For the first time in 70 years, Boeing machinists at the company’s Midwest plants have gone on strike after decisively rejecting management’s latest contract offer. About 3,200 workers in St. Louis and St. Charles, Missouri, as well as Mascoutah, Illinois, have walked off the job in protest. This strike, though big, is smaller in scale compared to the walkout a year ago by 33,000 Boeing workers.
The machinists at these plants are responsible for assembling both commercial jetliners and critical military aircraft and weapons systems. It is their decision to go on strike that jeopardizes Boeing’s ongoing efforts to begin to repair its deeply unstable financial fortunes. In recent years, the aerospace market has thrown them a few curveballs that have compounded their difficulties.
Negotiations between Boeing and the International Association of Machinists union have heated up over the summer months. The current offer from Boeing failed to address significant improvements to retirement benefits or pay increases for older employees. In reality, the union had not endorsed the proposal, which had been voted down earlier by the machinists themselves.
Previously, they voted down a deal that offered a 20% pay increase. This additional investment was to be amortized over the life of a new five-year labor agreement. This disappointing potential deal had several major shortcomings that fell short of what our workers earned and deserved. In turn, tensions between the company and its employees has reached a boiling point.
Brian Bryant, president of the International Association of Machinists union, told The Seattle Times that Boeing set the wrong tone for negotiations. He stated:
“Boeing claimed they listened to their employees – the result of today’s vote proves they have not.”
The current hospitality strike is a reflection of this anger boiling over among workers. They feel that their contributions to Boeing’s bottom line are not being adequately acknowledged or rewarded. This action by labor unions could be much smaller than last year’s huge strike. It would have a serious long-term, perhaps permanently, crippling effect on Boeing’s production capacity and financial recovery.
