Boeing strike: workers down tools demanding 40% pay rise

Workers at Boeing have gone on strike for the first time in 16 years, halting the production of passenger jets at a difficult time for the troubled company.
About 30,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers who build Boeing’s 737 Max and other jets on America’s west coast voted overwhelmingly to reject a deal that included a 25 per cent pay rise.
“This is about respect, this is about addressing the past and this is about fighting for our future,” Jon Holden, who headed the talks for Boeing’s largest union, said.
Last Sunday union leaders recommended that their members accept the deal on offer, but many Boeing staff responded angrily, repeating their original demand for a 40 per cent pay rise and lambasting the loss of an annual bonus. Since then workers have been protesting in Boeing factories in the Seattle area.
Boeing builds the 737 Max at its Renton factory on the outskirts of Seattle and makes 777 and 767 models at its Everett facility to north of the city.
This is the first strike since 2008 and comes weeks after Kelly Ortberg was appointed chief executive to restore the company’s reputation after a door panel blew off a 737 Max jet during a flight in January.
Boeing said that the vote sent a clear message that the tentative deal it had reached with the union’s leadership was not acceptable to members. “We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our employees and the union and we are ready to get back to the table to reach a new agreement,” it said.
In letter to workers before the vote, Ortberg had said: “A strike would put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together.”
The existing contract between Boeing and the unions was reached in 2008 after an eight-week strike that cost the company about $1.5 billion a month, according to Moody’s, the credit rating agency. S&P Global Ratings, another credit rating agency, said that an extended strike could delay the aircraft maker’s recovery and hurt its overall rating. Both S&P and Moody’s rate Boeing shares one notch above junk status.
The company’s shares closed up nearly 1 per cent on Thursday before the vote results were known, but in pre-market trading were down 4 per cent at $156.21. The shares have fallen by 35 per cent this year amid concerns over safety, production and the company’s $60 billion debt.