The Boeing strike enters its second week, and the aerospace giant has made a sweeter labor proposal that it calls the “best and final” to over 33,000 machinists represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The labor action, Boeing’s first since 2008, has halted much of this aircraft-producing company, leaving doubling financial losses in the numbers.
Boeing proposed a new four-year deal for 3,400 engineers and technical workers that gives them more than double the raise they had sought in their initial offer. Boeing also offered the workers an annual performance bonus, which was one of the sticking points in earlier negotiations, and increased a ratification bonus from $3,000 to $6,000. Under the proposed settlement, there would be a 30 percent raise over four years. In an earlier offer, Boeing gave its 3,400 engineers and technical workers a demand of 25 percent in wage rise. The terms of the proposed settlement are aimed at ending a strike that analysts believe is costing Boeing about $50 million per day.
Despite those concessions, union members have remained opposed to the proposal, demanding a 40% wage increase as well as to reinstate the traditional pension, which was replaced with a 401(k) plan since 2014. Several of the machinists protested that the revised proposal did not touch long-term security fears surrounding the workforce’s finances, primarily because the cost of living keeps increasing day by day in the Seattle area, where the company bases most of its labor force.
Boeing executives responded that their offer was balanced, as it would fulfill workers’ demands for better salaries while putting the company’s viability at the top. However, the union has yet to declare whether this newest offer will be put to a vote, which suggests that the strikers would expect further negotiations as the workers now showed their will to resist and bargain for a deal.
There are now mounting pressures on both sides as the strike stretches into a second week, where Boeing is facing losses every day while also risking delay in production schedules, and the associated effects could continue rippling through to the whole of the aviation industry. On its part, the union side now has to contend with personal and financial tortures of protracted strike action, but most have prepared themselves for a long battle, some taking up side jobs.
What happens next is anyone’s guess, but this will very probably become a defining labor moment within an industry that has known its fair share of distress in the recent past. The outcome could be precedent-setting, with consequences on labor negotiations set to take place in the near future, not only at Boeing but also in other industries facing identical workforce problems.
It will depend on whether Boeing has enough to give to the union in negotiations while keeping its long-term financial interests whole, or if the machinists will hold out for a deal that they believe really meets their demands. The clock is ticking, and neither side is immune to the impact of the strike.
