Boeing strike continues as machinists reject contract : NPR

SEATTLE — Boeing machinists voted to reject the corporate’s newest contract supply on Wednesday, extending a bruising strike that already has lasted greater than 40 days.

The settlement — voted down by 64% of union members — would have meant a major wage enhance for the 33,000 on strike. As a substitute these staff dealt one other blow to Boeing, which reported a large quarterly loss on Wednesday.

“There are consequences when a company mistreats its workers year after year,” mentioned Jon Holden, the president of the Worldwide Affiliation of Machinists and Aerospace Employees District 751, in an announcement asserting the vote.

“Boeing workers are saying they are fully and strongly committed to balancing that out by winning back more of what was taken from them by the company for more than a decade,” Holden mentioned.

The vote got here on the identical day that Boeing posted a staggering $6 billion loss for the third quarter of the yr, one of many worst quarters within the firm’s historical past. These disappointing outcomes had been partly the results of the work stoppage, which has halted manufacturing at Boeing’s factories within the Pacific Northwest.

However Boeing’s issues run deeper than that. Even earlier than the strike, the corporate was coping with high quality management and manufacturing issues throughout its industrial aviation operations. The corporate additionally introduced a $2 billion loss in its protection and house enterprise.

“We’re clearly at a crossroads,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg mentioned in a convention name with analysts. “We need to reset priorities and create a leaner, more focused organization.”

Ortberg has stored a low profile since taking on as CEO two months in the past. That modified on Wednesday, as Ortberg laid out his pondering in a convention name and tv interview. He talked about rebuilding Boeing’s tradition, placing managers nearer to the engineering labs and manufacturing unit ground.

“The first thing we’ve got to do is stabilize the business. And obviously, getting through the IAM strike is the first big step in doing that,” Ortberg advised CNBC. “It’s more important in terms of our long term. Getting back to building airplanes, delivering good airplanes.”

Union members rejected a contract proposal from Boeing and went on strike on September 12. Employees of the Aerospace Machinists District 751 mentioned the supply from the embattled aviation large did not go far sufficient for the 33,000 union members.

Jason Redmond/AFP through Getty Photos

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Jason Redmond/AFP through Getty Photos

Union members overwhelmingly rejected the corporate’s first contract supply greater than 5 weeks in the past.

Boeing then proposed a second deal, which it offered as its “best and final offer.” However the firm infuriated union members by releasing the supply on to the media as a substitute of negotiating in non-public. The union rejected that supply with out voting on it.

The union credit performing U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su with serving to restart stalled negotiations, resulting in the settlement that union members finally voted on Wednesday.

That contract included a 35% wage hike — a major enhance from Boeing’s preliminary supply of 25%, although nonetheless wanting the 40% elevate the union initially wished. The corporate additionally pledged to extend its contributions to worker 401k retirement funds.

There was one key union demand the place Boeing refused to budge: the pension plan. Union members made very clear that they need to reinstate the outlined profit pension plan they misplaced a decade in the past.

The final time Boeing machinists went on strike in 2008, the work stoppage lasted for near eight weeks, costing the corporate an estimated $2 billion. The financial harm this time could also be even bigger.

KUOW’s Casey Martin contributed reporting from Seattle, and Joel Rose reported from Washington, D.C.