Boeing workers signal support for strike if contract talks fail

By Grace Deng / Washington State Standard

Boeing machinists on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to sanction a strike should the company fail to reach an agreement with their union during their first full contract negotiations in 16 years.

District 751 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents more than 30,000 of the plane manufacturing company’s Washington employees, is asking for a 40% raise for workers over the next three years.

“We will be the highest compensated aerospace workers in the entire world,” Brian Bryant, the union’s international president, told machinists gathered for the strike sanction vote at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. “We won’t accept anything less.”

The union’s lowest paid workers start at $15.74 an hour and max out at $23.74; the union’s highest paid workers start at $26 an hour and max out at $51.44 an hour. Pay scales are slightly higher for late day and overnight shifts.

The strike sanction vote passed by nearly 99.9%, the union said. It does not guarantee there will be a strike, and if workers were to strike it would require at least two more votes by union members.

Boeing can avoid a strike by coming to an agreement with the union before its current contract expires on Sept. 12. The union said the initial vote allows members to receive strike benefits without any undue delay and acts as a momentum builder that sends a “strong message to the company.”

The strike sanction comes as Boeing is under heightened scrutiny following two plane crashes in recent years that killed nearly 350 people and due to other mishaps — including a door plug blowing out of a Boeing plane in January.

The union is asking for more quality inspectors and more member input into quality control.

“We have to save this company from itself,” said Jon Holden, IAM District 751’s president. “We have to push them farther than we ever had before.”

The union also wants the company to reinstate its pension and provide other retirement benefits, offer stronger medical coverage and agree to end mandatory weekend overtime.

Ariel McKenzie, who’s worked at Boeing for 10 years, said that as a single mother, she struggles to pay her bills on the company’s salary for a bench assembly mechanic.

“Boeing used to be a great place to work,” McKenzie said. “You used to be able to support a family of four with a Boeing paycheck … their rates of pay just have stagnated and they have not kept up with the industry standards.”

Additional demands include shortening the length of time it takes a worker to progress from new hire to the top of the pay scale, from six to four years, and calling on Boeing to commit to building its next plane in Washington and Oregon. The Financial Times reported the union is also seeking a seat on Boeing’s board.

Bargaining for the upcoming contract began in March. The last full contract negotiation was in 2008. A number of controversial extensions kept it in place.

Many union members appeared fired up at the rally – 800 drove motorcycles along Interstate 90 ahead of the vote as a show of force. The Standard saw some Boeing workers arrive in what looked like a party bus, cheering and waving yellow voting slips.

A Boeing spokesperson said the company remains “confident” it can reach a deal “that balances the needs of our employees and the business realities we face as a company.”

But union members said they disagree.

“Look at Boeing’s track record of making bad decisions,” said Jon Voss, who’s worked at Boeing for 13 years. “It will probably continue to make bad decisions and they will force us to go on strike, just so we can continue to take care of our families and our communities.”

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