Boeing factory workers vote to reject contract, continue 6-week strike

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Boeing factory workers vote to reject contract, continue 6-week strike

SEATTLE — Boeing factory workers voted Wednesday to reject the company’s latest contract offer and continue a six-week strike that has halted production of the aerospace giant’s best-selling jetliners.

Local union leaders in Seattle said 64 percent of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers members who voted voted against accepting the proposal.

“After 10 years of sacrifice, we still have ground to make up, and we hope to do so by resuming negotiations quickly,” Jon Holden, head of the IAM District 751 union, said in a statement Wednesday evening. “This is workplace democracy – and also clear proof that there are consequences when a company mistreats its workers year after year. »

The union standoff comes during an already difficult year for Boeing, which became the subject of several federal investigations after a door panel blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January .

The strike has deprived the company of much-needed cash it gets from delivering new planes to airlines. On Wednesday, the company reported a third-quarter loss of more than $6 billion.

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

The offer rejected Wednesday included salary increases of 35% over four years. The version that union members rejected when they voted in favor of the strike last month called for a 25% increase over four years.

The union, which initially demanded a 40% pay rise over three years, said annual increases in the revised offer would amount to 39.8%, when cumulative.

Boeing workers told Associated Press reporters that the company’s refusal to reinstate a traditional pension plan that was frozen a decade ago was a sticking point.

“Pensions should have been the top priority. We all said that was our top priority, along with wages,” said Larry Best, a customer quality coordinator with 38 years of experience at Boeing, on a picket line outside a Boeing factory in Everett, Washington. “Now is the prime opportunity, at a prime time, to get our pension back, and we all need to stay out of the way and get on with it. »

Theresa Pound, a 16-year Boeing veteran, also voted against the deal. She said the health plan had deteriorated, with higher premiums and more out-of-pocket expenses, and her expected retirement benefits wouldn’t be enough even if combined with a 401(k) retirement account. .

“I have devoted more time to this place than I ever needed. I literally have blood, sweat and tears working in this company,” the 37-year-old said. “I’m considering working until age 70 because I have the possibility of not being able to retire depending on what happens in the market.”

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told staff in a memo this month that about 10% of the company’s 170,000 employees worldwide would be laid off in the coming months if the strike does not end.

He said the company would also delay the deployment of a new plane, the 777X, to 2026 instead of 2025, and stop building the freighter version of its 767 plane in 2027 after completing outstanding orders.

Before Wednesday’s third-quarter earnings announcement, Boeing reported a loss of more than $25 billion since the start of 2019.

Boeing said the average annual salary for machinists is currently $75,608.

At the start of the strike, Boeing made what it called its “best and last” offer. The proposal called for 30 percent pay increases over four years and angered union leaders because the company announced it to striking workers through the media and set a short deadline for ratification.

Boeing backed down and gave the union more time. However, many workers argued that the supply was still not enough. The company withdrew the proposed contract on October 9 after negotiations failed, and both sides announced the latest proposal on Saturday.

Boeing’s last strike, in 2008, lasted eight weeks and cost the company about $100 million a day in deferred revenue. In 1995, a strike lasted 10 weeks.

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

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