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Thirty-six days into a crippling strike, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 751 received a negotiated proposal from Boeing. There is no guarantee the offer will be approved by the 33,000 Boeing employees represented by the union, but the upcoming vote — scheduled on Oct. 23, the same day as the company’s third quarter earnings call — represents Boeing’s best chance to end the strike.
“We look forward to our employees voting on the negotiated proposal,” said a Boeing spokeswoman in a short statement. The negotiated proposal came after days of intervention by the U.S. Labor Department, whose acting secretary, Julie Su, shuttled between the parties to secure a new proposal.
Related: Boeing strike: An interview with IAM 751 president Jon Holden
The revised collective bargaining agreement now includes a 35% general wage increase (GWI) over four years, a guaranteed minimum bonus, increased retirement contributions and a $7,000 ratification bonus, all key attributes that represent significant increases from Boeing’s initial proposal that carried the union leadership’s endorsement but was overwhelmingly rejected by IAM members on Sept. 12. The union’s leadership hasn’t recommended ratification or rejection of the new offer, though it pointed out that members at the top of its pay scales would receive a compounded 39.78% increase in wages over the life of the contract.
“It’s our job to get the best agreement that we can. And that’s what we achieved,” Jon Holden, president of the IAM District 751 told the Seattle Times. “There’s a lot of positive things here … it would be irresponsible of us not to place it in front of our members.”
The agreement also preserves a commitment from Boeing to build its next all-new airplane, nominally the 797, in unionized factories in Puget Sound and Portland, Oregon — underscoring how shifts in the strategic landscape have elevated the importance of Boeing’s workers in the Pacific Northwest, especially as the industry-wide supply chain has struggled to attract talent.
With contributions from both the IAM and Boeing, The Air Current assembled a far-reaching dataset to explain the context behind the new offer. Central to this background is a 2014 contract that left Boeing’s workforce of 33,000 machinists acutely vulnerable to skyrocketing costs that accompanied the explosion of the tech industry in the region, as well as the broader inflation seen nationwide in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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