‘We want what’s fair’: Boeing workers on strike in Washington take to the picket lines

Standing on the picket line outside Boeing’s Everett plant on Friday, Phil Westburg said not much has improved for aircraft machinists in the Puget Sound region since 2008, the last time he and other members of his union walked off the job.

“We’re paying more now for a doctor’s visit and we lost our pension,” said Westburg, who was among roughly 33,000 International Association of Machinists workers who went on strike after voting to reject a Boeing contract offer on Thursday.

“What they’ve offered us now, if you’re asking my opinion, was really a poor attempt to get us to accept the contract. We would like to get our pension back,” said Westburg, who worked on the 787 production line before switching roles due to a workplace injury. “They have to make money in order for us to have a job here, but we want what’s fair to us — a better pay increase.”

The failed tentative agreement reached by union and company leaders last weekend contained a 25% wage increase over four years, improved health care benefits, plus a commitment to make the company’s next commercial airplane in the Puget Sound region. Workers sought 40% and argued that a provision eliminating annual bonuses ate into the wage hike.

On Friday, a federal mediator stepped in. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service said it would convene with the two sides, with meetings early next week.

“FMCS has been in contact with both IAM and Boeing to support their return to the negotiation table and commends the parties on their willingness to meet and work towards a mutually acceptable resolution,” the federal agency said in a statement on Friday.

The strike comes as the aerospace giant is on slippery footing. The company is faced with mounting debt, scrutiny over its safety record after a door plug blew out of a 737 Max earlier this year, and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines over deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.

Boeing Chief Financial Officer Brian West told attendees of a Morgan Stanley investor conference in California on Friday that, in the near term, the company would “be laser-like focused on actions to conserve cash” and cautioned that the strike “will impact production and deliveries and operations and will jeopardize our recovery.”

“We’ve got a very complex situation that we’re solving,” he said, adding that financial impacts will be “dictated by the duration of the work stoppage.”

‘A strong union and a strong Boeing’

Political leaders responding to the strike Friday signaled support for the workers without casting aspersions on the terms in the latest contract offer.

The machinists’ action “reflects both long simmering tensions and the real desire for recognition that workers have carried Boeing on their backs during the last several years of missteps and failures,” said U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, whose congressional district includes the company’s assembly plant in Everett.

He encouraged the two sides to resume negotiating.

“The community wants both a strong union and a strong Boeing,” Larsen said. “Those two things have been hand in hand for years despite their differences.”

Support for the strike was decisive. The union said 94.6% of voting members rejected the contract and 96% voted in favor of the strike. Most of the workers covered by the contract are in Washington, but some are based in Oregon and California.

“This is about respect, this is about addressing the past and this is about fighting for our future,” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden said Thursday before announcing the strike vote tally.

Holden accused Boeing of labor practice misconduct leading up to the vote, including coercive questioning, unlawful surveillance and unlawful promises of benefits. “Boeing has to stop breaking the law, it has to bargain in good faith,” he said.

Boeing noted Thursday ahead of the vote that average annual machinist pay would’ve climbed during the four-year contract to $106,350 from $75,608. That sum did not include earnings from overtime or a “zoom” increase to maximum pay that machinists receive after six years.

“The message was clear that the tentative agreement we reached with IAM leadership was not acceptable to the members,” the company said in a statement following the strike vote. “We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our employees and the union and we are ready to get back to the table to reach a new agreement.”

For Boeing, the strike means a major disruption in production. The company says it has more employees in Washington than anywhere else in the world. The strike idled multiple facilities and fabrication sites around the Northwest, including those in Renton, Everett, Auburn and Frederickson in Washington, and Gresham and Portland in Oregon.

Work paused on three commercial airplanes, the 737 Max, 767 and 777, and three military aircraft, the KC 46A Pegasus refueling tanker, P-8 Poseidon patrol plane, and the E-7 Wedgetail, an early warning and reconnaissance plane.

The company’s facility in Everett is the city’s largest employer and a major economic driver in Snohomish County.

“I hope it doesn’t turn into a prolonged strike because it can have a devastating impact on working families and the local economy,” said state Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett.

Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, a Democrat, echoed that view. “We know a long strike will be hard on workers, the company, and the region’s economy,” he said, adding that he supports “whatever brings about a fair and quick resolution.”

Somers said he hopes the pledge to build the company’s next airliner in the region makes it into a final contract.

‘Enough is enough’

U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., who has been in touch with parties on both sides, wrote in a social media post that striking machinists “decided they need more to continue powering our world-class aerospace industry.”

“It’s my hope that union leadership and Boeing will be able to address members’ concerns and reach a stronger, more acceptable contract offer that all parties can support,” she added.

When the machinists last went on strike in 2008 the walkout lasted about eight weeks and cost the company an estimated $100 million a day.

This time, the halt in airplane production comes as Boeing posted a quarterly loss of more than $1.4 billion in the second three months of the year and saw its debt rise to nearly $58 billion from $48 billion during that time.

In July, the company reached a plea deal with the federal government over plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The agreement called for the company to pay a fine of at least $243.6 million and to invest $455 million in safety, quality, and compliance programs.

Wigberto Bello, an aircraft painter for nine years at Boeing who was on the picket line Friday in Everett, said workers are under pressure to meet production schedules.

“The schedule seems to take precedence over quality at times and so we’re just done, we’re pretty much finished with that,” he said. “Enough is enough. We want to put quality out, we know what it takes to get quality out while still satisfying the customer.”

“Despite what some of the leaders may say,” he added, “we’re the ones who are turning the wrenches, putting the paint on, staying up late and working the hours.”

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