Boeing workers wave a picket sign during a strike after union members voted to reject a contract offer, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, near the company’s plant in Everett, Wash.
Lindsey Wasson/AP
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Lindsey Wasson/AP
Boeing said on Monday it had made a “best and final offer” for striking engineers that included bigger pay rises and bigger bonuses, but unions said the proposal was not good enough and there would be no ratification vote before Boeing’s deadline. on weekends.
Unions complained that Boeing announced its latest offer to 33,000 striking workers without first consulting with union negotiators.
“Boeing doesn’t get to decide when or if you vote,” the leader of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district 751 told members Monday night. “The company does not want to meet for further discussions; therefore, we will not vote” on Friday, as Boeing emphasized.
Boeing said that after two days of talks last week with federal mediators failed to produce an agreement, “we are offering our best and final offer that makes significant improvements and provides feedback from unions and employees.”
The new offer is lower than the one rejected earlier this month. The company said the offer included a 30% pay rise over four years, up from 25% in the first proposal. The union first demanded 40% over three years.
The new offer – and Labeling is the final one – demonstrates Boeing’s eagerness to end the strike that began on September 13. The company introduced rolling furloughs of non-union workers last week to cut costs during the strike.
The strikers face financial pressures of their own to return to work. He received his last paycheck last week and will lose his company-provided health insurance at the end of the month, according to Boeing.
The company said the new offer was contingent on machinist union members in the Pacific Northwest ratifying the contract by the end of Friday, when the strike would last more than two weeks.
The union, which represents factory workers who assemble some of the company’s best-selling planes, waited several hours before withdrawing Monday night.
“This proposal does not go far enough to address your concerns, and Boeing has missed the mark with this proposal,” the union said. The group added it would survey members on new offers.
Boeing’s latest offer includes a 12% upfront salary increase plus three annual raises of 6% each.
It will double the size of the ratification bonus to $6,000. It will also keep the annual bonus based on productivity. In the rejected contract, Boeing sought to replace those payments with new contributions to the pension account.
Boeing said the average annual salary for engines will rise from $75,608 now to $111,155 at the end of the four-year contract.
The new deal would not restore the traditional pension plan that Boeing eliminated about a decade ago. Striking workers cited pay and pensions as reasons why they voted 94.6% against the company’s previous offer.
Boeing also renewed its promise to build the next new airliner in the Seattle area — if the project begins in the next four years. It was a key provision for union leaders, who recommended accepting the original contract offer, but one that seemed less persuasive for rank-and-file members.
The strike may have already begun to reduce Boeing’s ability to generate cash. The company made a lot of cash when it delivered new planes, but the strike killed production of the 737, 777 and 767. Work on the 787s continued with nonunion workers in South Carolina.
On Friday, Boeing began requiring thousands of managers and non-union employees to take a week of unpaid leave every four weeks in temporary furloughs. It has also announced a hiring freeze, reduced business travel and cut costs for suppliers.
The money-saving measures are expected to remain in place as long as the strike continues.
