Boeing workers in the Seattle region voted 96 percent in favor of a strike last Thursday night, halting production of the company’s best-selling airplane at a time when Boeing is facing chronic production delays and mounting debts.
The company’s first employee strike since 2008 begun weeks after new CEO Kelly Ortberg took office in August to restore confidence in the company after a door was ripped off in flight from a nearly new 737 MAX jet.
About 30,000 workers, who build Boeing’s 737 MAX and other jets in the Seattle and Portland areas, were being asked to vote on their first full labor contract in 16 years.
Under the rules of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), at least two-thirds of the unionized workers had to vote in favor of a strike for it to take place and the contract to be rejected.
Boeing workers voted 96% in favor of a strike and 94.6% in favor of rejecting the agreement.
The agreement included a 25% across-the-board wage increase, a $3,000 bonus for signing the contract, and a promise to build the next commercial jet in the Seattle area, with the condition that the construction program begin within four years of the agreement’s signing.
Although IAM leadership recommended last Sunday that its members accept the contract, many employees responded angrily, backing the initial demand for a 40% wage increase and regretting the loss of an annual bonus.
On Wednesday, Ortberg sent a letter to workers urging them to approve the agreement.
Some employees were already preparing for a picket line that day. One union member left a meeting Wednesday holding a placard under her arm that read “On Strike Against Boeing.”
