percent pay increase over four years and enhanced health and retirement benefits. Also significant: If workers had voted to accept the deal before the current contract, Boeing committed to building its next new aircraft in Washington state, a key union demand. Both sides and investors had cheered the deal.
“Four years is not enough to make up for the last 16,” Boeing worker Roger Ligrano said before he voted. He said he was voting to strike, in part, to give union members more time to understand a deal.
Harold Ruffalo, who has worked for Boeing for 28 years, said after the vote results were announced that too much corporate greed is impacting the company, and workers need more money to live as inflation hits paychecks.
The Biden administration was monitoring the situation; acting Labor Secretary Julie Su has been in contact with both sides.
Leading up to the strike deadline, analysts said they were worried about how long a strike would last. They said that many workers have not forgotten previous rounds of negotiations in which Boeing pushed for concessions — including the end of the traditional pension program — to keep aircraft production in Washington state.
Michael Bruno, Aviation Week Network’s executive editor for business, said in previous rounds of negotiations Boeing threatened to move airplane production to other states to extract concessions from the union, which soured relations.
The last time IAM members struck was in 2008, a 57-day day walkout that Moody’s estimated cost Boeing about $1.5 billion a month. Boeing reopened negotiations on that contract twice, in 2011 and in 2013, and won significant concessions from workers.

Personal finance master Jonathan Clements is turning his recent terminal cancer diagnosis into an important teaching opportunity on money and life.

Also,
Previous Clements interview:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2Kd9pB58j_0&list=PLznI5J0QOR3OYqwxe3XAUFc6CMFLdwv0U

Personal finance master Jonathan Clements is turning his recent terminal cancer diagnosis into an important teaching opportunity on money and life.

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