Boeing strike continues as machinists reject contract : NPR

SEATTLE — Boeing machinists voted to reject the corporate’s newest contract provide on Wednesday, extending a bruising strike that already has lasted greater than 40 days.

The settlement — voted down by 64% of union members — would have meant a major wage improve for the 33,000 on strike. As a substitute these employees dealt one other blow to Boeing, which reported a large quarterly loss on Wednesday.

“There are penalties when an organization mistreats its employees 12 months after 12 months,” mentioned Jon Holden, the president of the Worldwide Affiliation of Machinists and Aerospace Staff District 751, in a press release saying the vote.

“Boeing employees are saying they’re absolutely and strongly dedicated to balancing that out by profitable again extra of what was taken from them by the corporate for greater than a decade,” Holden mentioned.

The vote got here on the identical day that Boeing posted a staggering $6 billion loss for the third quarter of the 12 months, one of many worst quarters within the firm’s historical past. These disappointing outcomes had been partly the results of the work stoppage, which has halted manufacturing at Boeing’s factories within the Pacific Northwest.

However Boeing’s issues run deeper than that. Even earlier than the strike, the corporate was coping with high quality management and manufacturing issues throughout its business aviation operations. The corporate additionally introduced a $2 billion loss in its protection and house enterprise.

“We’re clearly at a crossroads,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg mentioned in a convention name with analysts. “We have to reset priorities and create a leaner, extra centered group.”

Ortberg has saved a low profile since taking up as CEO two months in the past. That modified on Wednesday, as Ortberg laid out his pondering in a convention name and tv interview. He talked about rebuilding Boeing’s tradition, placing managers nearer to the engineering labs and manufacturing facility ground.

“The very first thing we have to do is stabilize the enterprise. And clearly, getting by the IAM strike is the primary large step in doing that,” Ortberg instructed CNBC. “It is extra essential by way of our long run. Getting again to constructing airplanes, delivering good airplanes.”

Union members overwhelmingly rejected the corporate’s first contract provide greater than 5 weeks in the past.

Boeing then proposed a second deal, which it offered as its “greatest and closing provide.” However the firm infuriated union members by releasing the provide on to the media as a substitute of negotiating in personal. The union rejected that provide with out voting on it.

The union credit performing U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su with serving to restart stalled negotiations, resulting in the settlement that union members in the end voted on Wednesday.

That contract included a 35% wage hike — a major improve from Boeing’s preliminary provide of 25%, although nonetheless wanting the 40% elevate the union initially needed. The corporate additionally pledged to extend its contributions to worker 401k retirement funds.

There was one key union demand the place Boeing refused to budge: the pension plan. Union members made very clear that they need to reinstate the outlined profit pension plan they misplaced a decade in the past.

The final time Boeing machinists went on strike in 2008, the work stoppage lasted for near eight weeks, costing the corporate an estimated $2 billion. The financial harm this time could also be even bigger.

KUOW’s Casey Martin contributed reporting from Seattle, and Joel Rose reported from Washington, D.C.