Boeing is preparing to learn Thursday whether 33,000 aircraft assembly workers, most of them in the Seattle area, will go on strike and halt production of the company’s best-selling planes.
Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers plan to vote on the approval a contract offer that includes 25% wage increases over four years. If the factory workers reject the contract and two-thirds of them vote to strike, a work stoppage would begin Friday at 12:01 PDT.
A strike would not lead to flight cancellations or have direct consequences for airline passengers, but it would be a new blow for airlines. Boeing’s reputation And finances in a year marked by problems in his aeroplanedefense and room operations.
New CEO Kelly Ortberg made a last-ditch effort to avert a strike by telling train drivers on Wednesday that “nobody wins” from a strike.
“At Boeing, it’s no secret that our company is in a difficult period, in part because of our own past mistakes,” he said. “If we work together, I know we can get back on track, but a strike would jeopardize our collective recovery, further erode trust with our customers, and damage our ability to shape our future together.”
Although the negotiating committee that negotiated the contract recommended ratification, IAM District 751 President Jon Holden predicted earlier this week that workers would vote to strikeMany of them have posted complaints about the deal on social media.
Voting will take place at union buildings in Washington state, Portland, Oregon, and several other locations, with results expected to be announced Thursday night.
A strike would affect production of the 737 Maxthe company’s best-selling passenger plane, along with the 777 or “triple-seven” jet and the 767 freighter at factories in Everett and Renton, Washingtonnear Seattle. It likely would not affect Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which are built by non-union workers employees in South Carolina.
Cai von Rumohr, an analyst at TD Cowen, said it was realistic to expect the strike to last until mid-November based on Boeing’s strike history. The $150 weekly payment from the union’s strike fund may seem low in the run-up to the holidays.
According to von Rumohr, such a strike would cost Boeing $3.5 billion in cash flow, because the company gets about 60% of the sales price when it delivers a plane to the buyer.
Union negotiators unanimously recommended that workers accept the preliminary contract reached over the weekend.
Boeing pledged to build its next new plane in the Puget Sound area. That plane — not expected until sometime in the 2030s — would replace the 737 Max. That was a major victory for union leaders, who want to prevent Boeing from moving Dreamliner production from Everett to South Carolina.
The deal, however, fell short of the union’s initial demand for 40 percent wage increases over three years. The union also wanted to restore traditional pensions that were eliminated a decade ago, but agreed to an increase in Boeing contributions to employees’ 401(k) retirement accounts.
Holden told members Monday that the union had gotten all it could out of the negotiations and recommended approving the deal “because we can’t guarantee we can achieve more with a strike.”
However, many union members remain bitter about previous concessions on pensions, health care and wages.
“They’re angry. They want a lot of things. I think Boeing understands that and wants to please a fair number of them,” aerospace analyst von Rumohr said. “The question is, are they going to do enough?”
Boeing has gotten a bad reputation since two 737 Max planes planes crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. The safety of its products was re-examined after a panel is broken of a Max during a flight in January.
