Union: Boeing workers in Seattle want to send “strong message” in vote on strike authorization

(Reuters) – Boeing factory workers in Washington state will vote on Wednesday on whether to give their union a strike mandate to push for a 40 percent pay raise in the first full negotiations with the plane maker in 16 years.

Many of the roughly 30,000 workers who build Boeing’s 737 MAX and other planes will hold a rally at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park in support of such an order, even though they are not allowed to strike before their collective bargaining agreement expires on September 12.

Although the vote is a procedural matter, the union is opening the event at noon PDT with much fanfare, including a convoy of workers on 800 motorcycles.

“It gives the bargaining committee more power and sends a strong signal,” local union president Jon Holden said of the vote in an interview in June.

The vote could, for example, free up funds if members later decide to go on strike, he added.

North American unions have taken advantage of the tense situation on the labor market and fought for high levels of agreement at the negotiating table; pilots, auto workers and others have been able to secure substantial pay increases.

But Boeing has lost ground to rival Airbus as the company navigates a crisis that erupted when a door stopper on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX jet ripped off in midair on Jan. 5.

The plane maker recently said it would plead guilty to conspiracy to commit criminal fraud to settle a U.S. Justice Department investigation related to two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed a total of 346 people, the government said in a court document earlier this month.

The US aircraft manufacturer, which announced a $4.7 billion deal to acquire key supplier Spirit AeroSystems, is expected to burn cash rather than generate it in 2024.

“We remain confident that we can reach an agreement that balances the needs of our employees and the business realities we face as a company,” Boeing said in a statement.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which represents Boeing workers, said the company’s financial and production challenges would not change workers’ willingness to strike if necessary.

The story goes on

“Knowing our relationship with Boeing Co. and how things have gone so far, our members are ready to strike,” Holden told Reuters.

He said workers had already held isolated rallies in factories and more demonstrations were expected at the end of August.

Boeing employs more than 66,000 people who live in Washington state and work on programs such as the MAX, 767 and 777 widebody aircraft, making up the largest share of the company’s global workforce.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Matthew Lewis)