The strike by 33,000 International Association of Machinists (IAM) members is now in its third week and holding firm. On September 13, IAM members voted down the company’s first “best and final offer” by a 96% margin and immediately struck, despite the union’s leaders saying a strike would not likely produce a better offer. While Boeing claimed its original offer included a 25% wage increase over four years, the workers calculated it was only about 10%, since Boeing’s proposal eliminated a yearly bonus of about 4%. Boeing workers have not had a meaningful raise in 16 years and non-union Target, where some strikers have taken jobs to supplement the $250 per week in union strike pay, pays $2 more per hour than starting pay at Boeing.
On Monday, September 23, Boeing bypassed the IAM negotiating committee and publicly announced a new offer with an increased wage package and the partial restoration of the annual bonus. Hoping to stampede the members, Boeing insisted the offer had to be accepted by Friday or it would be withdrawn. Boeing’s tactic backfired, producing an indignant backlash from members who reasoned that while they – the union members – had the right to reject the advice of the union officials, it was entirely a different matter for the company to attempt to go over the heads of the elected bargaining team. Acknowledging the members’ indignation, the union officials announced there would be no vote on Boeing’s second “best and final offer.” Backing down quickly, Boeing withdrew its acceptance deadline. If the company carries through its threat to cancel strikers’ health care, it will only embitter the workers further.
Bargaining restarted over the weekend with Boeing’s second wage offer as the starting point. Workers say a vital demand is for a pension plan under which the company is contractually obligated to pay a guaranteed level of benefits. Currently, Boeing workers have no guaranteed pension benefits, only 401k-type plans, which can fail if the stock market goes down.
The Boeing strike was triggered by the refusal of Boeing workers to accept a lowball tentative agreement recommended by the union leaders. This assertion of rank-and-file member control over the negotiation process is not all that common. The workers are plainly angry about the reckless way that Boeing bosses have compromised the safety of its passenger aircraft by cutting corners to lower labor costs. Boeing workers are demanding a say over production practices, both for the protection of the public and also because they fear for jobs if the bosses continue to drive down Boeing’s reputation any further.
Boeing has not made a profit since 2016. Nevertheless, throughout this period, Boeing management has given itself massive pay increases while paying stockholders in dividends and stock buybacks a total of $68 billion over the last decade. Boeing workers are in no mood to cut their demands, seeing how bosses have given themselves golden parachutes into retirement in the aftermath of continuing safety scandals. CEO Dave Calhoun was paid $22.6 million in 2022, $33 million in 2023, and another $45 million in stock bonuses upon “stepping down” in August.
It’s a good sign that Boeing workers are clearheaded about their interests as workers, not hesitating to challenge the prerogatives of management as well as the authority of their own union officials. Boeing strikers have a lot of leverage. While the company continues to build wide-bodied Dreamliners at the non-union plant in South Carolina, sales of the Dreamliner have not yet recouped the startup costs. So, in the short run, Boeing is burning cash it doesn’t have a lot of. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating allegations from South Carolina workers that Dreamliner production is compromised by the same sort of reckless shortcuts that have imperiled the safety of the 737s made in Seattle. IAM union organizers assigned to South Carolina report that workers at the South Carolina plant are increasingly unhappy with management and willing to talk with the union. In the past 15 years, the IAM has not gotten much traction for organizing in South Carolina, partly because the IAM’s contracts in Seattle were nothing to get excited about. A real victory by the newly assertive Boeing strikers in Seattle could be just the thing to spur union organizing at the plant in South Carolina.
