International Assn of Machinists and Aerospace Workers

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Boeing Reaches New Deal With Union in Hopes of Ending Strike

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The aerospace manufacturer’s largest union said it would put the contract to a vote on Monday by its 33,000 members, who rejected two earlier agreements.Boeing’s largest union said on Thursday that it would hold a vote on a new contract offer, after workers rejected two earlier proposals. The union’s 33,000 members have been on strike since Sept. 13, dealing a damaging blow to the struggling aerospace manufacturer.The offer was negotiated by company and union leaders, with help from Biden administration officials, including the acting labor secretary, Julie Su. In a statement, the union encouraged workers to accept the offer in voting scheduled for Monday.“It is time for our members to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” said a statement from the leaders of two chapters of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, who represent the workers on strike. “We believe asking members to stay on strike longer wouldn’t be right as we have achieved so much success.”If workers do not take the deal, they “risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future,” the union leaders warned. District 751 of the union represents the vast majority of the workers, while another chapter, District W24, represents the rest.The workers mostly support the company’s commercial airplane division in the Seattle area, where Boeing builds most such jets. They walked off the job after 95 percent of those voting rejected a contract that union and company leaders had negotiated. The workers rejected a second offer with better terms last week, with 64 percent voting against the proposal. The union has not said how many people participated in either vote.The new contract offer represents a slight improvement over the recently rejected proposal. It would raise wages cumulatively by more than 43 percent over the four years of the contract, up from nearly 40 percent in the last offer, according to details shared by the union. The deal also includes a $12,000 bonus for agreeing to the contract, which can be diverted in any amount to employee retirement plans. That figure combines a $7,000 ratification bonus and a $5,000 one-time retirement contribution in the previous offer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Boeing Union Workers Reject New Contract and Extend Strike

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    The vote, hours after Boeing reported a $6.1 billion loss, will extend a nearly six-week-long strike at factories where the company makes its best-selling commercial plane.Boeing’s largest union rejected a tentative labor contract on Wednesday by a wide margin, extending a damaging strike and adding to the mounting financial problems facing the company, which hours earlier had reported a $6.1 billion loss.The contract, the second that workers have voted down, was opposed by 64 percent of those voting, according to the union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The union represents about 33,000 workers, but it did not disclose how many voted on Wednesday.“There’s much more work to do. We will push to get back to the table, we will push for the members’ demands as quickly as we can,” said Jon Holden, president of District 751 of the union, which represents the vast majority of the workers and has led in the talks. He delivered that message at the union’s Seattle headquarters to a room of members chanting, “Fight, fight.”Jon Holden, president of the union’s District 751, announcing the vote results on Wednesday in Seattle: “We will push to get back to the table.”M. Scott Brauer for The New York TimesBoeing declined to comment on the vote, which was a setback for the company’s new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, who is trying to restore its reputation and business with a strategy he described in detail earlier on Wednesday. In remarks to workers and investors, Mr. Ortberg said Boeing needed to undergo “fundamental culture change” to stabilize the business and to improve execution.“Our leaders, from me on down, need to be closely integrated with our business and the people who are doing the design and production of our products,” he said. “We need to be on the factory floors, in the back shops and in our engineering labs. We need to know what’s going on, not only with our products, but with our people.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Boeing and Workers Dig In for a Long Fight, Despite Strike’s Cost

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    Nearly a month into a union walkout, the aerospace giant withdrew its latest contract offer, and the two sides exchanged blame over the breakdown.Boeing and its largest union appear to be digging in for a long fight — even as some striking workers start to look for temporary jobs and the company risks having its credit rating downgraded to junk status.Nearly a month into the strike, negotiations between Boeing and the union resumed this week under federal mediation after a long break. But they collapsed on Tuesday with the company withdrawing its latest offer. The two sides traded blame for the breakdown.In a message to employees, Stephanie Pope, the chief executive of Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, said the union had made “demands far in excess of what can be accepted if we are to remain competitive as a business.”The union accused Boeing of being “hellbent” on sticking to the offer that labor leaders had previously rejected for being insufficient to garner the support of most of its more than 33,000 members.A long strike is the last thing Boeing needs. The company, which hasn’t reported a full-year profit since 2018, is now losing tens of millions of dollars more every day that striking workers are not building planes. Boeing is also trying to persuade regulators to let it produce more 737 Max jets, its best-selling plane. And on Tuesday, S&P Global Ratings said it was considering lowering the company’s credit rating, which sits just above junk status, depending on the strike’s length.The walkout, which began on Sept. 13, is also difficult for workers, many of whom are living off savings and have had to find health coverage after Boeing dropped them from its plan this month.Do you work with Boeing?We want to hear from people who have experience working at or with Boeing to better understand what we should be covering. We may use your contact information to follow up with you. We will not publish any part of your submission without your permission. If you have information that you want to share with The New York Times using tools that can help protect your anonymity, visit: https://www.nytimes.com/tips.

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    Boeing Says It Has Made Its ‘Best and Final’ Offer to Striking Workers

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    The proposal includes raises of 30 percent over the four-year contract, up from a 25 percent offer, but it’s unclear whether it will satisfy workers.Boeing on Monday made what it described as its “best and final” contract offer to more than 33,000 striking union employees.The proposal offers benefits beyond those in a tentative contract that the employees, who are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, resoundingly rejected less than two weeks earlier. Boeing gave the workers, most of whom work in commercial aircraft production in the Seattle area, until the end of Friday to accept the offer.Boeing and the union restarted negotiations last week with the help of a federal mediator. The talks ended on Wednesday with no further negotiation dates scheduled, the union said at the time.Brian Bryant, the international president of the union, said in a statement on Monday that the organization was reviewing the offer.“Employees knew Boeing executives could do better, and this shows the workers were right all along,” he said. “The proposal will be analyzed to see if it’s up to the task of helping workers gain adequate ground on prior sacrifices.”The new proposal includes raises of 30 percent over the four-year term of the contract, up from the previous 25 percent offer. Boeing said it would give each worker $6,000 for approving the deal, double a previous offer. It would also reinstate performance bonuses that were set to be cut and increase a company match for employee 401(k) contributions. The rest is the same as the previous offer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Boeing to Begin Temporary Layoffs Due to Strike

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    The aerospace giant said it would temporarily lay off tens of thousands of employees to stem losses from a walkout by the machinists’ union.Boeing will start furloughing tens of thousands of employees in the coming days as it seeks to blunt the effects of a strike involving its largest union, the company said on Wednesday.The strike, which began on Friday, has drastically slowed production of commercial airplanes because most of the union’s more than 33,000 members work in manufacturing in the Seattle area. Boeing announced a series of cost-cutting measures this week to stem losses that could reach into the billions of dollars in a prolonged strike.“With production paused across many key programs in the Pacific Northwest, our business faces substantial challenges and it is important that we take difficult steps to preserve cash and ensure that Boeing is able to successfully recover,” the company’s chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, said in a message to employees on Wednesday.Mr. Ortberg joined Boeing last month, part of a management shuffle after a panel blew off one of the company’s planes in flight this year, leading to a crisis for the company. In response, federal regulators limited Boeing’s plane production and the company initiated a series of changes aimed at improving quality and safety.Managers planned to meet with workers on Wednesday to review how the temporary furloughs, which Mr. Ortberg said would affect “a large number of U.S.-based executives, managers and employees,” would play out. He also said that he and other company leaders would take a pay cut for the rest of the strike, though he did not say by how much.Employees will continue to receive benefits. And, for some, the temporary furloughs will be cycled in, with workers taking one week off every four weeks, on a rolling basis. It was not immediately clear which workers would be affected by the furloughs. Engineers, who are represented by a chapter of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, are still required to work during the strike.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Boeing Workers Won’t Easily End Their Strike. Here’s Why.

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    The vehemence of workers over wages and other issues caught the company and union leaders off guard.When thousands of Boeing employees rejected a new labor contract, precipitating a strike that began on Friday, they were at odds not just with management but also with the leaders of their union, who backed the proposed deal.Now, any attempt to reach an agreement must take account of the demands of the rank and file of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. What they want — significantly larger pay raises and far more lucrative retirement benefits than their leaders and Boeing agreed to — may be too much for management. But labor experts said the strength of the strike vote — 96 percent in favor — should help the union get a better deal.“Those overwhelming numbers are kind of embarrassing, certainly from a public relations standpoint for the union,” said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociologist who studies labor at Washington University in St. Louis. “But they also simultaneously present the union with leverage when it does resume negotiations.”And Boeing is in a difficult spot after a slowdown in commercial jet production — required by regulators after a panel blew out of a passenger jet fuselage in January — led to big financial losses. A long strike at Boeing’s main production base in the Seattle area would add significantly to the losses and possibly tip its credit rating into junk territory, a chilling development for a company with nearly $60 billion in debt.The federal mediation service said on Friday that the union and Boeing management would resume talks in the coming days.“We’re going to go back to the bargaining table, and bargain for what our members deserve,” Jon Holden, the president of District 751, the part of the machinists’ union that represents most of the workers on strike, said in an interview. “We’ll push this company farther than they ever thought they’d go.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Boeing Workers Walk Off the Job in First Strike Since 2008

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    Thousands of workers who build commercial planes in the Seattle and Portland, Ore., areas rejected a tentative contract recommended by union leaders.Thousands of machinists and aerospace workers walked off the job on Friday, after rejecting a proposal that would have delivered raises and improvements to benefits but fell short of what the union initially sought.Lindsey Wasson for The New York TimesThousands of Boeing workers walked off the job on Friday after rejecting a contract offer from the company, a potentially costly disruption as Boeing tries to increase airplane production after a safety crisis.The strike, the first at Boeing in 16 years, is expected to bring operations to a halt in the Seattle area, home to most of Boeing’s commercial plane manufacturing. The slowdown could also further disrupt the company’s fragile supply chain.Kelly Ortberg, the company’s new chief executive, had urged employees to approve the deal. “A strike would put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers,” he said in a video statement on Wednesday.Boeing plays a substantial role in the U.S. economy. It employs almost 150,000 people across the country — nearly half of them in Washington State — and is one of the nation’s largest exporters. The company, which also makes military jets, rockets, spacecraft and Air Force One, is a global symbol of America’s manufacturing strength.The union said the strike vote passed by 96 percent, well above the two-thirds required to initiate a walkout, after 95 percent rejected the proposed contract.The contract had been agreed upon by union leaders and company management on Sunday after months of talks. It included many gains for workers, but fell short of what the union initially sought. Union leaders had hoped to get bigger raises and other concessions from the company, but said it was still “the best contract we’ve negotiated in our history.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Apple Store Workers Get First U.S. Contract

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    The agreement at a Maryland store, the first to unionize, raises wages roughly 10 percent over three years and guarantees benefits and severance pay.Workers at the first unionized Apple Store in the country ratified a labor contract with the tech giant on Tuesday, after a year and a half in which bargaining appeared to stall for long stretches and union campaigns at other stores fell short.After the union announced the outcome, Apple said it did not dispute the result and was pleased to have an agreement.The contract, covering about 85 workers at a Towson, Md., store who voted to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in June 2022, will provide a typical worker with a raise of roughly 10 percent over the next three years.The workers will also effectively receive the same benefits as those in nonunion stores — a point of contention since the company introduced new benefits that excluded union stores in the fall of 2022 — as well as guaranteed severance pay.“We are giving our members a voice in their futures and a strong first step toward further gains,” the store’s bargaining committee said in a statement after reaching a deal with the company. “Together, we can build on this success in store after store.”The contract talks had appeared to bog down over equal access to the benefits that other stores receive, and over a nationwide change in Apple’s scheduling and availability policy for part-time workers. The union said the policy change would have forced roughly half a dozen Towson workers to quit because of conflicts with other commitments.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Biden Maneuvers to Try to Avoid Devastating Rail Strike

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    The Biden administration is considering executive action to try to avoid a shutdown of the nation’s rail network that would harm the economy ahead of the midterm elections.WASHINGTON — President Biden, desperate to avert a damaging freight rail strike that could exacerbate rapid inflation, is pushing rail companies and unions to reach an agreement ahead of a Friday deadline, while exploring whether he can do anything unilaterally to assuage workers’ concerns.Mr. Biden and his economic team have been inserting themselves into final-hour negotiations between rail unions and large rail companies, which are at loggerheads over scheduling and sick time. Labor groups have insisted that employees be able to take unpaid time off for physician appointments, a request railroad companies have been unwilling to grant.On Wednesday, in anticipation of a strike, Amtrak said it would cancel all long-distance passenger trains beginning on Thursday in order to avoid possibly stranding people given that many of its trains run on tracks operated and maintained by freight carriers.Also on Wednesday, members of a small rail union, whose leaders had reached a tentative deal with freight companies, voted down the agreement, signaling more difficulty in negotiations to come. And Mr. Biden’s labor secretary gathered union and company leaders in Washington to try to resolve the impasse, with little progress.The looming strike has plunged Mr. Biden into a difficult position at a critical moment, with midterm elections that will determine whether Democrats retain control of Congress rapidly approaching and rampant inflation chipping away at the president’s support. Mr. Biden, a longtime champion of labor leaders and union employees, is caught between his long-running push to reduce the pandemic-era supply chain snarls that have helped fuel inflation and his efforts to continue to win the enthusiastic support of labor unions.As a result, Mr. Biden is attempting to walk a careful line, taking pains to tell both unions and companies that they have an obligation to the public to keep rail service moving. While he has pushed to elevate the power of organized labor throughout his time in office, he is wary of hurting American consumers and the economy, which could experience shortages and price spikes from even a brief strike.President Biden and his economic team have been inserting themselves into final-hour negotiations between the rail unions and large rail companies.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesOn Monday, Mr. Biden phoned leaders on both sides of the table to urge a deal, stressing the same message to both sides, according to people familiar with the discussions: A strike will hurt rail customers and a broad swath of people and businesses across the country, and a negotiated agreement is the best way to avoid one.Martin J. Walsh, the labor secretary, and White House officials hosted union and company leaders in Washington on Wednesday in an attempt to broker a deal before Friday, when a federally imposed “cooling off period” for negotiations expires. Workers could go on strike immediately, though they will not automatically do so.Inflation F.A.Q.Card 1 of 5What is inflation? More