Boeing workers say no to 35% raises

More than five weeks into a strike by 33,000 Boeing machinists, workers rejected an improved contract offer with 64% against the proposal.The offer they rejected in an Oct. 23 vote was a noticeable improvement over the one they rejected Sept. 12. Boeing proposed to increase wages 35% over four years, up from their offer of 25% before the strike. The new offer also restored a profit-sharing program that the company wanted to eliminate.

But the offer was still short of the 40% over three to four years the union has been proposing, and crucially, Boeing is still not willing to restore the pension that it offered to its workers for generations.

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Districts 751 and W24 made no recommendation on whether members should vote for or against the proposed contract. Union leadership had recommended a “yes” vote when they brought the tentative agreement forward in September, but members rejected the proposal by 94.6% and 96% voted to strike.

Ahead of the October vote, Machinists District Lodge W24 president Brandon Bryant said the offer was good enough for members to vote on, but union leaders didn’t want to give another recommendation “without something that we think our membership would really support.” 

Dan Newberry, who has worked at the Gresham Boeing plant for 27 years, said he wasn’t satisfied with the latest contract proposal and was prepared to keep striking. 

“I honestly thought it was going to go into November and had planned for it,” Newberry said as he tended the grill at the Portland picket line the day before the vote.

In 2014, with Boeing threatening to move production of its next 777X airliner out of Washington, workers voted by a narrow 51% to extend their contract and give up their traditional pension plan. 

“That extension took away our pension,” Bryant said. “That extension gave us stagnant wages. It was bad stuff. They used the threat of taking away that work at that time in order to get that. We have the power now.” 

The proposal rejected Oct. 23 would have increased Boeing’s contributions to machinists’ 401(k) retirement accounts and payouts for legacy pensions. Roughly 40% of the current 33,000 machinists have been working at Boeing for more than a decade and still have pensions. But the pensions are frozen, which means the retirement payout isn’t continuing to grow with each additional year worked.

“We’re not there yet,” said Gresham Boeing striker Matthew Lunneborg. “They need to give me a better reason to want to come back.” 

“We want to be proud to work for Boeing,” Lunneborg said. “I remember when I hired in, I was very proud I got a job at Boeing. And that’s diminished over the last several years, just seeing our failures one after the other.” 

Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie A. Su helped broker Boeing’s improved contract proposal. Just hours before the vote, Boeing reported a $6.1 billion third-quarter loss. In mid-October, Boeing announced it would lay off 17,000 workers — 10% of the company’s global workforce — starting in January. Machinists in Districts 751 and W24 won’t face layoffs at this point, the Seattle Times reported.

The strike will continue until a contract is approved.

“After 10 years of sacrifices, we still have ground to make up, and we’re hopeful to do so by resuming negotiations promptly,” Bryant and IAM District 751 President Jon Holden said in a joint statement after the votes were tallied.