SEATTLE: Striking workers at Boeing approved a new contract proposal on Monday (Nov 4), ending a more than seven-week stoppage that had cost the beleaguered aviation giant billions.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 751 said it had ratified the offer by a vote of 59 per cent after rejecting two prior offers.
The move will send some 33,000 Seattle-area employees back to work and restore operations at two major assembly plants at a time when Boeing is trying to recover from multiple setbacks.
The contract includes a 38 per cent wage hike, a US$12,000 signing bonus and provisions to lift employer contributions to a 401K retirement plan and contain health care costs.
But the contract does not restore Boeing’s former pension plan that had been sought by older workers.
Jon Holden, head of the Seattle union, described the agreement as a win for workers who were determined to make up for more than a decade of stagnant wages from prior negotiations that had enraged many rank-and-file workers.
“The strike will end and now it’s our job to get back to work and start building the airplanes, increase the rates and bring this company back to financial success,” Holden said at a news conference.
Holden described the contract as “rebalancing the scales in favour of the middle class” after earlier concessions to the company, according to an IAM press release.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg welcomed the ratification, adding that management and workers must work together as “part of the same team”, according to a statement released by the company.
“We will only move forward by listening and working together,” Ortberg said. “There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”
The news was also cheered by President Joe Biden, who congratulated the union on the wage hike and provisions that “improves workers’ ability to retire with dignity”, according to a statement released by the White House.
“Good contracts benefit workers, businesses, and consumers – and are key to growing the American economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” Biden said.
Boeing staff can return as soon as Nov 6 and must be back on the job by Nov 12, the IAM said on social media platform X.
