Boeing gives union more time to vote on offer poorly received by striking workers

SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing is giving the union striking factory workers more time to consider a revised contract offer with larger raises and more bonus money, although it was unclear Tuesday whether the union would schedule a vote on ratifying the proposal.

At picket lines in the Pacific Northwest, strikers said the The company's latest offering was not good enough. Both the union and many of its members complained about the way Boeing had bypassed the union in publicizing the offer. Some workers said it was an unfair attempt to portray them as greedy.

Boeing's new “best and final” offer includes wage increases of 30% over four years, up from 25% previously. 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAEA) voted in favor of an agreement. rejected by an overwhelming majority when they voted for a strike. The union had originally demanded 40% over three years.

In the face of union opposition, Boeing on Tuesday backed down from demanding that workers vote on the new offer by Friday evening, but the company still wants a vote.

“This strike impacts our team and our communities and we believe our employees should have the opportunity to vote on our offer, which includes significant improvements in wages and benefits,” the company said in a statement.

The new offer seemed to meet with little approval among the strikers. Daniel Dias, who has worked as a test engineer at Boeing for the past six years, was not exactly enthusiastic.

“A 5% increase (from the previous offer)? That's not enough. My mortgage is $4,000. I went to Safeway yesterday to get breakfast and the groceries cost me $62,” Dias said.

Som Dom, an electrician with 17 years of experience at Boeing's plant in Renton, Washington, said workers need better wages given the high cost of living in the Seattle area.

“We just want a fair deal. We're not greedy,” Dom said. “It's tough living in this state. You have to make over $160,000 or something to buy a house. The new hires are making $25, $26 an hour. So that (offer) isn't going to cut it.”

Boeing officials informed union representatives of their new offer on Monday morning, just hours before it was announced to workers through the media.

“Boeing does not have the power to decide when or if you vote,” union officials told members late Monday. “This proposal does not go far enough to address your concerns, and Boeing has missed the mark with this proposal.”

John Lentz, a Boeing electrician who joined his colleagues waving strike signs on a side street near the Renton plant, said the way Boeing bypassed union negotiators in announcing the offer “seems a little shady. We have people negotiating for us.”

Boeing said its latest offer includes an immediate 12 percent raise and three annual increases of 6 percent each, which would increase the average annual salary of a machinist from the current $75,608 to $111,155 at the end of the four-year contract.

In addition, annual bonuses based on productivity would be retained. In the rejected contract, Boeing wanted Replace these payouts with new deposits into pension accounts.

John Reifel, who has worked at Boeing for nearly 25 years, said the company is trying to portray the strikers as unreasonable, even though these are only the first collective bargaining negotiations in more than a decade.

“We're building a product that people's lives depend on,” Reifel said. “There's going to be a lot of bonus money for the upper, middle, first-level managers and all the rest, but if we don't build it, there's no product. And we're working hard.”

Since the breakdown of two meetings led by federal mediators, there have been no formal negotiations between the two sides for almost a week.

Boeing, which is in serious financial, legal and mechanical challenges This year aims to 12 day old strike which has stopped production of its best-selling aircraft.

Cai von Rumohr, an aviation analyst at financial services firm TD Cowen, said Boeing's decision to present its latest offer without additional rounds of negotiations calls into question a planned second ratification vote.

“If it fails, it should prompt union leadership to resume serious negotiations,” he said. But union leadership's support for Boeing's previous offer – which was rejected by 96% of the vote during a strike – raises questions about whether the union is able to win support for the new, improved offer, he said.

The strike led to a halt in production of Boeing 737767 and 777 and prompted the company to implement cost-cutting measures, including the introduction temporary vacation for thousands of non-union managers and employees.

Boeing has lost more than $25 billion since the start of 2019 and has fallen far behind rival Airbus in orders and deliveries of planes to airline customers. The company needs to deliver more planes to make money, but U.S. regulators are limiting production of the 737 – Boeing's best-selling plane – to 38 per month until the company improves its quality control processes. Before the strike, Boeing produced fewer than 38.

The downturn began after two fatal accidents with Boeing 737 Max jets, and worsened after a panel called door stopper blew away another Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

Critics of Boeing, including some whistleblowers from within the company, claim that Boeing was sloppy in production and put profit above safety.

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing's regulatorsaid Tuesday that while it was not his job to judge Boeing's finances, paying too little attention to safety had not been beneficial to the company.

“Even if profits were your number one goal, safety has to be your number one goal because it's hard to be profitable if you don't have safety, and I think Boeing has certainly learned that,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said during a U.S. House subcommittee hearing. “Whatever money could have been saved has certainly been lost as a result.”

Whitaker, who had previously acknowledged his agency's oversight of Boeing was not strong enoughtold lawmakers that Boeing has been “moving in the right direction” since it unveiled a plan to improve production in late May.

Still, it will take years for Boeing to completely change its safety system and culture, he said.

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Koenig reported from Dallas.