The Boeing Co. has reached a tentative contract agreement with its striking Machinists union workers, after a weekend bargaining session in Washington, D.C.
Union members will vote on the three-year pact Thursday. Union leaders are recommending they accept it.
“I think it’s a good deal for our members or I wouldn’t put my name to it,” said union district president Mark Blondin.
Under the new proposal, Boeing agreed to a further increase in pension benefits, and kept health care programs and costs the same as they were under the previous contract, Blondin said. Both had been key issues often mentioned by striking Machinists.
On pocketbook issues, the company agreed to give workers 8 percent signing bonuses – which Blondin said will mean about $5,000 per worker on average – plus payments of $3,000 in both the second and third years of the contract. Workers will also continue to get cost-of-living wage increases linked to inflation rates.
Blondin said Boeing agreed to a series of changes in its proposed work rules to make them more inline with union proposals, and it agreed to drop plans to negotiate a separate pay and bonus package for workers in Wichita, Kan.
Blondin said printed copies of the proposed contract will be available at union halls in Everett and elsewhere late tonight. The union also plans to post a copy online at its Web site, www.iam751.org.
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