The National Association of Machinists has been given more time to think about a revised contract, including bigger pay increases and more bonuses, with Boeing.
A ratification vote on the proposal is unclear, as reported by The Associated Press on Tuesday, by the union representing 33,000 machinists at plants in Seattle and Portland who began a labor strike on September 13, 2024.
Last week, the workers on strike refused Boeing‘s initial offer, which included a 25 percent raise. Tuesday’s offer is Boeing’s “best and final” with 30 percent raises in the next four years. The union has demanded 40 percent raises over three years.
Boeing at first on Tuesday demanded an answer by the night of Friday, September 27, but then backed down.
“This strike is affecting our team and our communities, and we believe our employees should have the opportunity to vote on our offer that makes significant improvements in wages and benefits,” the company said in a statement.
Strikers showed little support in the new offer.
“A 5 percent increase (from the previous offer)? It’s not enough. My mortgage is $4,000. I went to Safeway yesterday to get breakfast, and it cost me $62 in groceries,” Daniel Dias, a Boeing test technician for six years, said.
The high cost of living is driving workers to strike, Som Dom, who has been an electrician at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, for 17 years, said.
“We just want a fair deal. We’re not greedy. It’s tough to live in this state. You’ve got to make over $160,000, something like that, to buy a house. The new hires, they make $25, $26 an hour. So that (offer) isn’t going to be enough,” Dom said.
Boeing announced the new offer Monday morning to union representatives, who told members late Monday that the proposal “does not go far enough to address your concerns, and Boeing has missed the mark with this proposal.”
The new proposal from Boeing includes upfront pay raises of 12 percent and annual pay raises of 6 percent. A Boeing machinist’s average annual pay would increase from $75,608 to $111,155 after four years. Annual bonuses based on productivity would also be possible. In the initial proposal, Boeing included new contributions to retirement, not bonuses.
According to John Reifel, a former Boeing employee for 25 years, told the AP that the company is attempting to make the strikers look like they are unreasonable, but this is the first contract negotiation in more than 10 years.
“We build a product that people’s lives depend on. There will be plenty of bonus money to go around for upper-level and mid-level and first-level managers and all that, but if we don’t build it, there’s no product. And we work hard,” Reifel said.
Meanwhile, production of Boeing 737s, 767s and 777s is halted and the company has instituted cost-saving measures such as rolling furloughs for nonunion workers.
The strike is only the latest in Boeing‘s troubles which began with mid-air mishaps of equipment and two deadly Boeing 737 Max jets crashing in January 2024.
For the Federal Aviation Administration, which is closely monitoring Boeing now, safety is No. 1.
“Even if profits were your No. 1 goal, safety really needs to be your No. 1 goal because it’s hard to be profitable if you’re not safe, and I think Boeing certainly has learned that,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said during a U.S. House subcommittee hearing. “Whatever money might have been saved has certainly been lost in the fallout.”
Whitaker said that after Boeing submitted a plan for improvement in May 2024, the company was “trending in the right direction.”
Related stories:
‘Eyes of the world are on us’: Boeing CEO to step down by end of 2024 (augustafreepress.com)
Boeing workers’ strike enters second week (augustafreepress.com)
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Rebecca Barnabi
