Aircraft assembly workers walked off the job early Friday at Boeing factories near Seattle after union members voted overwhelmingly to strike and reject a contract offer that would have raised their wages by 25 percent over four years.
The strike began at 12:01 a.m., less than three hours after the local branch of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said 94.6 percent of workers who voted rejected the contract and 96 percent approved the strike, easily surpassing the two-thirds vote requirement.
The strike affects 33,000 Boeing machinists, mostly in Washington state, and is expected to halt production of the group’s best-selling commercial aircraft.
While it will not affect commercial flights, it is another setback for the airline giant, whose reputation and finances have been hit this year by billing problems and multiple federal investigations.
Striking workers are assembling Boeing’s best-selling 737 Max, along with the 777 and the 767 cargo plane, at factories in Renton and Everett, Washington. The protest may not halt production of the 787 Dreamliners, which are assembled by non-union workers in South Carolina.
Machinists earn an average of $75,608 a year, not including overtime, and under the offer would rise to $106,350 at the end of the four-year contract, according to Boeing.
But the proposal fell short of the union’s initial request for a 40 percent raise over three years. It also called for the reinstatement of traditional pensions that had been abolished a decade ago, but accepted an increase in Boeing’s contributions to employee pension plans.
Outside the Renton factory, people demonstrated with signs and horns, while songs such as “We’re Not Gonna Take It”by Twisted Sister and “Look What You Made Me Do”by Taylor Swift.
Boeing responded by saying it was “willing to return to the table to reach a new agreement.”
“The message was clear: the tentative agreement we reached with union leadership was not acceptable to its members. We remain committed to restoring our relationship with our employees and the union,” the company said in a statement.
Very little has gone right for Boeing this year, from a panel breaking that left a gaping hole in one of its commercial jetliners mid-flight in January to NASA’s decision to strand two astronauts in space before they returned to Earth in a problem-plagued capsule built by the company.
The strike will deprive Boeing of the vital cash it gets from delivering orders to airlines. It will be another challenge for new CEO Kelly Ortberg, who was tasked six weeks ago with turning around a company that has lost more than $25 billion in the past six years and has fallen behind European rival Airbus.
Ortberg made a last-minute effort to salvage a deal that had been unanimously backed by union negotiators. On Wednesday, he told machinists that “nobody wins” with a walkout, and that a strike would put Boeing’s recovery in jeopardy and raise further doubts about the company in the eyes of its customers.
“It’s no secret to Boeing that our business is going through a difficult period, in part due to our own past mistakes,” he said. “Working together, I know we can get back on track, but a strike would jeopardize our shared recovery, further erode our customers’ trust and undermine our ability to determine our future together.”
But the workers were not in the mood to listen.
Holden said Ortberg was in a difficult position because drivers are bitter about stagnant wages and concessions made since 2008 on pensions and health care to prevent the company from moving jobs elsewhere.
“It’s hard to make up for 16 years,” he said.
The vote was also a setback for Holden and union negotiators, who had recommended approving the contract offer. Holden, who predicted the strike would go ahead, said the union will survey its members to decide which issues they want to emphasize when negotiations resume.
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