Striking Boeing workers rejected another offer as earnings loom
The strike by about 3,200 workers complicates matters for Boeing, which is trying to rebuild after a slew of scandals in recent years
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Boeing $BA workers at the company’s main military manufacturing hub voted Sunday to reject the company’s latest contract offer and continue an almost three month-long strike.
The strike by about 3,200 workers at three midwest plants threatens to make things harder for the aerospace giant, which is still trying to regain its financial footing after a series of costly scandals in recent years.
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The machinists — at plants in Mascoutah, Illinois, and St. Louis and St Charles in Missouri — rejected the latest contract offer from the company, which would have boosted wages by 24% on average over five years.
“Boeing claimed they listened to their employees," said Brian Bryant, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). "The result of today’s vote proves they have not.”
The company said it was disappointed by the result and said the vote had failed by “the slimmest of margins” of 51% to 49%. “We are turning our focus to executing the next phase of our contingency plan in support of our customers,” Boeing said.
Boeing is set to report third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, when more will be revealed about the financial implications of the strike. The striking mechanics have now missed five paychecks and Boeing has fallen behind on deliveries of some fighter jets. The company’s Defense, Space & Security business segment makes up more than one-third of its revenue.
Union bosses said wages and retirements benefits were still sticking points in talks. Boeing has argued that the workers’ demands exceed increases to the cost of living in the region.
The union told members ahead of Sunday’s vote that the company’s latest offer “had no meaningful improvements” to retirement benefits and wages for more senior workers.
It comes after a nearly two-month-long machinists' strike at Boeing last year affected the company’s bottom line so much that the ripple effects were felt in the economy at large. The research firm Oxford Economics said aviation manufacturing was a big reason for a lower-than-expected advance in industrial output in late 2024.
That strike involved 33,000 Boeing workers who assembled commercial jetliners. They eventually got the company to sweeten its offer from a 25% raise to a 38% raise by the time Boeing put forward a contract that members of the IAM felt comfortable ratifying.