Dive Brief:
- Boeing reached a tentative agreement with its largest union Sunday morning, part of a bid to avoid strikes at its Washington and Oregon factories.
- The pending four-year contract with the International Association of Machinists Districts 751 and W24 includes a 25% wage increase, a $3,000 ratification bonus, new job classifications and upgrades, increased retirement contributions from Boeing and lowered healthcare costs.
- The agreement also includes a commitment from Boeing to produce any new airplane models within the union’s jurisdiction in Puget Sound, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. IAM's negotiating team recommends that their 33,000-plus members accept the contract offer when voting occurs on Sept. 12.
Dive Insight:
IAM’s negotiating team admitted in its update on Sunday that the deal is a compromise for the union.
“Negotiations are a give and take, and although there was no way to achieve success on every single item, we can honestly say that this proposal is the best contract we’ve negotiated in our history,” the negotiating team said in its statement.
The contract proposal has received some pushback online, with a flier circulating on social media that calls for members to reject the tentative deal. The flier criticizes the wage increase as too low and calls Boeing’s commitment to build a new plan at a union factory “hollow.” The flier calls for a 40% wage increase.
“We need a union seat on the board and binding commitments to keep them honest. We must save Boeing from itself!” the flier reads.
The pending contract would also eliminate the Aerospace Machinists Performance Program, an incentive established in 2012 linking a portion of pay to a union worker’s performance. The flier claims the elimination of the program will result in lower overall wages for union workers, losing up to 6% of their income.
“If this gets fixed, it’s not because we were IAM, it’s because we were mechanics and workers that make up the backbone of the company and it’s product,” one Reddit user commented on Monday. “The union has not only failed us, but actively deterred us.”
The Puget Sound and Portland facilities primarily support production for Boeing’s commercial airplanes and defense, space and security programs, including the 737 Max, according to the Sept. 8 release.
Boeing and the machinist labor union began negotiations in March, the first time the two parties have come to the table in 16 years. The last time Boeing and the two IAM districts negotiated a labor contract in 2008, it led to a 57-day strike and halted key production lines, according to a securities filing.
