RENTON, Wash.—The walkout from Boeing by 33,000 Machinists in Washington state and Portland, Ore., is about to enter its fourth week in spite of a “final” deal Boeing executives released directly to workers, demanding immediate ratification.
Since then, negotiations have stopped with no indication either side is willing to give ground. As of Sept. 30, the company-provided health insurance is no longer active.
If Boeing’s hope was that the end of health coverage would pressure the strikers back to work, it appears the tactic has failed. Several released statements indicate a resolve by the union members to stand strong until their demands are met. And Machinists District 751, which represents all but 1,200 of the workers, noted they can apply for state-provided health care coverage.
Boeing’s proposed deal would increase wages by 30% over the next four years. While this represents an improvement over the previous offer, which had a 25% pay increase over the same time, it still falls well short of the Machinists Union’s initial proposal of a 40% increase over three years.
Forty percent may sound like a lot, but it’s much less than it might appear at first glance. It’s important to put these eminently reasonable demands in the context of inflation over the past couple of years, which passed without a cost of living adjustment in an already expensive area.
The initial proposal that Boeing offered barely outstripped inflation and didn’t take into account further possible increases in the cost of living. This is all while Boeing has no plans to reinstate traditional pensions and scattershot proposals to address any of the number of concessions that they have extracted from their workers over the past decade-and-a-half since the Machinists’ last strike in 2008.
Many in union leadership criticized not just the deal, but the way Boeing offered it. The firm announced the highlights of the deal before the union’s bargaining committee had time to consider it and outside of the negotiation process.
In an official statement, the Machinists decried this as a “divisive strategy” and an attempt to “drive a wedge between our members and weaken our solidarity.” Boeing backed off on its Sept. 27 deadline for ratification, extending it indefinitely. That shows a lack of ability to dictate the terms under which the negotiations happen.
Machinists President Brian Bryant said, “Boeing executives cannot make up their minds.” They claim they want workers to trust them, he pointed out, but then their labor relations team cuts health care for workers and their families.
The strike comes in the wake of a tumultuous year for the aircraft manufacturing juggernaut. Several whistleblowers have come forward to report on the inability and unwillingness of the company to meet safety standards on their new airplanes. To make matters worse, earlier in the year, a door flew off a plane midflight, adding fuel to the fire in terms of the chorus of voices declaring Boeing leadership unconcerned with safety and incompetent.
All of this means the walkout has come at a time when the workers have significant leverage. Some estimates put the amount of money Boeing is losing every day that the strike continues at upwards of $100 million. This is because Boeing can no longer deliver their 737s, manufactured in Washington, and can only deliver 787s out of their non-unionized factories in South Carolina. Strikers hope the losses create the pressure for a fair deal for the Machinists and their members.
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