Boeing strike: Workers confront a troubled giant

An October 11 Axois article on the US economic situation was titled “Hurricanes and Boeing strike will make economic data messy.” When a union strike is mentioned in the same breath as the massive Hurricanes Helene and Milton, you know that you’re dealing with an important workers’ struggle. The purpose of this article is to explain where the Boeing strike stands today.

Bad days at Boeing

First of all, Boeing is no ordinary company. It is the second largest airplane manufacturer in the world with about 40 percent of the US market. Boeing was once the titan of the industry. However, it has recently been stumbling from one problem to the next. There were Boeing 737 crashes in both 2018 and 2019. They were both attributed to the same technical malfunction. This January saw the dramatic blowout of a door plug on a Boeing 737 Max operated by Alaska Airlines. A Boeing Starliner spacecraft was judged unsafe for a return to earth leaving two astronauts on the International Space Station having to wait until February for a return flight.

This series of disasters has led to a cash bleed. Boeing has not had a profitable year since 2018. It is $158 billion in debt. Standard and Poors recently gave the company a Credit Watch Negative designation. The stock has lost 40 percent of its value this year. Boeing has been estimated to be losing $50 million a day since the strike began. It’s no surprise, therefore, that a new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, was brought in August to “turn things around”.

The aviation giant has had a checkered history with organized labor. This is the eighth International Association of Machinists strike at Boeing. The possibility of Boeing moving production to non-union South Carolina has been a constant backdrop to recent negotiations. Two points are especially important in understanding the background to the current breakdown in negotiations. A decade ago, Boeing moved from a defined benefits pension plan to a 401(k) for new hires. The demand to reverse this huge concession is a central part of the strike. Secondly, housing costs are particularly high in the Pacific Northwest. This obviously means that what seem to be high wages do not go as far as they would in most other parts of the country.

Friday the 13^th – the strike begins

This then is the background to the present strike. On “Friday the 13^th” of September, 33,000 members of IAM District 751 went on strike. Most of the strikers are at the Renton and Everett plants in the Seattle area. Production has been shut down on the 737, 767, and 777 jets. The strike was preceded by a highly unusual incident inside the union. The IAM negotiating team had reached a tentative agreement with the company. The team said that the contract represented as far as they could go without a strike and recommended a yes vote. The contract was then voted down by a whopping 94.6 percent with 96 percent voting to strike. Was this an example of worker militancy voting down a sell-out deal or was the union leadership engaged in a complicated maneuver to bring this result about? This is very hard to tell from afar. It should be pointed out that District President Jon Holden is not an unknown figure. At the last Labor Notes conference, he shared the platform with Shawn Fain of the UAW at an overflowing session. Furthermore, Holden appears to be leading the strike and does not appear as a discredited and defeated leader. Anyway, future labor historians will have a mystery to unravel.

The strike is now in its fourth week and appears to be holding the line. Picket lines are lively and well attended. Food, wood, and other picket line supplies are being provided. There is $250 a week strike pay. Members of other unions have been joining the line to express solidarity. The highly technical nature of the work will make finding sufficiently trained scabs hard.

One month in — settling in for trench warfare?

Management has been trying any number of shenanigans at the table. The company directly presented its September 23 offer to the union membership, bypassing the union’s bargaining team. On October 9, Boeing took the fairly unusual step of rescinding a previously made contract proposal. On October 10, the company filed an Unfair Labor Practices charge against the union. Again, this is not unprecedented, but it is very uncommon for management to file a ULP against the union. Normally the union files one against management. It’s hard to avoid the impression that management is thrashing around without a clear plan. Federal mediation has been tried and broken down. However, the company has adopted one tried and tested play from the bosses’ manuals. On October 7, Boeing ended striker health insurance.

At the present time, there are no further bargaining sessions scheduled. There are a large number of issues on the table, such as the length of the progression to top wage. However, two issues will dominate the process. The first is wages. The union is proposing a 40 percent increase over four years. The company’s withdrawn offer was 30 percent. The second issue is the reinstatement of a defined benefit pension plan. Union members are really smarting over the 2014 loss of this benefit. Reviving the plan is obviously going to be expensive for the company. This will be a highly contentious issue.

So, this is where the strike stands in mid-October. 33,000 well organized and highly skilled workers have been on strike for a month at a world-famous employer and bastion of US manufacturing. Rumors of the death of the class struggle in this country have been greatly exaggerated.