Machinists overwhelmingly reject Boeing contract, vote to strike

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SEATTLE — Boeing’s unionized machinists voted 94.6% to reject a four-year contract and concurrently approved a strike with 96% in support. That work stoppage begins at midnight on Sept. 13 and will immediately cripple vast majority of the plane maker’s commercial airplane production.

The rejection and strike are seen as a catharsis in a long fight between the company and the workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, even as the company’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg sought to reset the relationship with its largest union, personally meeting with union leadership multiple times to avoid a strike after years of turmoil at the company.

Related: Union endorsement, new airplane agreement likely won’t avoid Boeing strike

Ortberg and Commercial Airplanes CEO Stephanie Pope may have successfully begun that process by securing a tentative agreement announced on Sept. 8 that came with a 25% pay raise over four years and other economic benefits for the union’s 33,000 members and language in the contract that laid the long-term groundwork for building its next all-new airplane in Puget Sound.

“While there were many important things that were in this offer, it didn’t make up, didn’t bridge the gap for 16 years, from 2008 and going to two [contract] extensions and threats of job loss, stagnated wages, cost shift on health care, and many other issues, and especially relocation of thousands of jobs for other [airplane] programs in the state,” Jon Holden, IAM District Lodge 751 President at a press conference following the announcement.

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