It is time “to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” the Boeing machinist union told its striking members after Boeing’s latest contract offer. The deal on the table includes 38% pay raises over four years, just shy of the 40% union members demanded and much higher than the 25% the company started negotiations at.
Boeing’s latest offer also quadruples the original ratification bonus to $12,000 and comes with a strong 401(k) company match. District 751 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers will vote on the contract Monday, Nov. 4.
Thirty-three thousand machinists have been on strike for seven weeks, fighting for better pay and retirement benefits. The strike is costing Boeing $1 billion for every month they’re off the job, which is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Boeing’s financial troubles.
The contract offer notably leaves off what it appeared machinists wanted most: the return of pensions. But the union is endorsing and recommending the latest offer after nearly two months off the job.
“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything that we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor. We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future,” IAM 751 posted.
A week ago, 64% of union members rejected Boeing’s offer of 35% raises, despite union negotiators saying the offer was “worthy of [their] consideration.” Now, with a new contract in front of them, striking machinists are still casting doubt on the latest deal days before casting their vote.
“They’re going to get a no vote from me,” one worker told Seattle news station KIRO. “They’ve used legal mumbo jumbo to re-explain it, but no, it’s the same offer as last time, up slightly.”
“It is lucrative, more lucrative than it has been, but there’s still room for improvement,” another told KOMO.
“When you think about what’s been going on at Boeing with issues of quality, with issues of ignoring employee reports of whistleblowing around those quality issues, I think that those workers have an outsized amount of bargaining power in this very instance, in this moment,” Alicia Modestino, research director of Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center, said.
Workers will vote on the latest contract offer all day Monday, the day before the presidential election. Meanwhile, the impact of the strike is showing up in national economic data ahead of the national election.
The U.S. economy recorded adding just 12,000 jobs in October, about 100,000 jobs below estimates. Strikes and two hurricanes dragged down the results.
