The 33,000 Boeing factory workers on strike since September 13, 2024 voted today on a new contract proposal, but doubt was expressed on social media on whether the deal would pass.
Machinists walked out of plants in Seattle and Portland and halted production of the 737 MAX and 767 and 777 wide-body Boeing programs.
Leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Boeing leadership have been in a deadlock and unable to reach an agreement, as reported by Reuters.
If the deal passes the vote with a 50 percent plus one majority, the strike will end. Voting ended at 5 p.m. Wednesday evening Pacific Standard Time.
Boeing‘s most recent offer for workers is a 35 percent pay hike in the next four years, a $7,000 ratification bonus, a reinstated investment plan and enhanced contributions for 401k retirement plans.
In a September vote, 95 percent of workers rejected Boeing’s offer. The union is demanding reinstatement of the defined-benefit pension workers lost in 2014. Nearly 40 percent of the workers on strike worked under the old pension plan. Their benefits became frozen in a deal the union made 10 years ago with Boeing leadership.
According to Reuters, of 20 striking factory workers interviewed, three said they would vote for the deal, three were undecided and 14 said they would reject the deal.
In 2014, Boeing angered many of the workers who are now on strike by considering to move production of the new version of the 777 out of the area.
“We’re going to get what we want this time. We have better legs to stand on this time than Boeing,” Donovan Evans, 30, who works in the 767 jet factory outside Seattle, said. Evans wants a 40 percent raise and did not expect the pension plan to return. He told Reuters he would vote against the deal.
Demonstrators outside an Everett, Washington voting station held signs reading “No pension, No planes.”
“If we don’t stand together, what do we stand for?” Erik Vera, 24, an electrician on the 737 program, said.
The first strike of Boeing workers in 16 years is costing the airplane manufacturer approximately $100 million each day, according to analysts, and creating a ripple effect through the aerospace supply chain with the fear of job losses.
“You’re actually holding the lives of people like us in your hands,” Independent Forge Co. President Andrew Flores said. The family-run supplier based in California has already laid off a handful of its 26 employees.
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Rebecca Barnabi
