Strikes Work: Boeing Offers Workers Contract With 35 Percent Wage Increase

Congratulations, Boeing workers!

Oct 21, 2024

a tall building with a sign on top of it — Photo by Sven Piper on Unsplash

The Boeing workers who have been on strike for the last six weeks have received a tentative contract from the aerospace giant, leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union announced on Saturday. Workers will vote on the contract on Wednesday, just after Boeing’s earnings — which have apparently been “bad”; the company is described as “bleeding cash” and really needs to make more airplanes! — are announced. A simple majority is needed to affirm the contract.

“With the help of Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su,” the union wrote in a statement to members, “we have received a negotiated proposal and resolution to end the strike, and it warrants presenting to the members and is worthy of your consideration.”

The workers are primarily in the Seattle area and build commercial airplanes — not bombs or anything else to do with the military, in case your brain went to the same place — “Okay, but also what if they just stayed on strike forever?” — that mine immediately went to in September after the strike was announced.

A few days after the strike began, Boeing announced that it had come up with its “last, best offer.” They increased their proposed raise over four years from 25 to 30 percent, included a $6000 bonus for each worker who signed on to the new contract (twice what they initially offered), increase their 401(k) contributions, and reinstated bonuses they had initially eliminated from the contract this year.

But guess what? That was not their “last, best offer” after all!

Wages: A 35% general wage increase spread over 4 years (12% in Year 1, 8% in Year 2, 8% in Year 3, and 7% in Year 4).
Incentive Pay: The Aerospace Machinists Performance Plan or AMPP incentive plan is reinstated, with a guaranteed minimum annual payout of 4%. Including 2024 payout in February 2025.
Retirement: Company 401(k) match increased to 100% of the first 8% contributed, in addition to a Special Company Retirement Contribution of 4% guaranteed company contribution. Additionally, there is a one-time $5,000 contribution to each unit member’s Boeing 401(k).
Pension: The Boeing Company Employee Retirement Plan (BCERP) multiplier benefit increases to $105 for vested employees.
Ratification Bonus: A one-time bonus of $7,000.
Sick Time Call-Out: Reverts to the existing contract language call in before shift language removed from contract.

That’s a little more like it, no?

“The fact the company has put forward an improved proposal is a testament to the resolve and dedication of the frontline workers who’ve been on strike — and to the strong support they have received from so many,” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden and IAM District W24 President Brandon Bryan said in a joint statement, adding, “Like many workers in America, IAM members at Boeing have sacrificed greatly for their employer, including during the pandemic when these workers were reporting to the factory as executives stayed at home. These workers deserve to have all of those sacrifices recognized.”

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I’ve said it before and I will say it again — in many ways, the pandemic more or less served the same function as a general strike, and thus gave workers who knew they were “essential” the leverage they needed to bargain for what they were worth. In this case, when these workers went on strike, Boeing had to furlough some of its white collar workers. The white collar workers, the executives … they don’t get to have their jobs if no one is building the damned airplanes in the first place. The stockholders don’t get their money. So the most important, essential people in this whole equation are the people working on the manufacturing end — and they deserve to be treated like it.

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