Boeing strike averted? Machinists’ members to vote on tentative pact

Thousands of Boeing Machinists union members gather for a 'stop work meeting' and strike sanction at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, July 17, 2024. | Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times via AP

SEATTLE—More than 32,000 Boeing workers, Machinists members in Seattle and the Puget Sound region and in Portland, Ore., have the chance to vote on Sept. 12 on a tentative four-year agreement with the big, but financially troubled, airplane manufacturer.

At the same time, they’ll cast second ballots on whether to immediately strike, starting the next day, if they reject the pact. A two-thirds majority is needed to strike.

The Boeing pact is important because the firm is one of the world’s largest civilian aircraft manufacturers, along with Europe’s Airbus.

But already there are rumbles on social media that IAM bargainers, from District 751 in the Seattle metro area and District W24 in Portland, which represents 1,200 parts plant workers, didn’t get all the workers sought.

In particular, the complaints center around the contract’s proposed 25% general raise, though raises for some subcategories of workers would be as high as 43.7%. The union sought general raises of 30%-40% over four years.

The raise is one big feature of the tentative agreement. But another big feature takes a major weapon out of Boeing management’s hands: The threat to produce new planes in anti-union South Carolina specifically to avoid hiring and employing union workers in the Puget Sound area.

“We are the lifeblood of this company. Never forget that there is no Boeing without the IAM,” the two top bargainers, District 751 Jon Holden and District W24 Directing Business Representative Brandon Bryant, said in introducing the detailed contract on their websites.

“This contract isn’t just words on paper. It’s a testament to your collective voice,” Holden and Bryant said. “Every demand, every priority that we brought to the table, carried the weight of your strength. The company knew we were only the conduit for your priorities.

“Negotiations are a give and take, and although there was no way to achieve success on every single item, we can honestly say this proposal is the best contract we’ve negotiated in our history.”

Banning future moves to South Carolina ends what Boeing pulled off under a former chairman who specifically announced plans to build the 787 Dreamliners in North Charleston, S.C., “to get away from the Machinists.” He succeeded.

Then-Gov. Nikki Haley, R-S.C., and her labor commissioner—a former union-buster—pledged to do everything in their power to keep unions in general and IAM in particular out of the Palmetto State.

Haley called unions “not needed, not wanted, and not welcome” in South Carolina, the least unionized state. That turned out literally to be true: When IAM organizers later came to North Charleston, they faced threats of bodily harm and the union had to withdraw them.

The ban on moving new plane production out of Puget Sound and Portland is another sign of labor’s new militancy—and its ability to win for workers. It follows, by less than a year, the contracts the Auto Workers reached with the Detroit automakers through UAW’s rolling “Stand Up” strikes.

Besides rolling back more than 15 years of losses and givebacks, UAW got signed commitments in its pacts that new electric vehicles and their parts would be manufactured in wall-to-wall UAW plants.

But one of the automakers, Stellantis/FiatChrysler, already plans to renege on that commitment at its Belvidere, Ill., plant. The UAW’s contract specifically says the union can strike over such a scheme.

Besides the “substantial general wage increases” the tentative Machinists-Boeing agreement enhances job security, lowers’ the workers share of health care costs to 15%, and adds employer-paid family leave, the two top bargainers said.

“We secured the next commercial airplane program if launched during the life of the agreement, for our members in Puget Sound and Portland,” they said. They added the new pact assures continued production of the Boeing 737MAX, 767 Tanker, and the 777X stays in the Puget Sound area.

The agreement is also notable because, while the UAW won its contracts from the Detroit automakers when they were flush with cash, Boeing is reeling financially and politically. It faces multiple state and federal investigations over recent plane accidents and two fatal crashes overseas.

Given those revelations, another important contract provision is “we now have a seat at the table regarding the safety and quality of the production system,” IAM’s summary says.

IAM District 751 represents more than 30,000 Boeing production workers in the Puget Sound region, while District W24 represents about 1,200 who work at Boeing’s parts plant in Portland, Oregon. If approved, the new contract would run through Sept. 7, 2028.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Mark Gruenberg

Award-winning journalist Mark Gruenberg is head of the Washington, D.C., bureau of People's World. He is also the editor of the union news service Press Associates Inc. (PAI). Known for his reporting skills, sharp wit, and voluminous knowledge of history, Mark is a compassionate interviewer but tough when going after big corporations and their billionaire owners.