More than 30,000 Boeing employees began a strike on Sept. 13 at the company’s Commercial Airplanes’ facilities in the Pacific Northwest after union members voted overwhelmingly last Thursday to reject the company’s contract offer.
Nearly 95 percent of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 and District 24 members voted against the four-year contract, and 96 percent voted to strike. Boeing’s previous contract with the union expired last Thursday, Sept. 12.
The company said the next step is to resume contract negotiations.
Some of the work done by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle includes derivatives of commercial aircraft for the Navy’s P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine warfare aircraft and the Air Force’s KC-46A aerial refueling tanker.
Jefferies aerospace and defense analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said in a client note Sept. 13 that in 2008, which is the most recent strike by union members in the Pacific Northwest, Boeing delayed delivery of more than 100 aircraft, and took hits of $1.2 billion to net income and $2.5 billion to free cash flow. That strike lasted 58 days.
IAM 751 and W24 members rejected a contract offer, which their leadership had recommended, that would have provided a 25 percent general wage hike over the four years, added retirement benefits, and lowered healthcare costs. Some union members have lobbied for a 40 percent wage increase.
A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.