BOEING WORKERS STRIKE AFTER REJECTING PROPOSED CONTRACT

By an overwhelming vote of 95 percent, thousands of workers at Boeing walked off the job Sept. 13, turning down a proposed contract that had been negotiated between the company and the union’s leaders. The strike by 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers affects workers on the West Coast that produce commercial jet passenger planes, spacecraft, and rockets.

The industrial behemoth operates two large plants in the Seattle area that turn out the 737 Max, its most popular model, the 767 and the 777. The walkout closes down these factories and would also affect the supply chain to other Boeing facilities around the country, possibility causing them to shut down or sharply curtail operations as well.

The company has also been obliged to slow production of the 737 Max for quality control issues after a door panel fell off one of them during takeoff earlier this year. No one was seriously injured but, coming after the fatal crashes of two of the planes several years ago, production of the 737 Max was halted for two years.

The striking workers are trying to make up for concessions they have made in previous contracts. They are also seeking to restore the pension benefits they gave up in the previous contract, negotiated in 2008 and extended twice since then. In addition, they have been angered by Boeing’s decision four years ago to manufacture its new 787 Dreamliner at a non-union plant in South Carolina.

The last Boeing strike in 2008 went on for 50 days. If this one lasts as long, it could cost the company somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 billion. On the evening of the first day of the strike, a federal mediation service announced that it would convene mediation talks between Boeing and the union in a few days.

NY Times print edition, 9/14