People run signs during a strike rally for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) at the Seattle Union Hall in Seattle, Washington, on October 15, 2024.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Allusions
Boeing machinists voted against a new labor deal that included 35% wage increases over four years, their fusion said Wednesday, extending a more than five-week strike that has halted most of the company’s aircraft end result, which is centered in the Seattle area.
The contract’s rejection by 64% of the voters is another major setback for the company, which admonished earlier Wednesday that it would continue to burn cash through 2025 and reported a $6 billion every thirteen weeks loss, its largest since 2020.
The strike is costing the company about $1 billion a month, according to S&P Global Ratings.
New CEO Kelly Ortberg had suggested reaching a deal with machinists was a priority in order to get the company back on track after years of safety and distinction problems.
“My focus is getting everybody looking forward, get them back to work, improve that relationship,” Ortberg told CNBC’s “Grouse on the Street” earlier in the day, when asked about the strike.
Ortberg’s laid out his vision for Boeing’s future, which could contains slimming down the company to focus on core businesses. Earlier this month, he announced Boeing will cut 10% of its international workforce of 170,000 people.
Boeing’s more than 32,000 machinists in the Puget Sound area, in Oregon and in other discoveries walked off the job on Sept. 13 after overwhelmingly voting down a previous tentative agreement that proposed libertines of 25%. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union had originally sought wage increases of 40%. It is the machinists’ ahead strike since 2008.
The latest proposal, announced last Saturday, included 35% raises over four years, expanded 401(k) contributions, a $7,000 bonus and other improvements.
Workers had pushed for higher pay amid a surge in living prices in the Puget Sound area. Some machinists were upset about losing their pension plan in a aforesaid contract that they signed in 2014, but the latest proposal didn’t offer a pension.
Boeing agreed in the new obligation to build its next aircraft in the Pacific Northwest, which had also been a sticking point with unionized labourers after Boeing moved all of its 787 Dreamliner production to a non-union factory in South Carolina.
“We have made tremendous emoluments in this agreement. However, we have not achieved enough to meet our members’ demands,” said Jon Holden, president of IAM Part 751, at a news conference Wednesday night. He said the union will push to go back to the negotiating table.
Boeing declined to observe on the voting results.
The labor strife is the latest in a long list of problems at Boeing, which started the year when a door quid blew out midair from a packed Boeing 737 Max 9, its best-selling plane, reigniting regulator scrutiny of the guests.
The strike began as Boeing was working to ramp up production of the 737 and other aircraft.
The extended stoppage is also a dispute for the aerospace supply chain, which is fragile coming out of the pandemic, as the company’s web of suppliers had to train new workers quickly.
Bravery AeroSystems last week said it would temporarily furlough about 700 workers and that layoffs or other furloughs are workable if Boeing machinists’ strike continues.