Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 cheer after learning that members rejected a contract offer from Boeing on Oct. 23, 2024, at the IAM union hall in Seattle. (Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)
Thousands of Boeing aircraft machinists have rejected a contract offer for the second time in less than two months, meaning a strike that has halted airplane production at the company’s factories around the Puget Sound region for nearly six weeks will go on.
When votes were tallied Wednesday night, 64% of members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers sided against the proposal. While the contract included wage increases that the union said were in line with what workers were looking for, it did not include pension benefits the machinists have sought to restore.
“We have made tremendous gains with this agreement in many of the areas our members said were important to them, however, we have not achieved enough to meet our members’ demands,” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden said just before announcing the vote result.
IAM District 751 President Jon Holden speaks to union members and media ahead of announcing that striking machinists rejected a contract proposal from Boeing on Oct. 23, 2024. (Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers represents about 33,000 workers who are on strike in Washington, Oregon, and California. Workers last month voted down an offer negotiated by union leaders and the company before they walked off the job and onto picket lines on Sept. 13.
Machinists voted down the latest contract on the same day the company posted financial results showing a quarterly loss of $6.17 billion.
The package the workers voted down included a 35% general wage increase spread over four years, with 12% of the boost in the first year. It also called for an incentive pay program to be reinstated, with a guaranteed minimum annual payout of 4%, and for workers to receive a one-time contract ratification bonus of $7,000.
Union officials said that with compounding wage increases over the life of the contract, the rise in pay was in line with the 40% hike workers were seeking.
The company offered to match 100% of the first 8% of pay an employee puts toward their 401(k) account, along with an automatic 4% company contribution. The proposed contract also included a one-time $5,000 contribution to workers’ 401(k) accounts.
But the machinists have also pressed for restoration of a defined-benefit pension plan, something the company has indicated it is not willing to do.
“Bring the pension back,” Jim Thul, an inspector at Boeing for 35 years, said Wednesday outside the Angel of the Winds arena in Everett, where hundreds of machinists were casting votes on the contract.
“You got a lot of people that hired into Boeing and took pay cuts coming from different jobs just because it was one of the last companies that had a pension,” Thul said. “And when they took the pension away, they’re no longer getting those people that want a secure job and a pension.”
Mat Farnum, center, pickets outside Angel of the Winds Arena as striking Boeing employees pass through to vote on a contract Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry for Washington State Standard)
Boeing is in a difficult position. Problems with flight control systems on its 737 Max airplanes led to crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346, exposing gaps in the company’s safety culture and resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. Then, in January, an Alaska Airlines 737-9 flight was forced to make an emergency landing after a door plug blew out of the plane.
The company has piled up debt – $57.7 billion as of Sept. 30 – and said earlier this month that it planned to cut about 17,000 employees company-wide as part of efforts to rein in costs. It also signaled in recent regulatory filings that it may seek to raise up to $25 billion with stock or debt.
S&P Global estimated in early October that the work stoppage is costing the company more than $1 billion per month, even after considering cost-saving measures taken in response.
Freelance reporter Ryan Berry contributed to this story.