Striking Boeing Machinists will start returning to work tomorrow after voting for a new contract with substantial wage increases. The 33,000 Seattle-area Machinists voted 59 percent to accept, just two weeks after two-thirds of them voted to reject a slightly worse contract.

Voting was more subdued this time, workers said. “The big difference in this contract is that we’re getting a lot of intimidation from our CEO now,” said striker Mylo Lang. He voted no.

“We put in a long, hard fight. We achieved a lot,” said Jon Voss, a steward at the Renton factory, where they build the 737. “Boeing does not get to be the bully that they have been for the past 25 years.”

The new contract increases wages 38 percent over four years, substantially increases the 401(k) match, slightly improves mandatory overtime rules, and contains a promise to build the next plane in the Puget Sound area.

It does not restore the defined benefit pension, a big demand of many strikers.

The negotiating committee recommended the deal, saying, “We believe that we have secured one of the strongest contracts in the aerospace industry. Many other bargaining units will be inspired by our strength and the results you all achieved.”

The members of Machinists (IAM) Districts 751 and W24 construct passenger and freight jets at two huge factories in Everett and Renton, Washington, building 737, 767, and 777 aircraft, while others work at parts and fabrication plants in Washington and Oregon.

They walked out September 13 after voting 95 percent to reject a contract that union leaders recommended. The strike has cost the company an estimated $5.5 billion.

THIRD VOTE PASSES

Workers voted down a second offer with a 35 percent wage increase on October 23. The company demanded that the same offer be presented to members again, but the union refused.

Then, after another week of negotiations, midwived by Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg threatened the union’s bargaining team that any future offers would be worse.

Union bargainers concurred. “It is time for our members to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” the union’s bargaining committee said in a statement. They warned that staying out longer would “risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future.”

“Each item was extracted using maximum pressure from this membership,” they added. “Nothing was a gift from the company.”

Ky Carlson, who works on the 777 in Everett said, “The only reason why the negotiating committee has recommended a ‘yes’ vote is because Ortberg made threats of future regressive offers, use of scabs, and movement of production.”

“Ortberg said he would be doing everything he could to bring in scabs from all over the world to break up our strike,” said Lang, an apprentice machinist at Boeing’s Auburn, Washington fabrication plant who has worked for Boeing for six years. “We really shouldn’t be letting a temper tantrum by our CEO dictate our future.”

Union leaders had stayed neutral on the October vote, but IAM District 751 president Jon Holden told the Seattle Times that Boeing had required the negotiating team to recommend the first tentative agreement, as well as the most recent one, as a condition of offering it.

BITTER HISTORY

The company’s threats echo a bitter history. After a 58-day strike in 2008, Boeing forced contract reopeners in 2011 and 2013 by threatening to move work away to non-union plants. When workers in 2013 overwhelmingly rejected a concessionary contract that did away with their pensions, politicians and newspapers howled that the stupid Machinists had voted themselves out of a job.

A few weeks later, the Machinists International pushed a similar contract at them again, and it passed by 51 percent with many longtime workers still out of town. The company soon froze workers’ defined-benefit pension, dumping workers into a 401(k). That contract extension lasted 11 years, locking workers into half percent annual wage increases for a decade. By 2024, workers were more than ready to walk.

This time, the CEO’s threats backfired for some workers. “I wanted to vote yes but after threats I will vote NO,” commented one worker on X.

But many others thought the offer was good enough, and wanted to “lock in the gains.”

Some reported voting yes because they worried that co-workers with less financial cushion were suffering. Strikers got $250 a week in strike pay, and most were surviving by working other jobs or spending down savings.

One mechanic who works at Everett and voted ‘yes’ said that he worried that staying out longer would permanently damage the company’s ability to recover. Restoring the pension was “a non-starter,” he said.

According to negotiators, the company completely refused to consider reinstating the pension. The new contract keeps a 4 percent company contribution to workers’ 401(k) accounts and increases a company match of money a worker puts aside up to 8 percent of wages. Few if any unions have been able to restore traditional pensions after they were lost.

Boeing is deeply in debt and has been trying to stave off a ratings downgrade to ‘junk,’ which would increase its borrowing costs. It recently raised $21 billion by selling shares, and announced the intent to lay off 17,000 workers, ten percent of its global workforce. (These layoffs are unlikely to affect aircraft production workers.)

WAGES MUCH IMPROVED

Compared to the company’s initial pre-strike offer, wages are much improved, with a 38 percent general wage increase over four years, starting with a 13 percent bump and then 9 percent, 9 percent, and 7 percent in subsequent years.

The original tentative agreement had a 25 percent increase while negotiators had been aiming for 40 percent. A cost of living adjustment (COLA) is also retained.

The new contract also restores an annual performance bonus which was removed in the pre-strike tentative agreement. All workers receive the same bonus for the year, between 1 and 6 percent of their wages. The new contract guarantees the bonus will be at least 4 percent of wages, higher than most recent years.

The new offer, like the one immediately preceding it, included a $7,000 signing bonus and a one-time contribution of $5,000 to each worker’s 401(k). The new agreement changed that to let workers take the $5,000 as cash if they choose.

STILL ‘NO’ FOR MANY

But 41 percent of workers still voted no, arguing that the union was in a uniquely powerful bargaining position, and the company could easily do better.

A group formed during the strike, the Machinist Reform Action Committee (MRAC), distributed fliers urging a ‘no’ vote. “We still have so much to fight for: Secure retirement with a defined benefit pension, better work/life balance with more paid time off for everyone, an end to mandatory overtime, shorter progressions with larger raises every six months, and full union representation for new hires.”

In a change, the new contract provides that new hires are not members of the union until they have been at Boeing for two months.

Workers with under five years seniority generally get two weeks of vacation a year. “They didn’t address that in this contract, which is admittedly a bummer, but it just gives us another target to focus on in four years,” said a machinist who works at Everett and voted ‘yes.’

However, the new contract will allow first-year workers to accrue and use vacation throughout the year, rather than waiting until the end of the first year to see a single day off.

PROGRESSION SLOW

Another problem workers identified is a slow six-year progression to top wages. Newer workers get a 50 cent raise every six months, and then suddenly zoom to top wages for their classification after six years. This is an artifact of COLAs which applied to top wages but not starting wages, creating a growing gap.

The new contract will apply the COLA to starting wages, which will prevent the gap from growing further. But starting wages for lower classifications still run $20 to $23. Minimum wage in Seattle is $19.95. Janitorial workers, in the lowest pay grade, top out at $26 and will not fully benefit from the raises other union members receive.

Mandatory overtime was reduced, with the new contract dictating that workers cannot be forced to work more than ten hours a day, or two weekends in a row. Prior to the strike, 19 days straight of required work was not uncommon in certain departments, along with 12-hour days. The existing ceiling of 112 hours of mandatory overtime per quarter stands.

The MRAC flier concluded, “No matter the results of the vote, MRAC encourages all members to stay strong, support each other, and organize collectively. This strike has shown the power of worker solidarity.”

“This contract, although it’s not the contract we deserve, it has many significant improvements,” said Voss. “Let’s be proud of what we did, and let’s start looking at 2028.”

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