Boeing Dodges a Work Stoppage in Washington

Here are two words that have not appeared in any news story about Boeing this summer: crisis averted.

On Sunday, the beleaguered (to say the least) plane-maker reached a tentative deal with the union representing its production workers in Washington state, likely dodging a strike that would have been (again, to say the least) incredibly untimely.

Gonna Fly Now

Boeing has had plenty on its plate this year, and negotiations with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) — the first since 2014 — have been looming in the background. In 2014, just six years after workers had embarked on an eight-week strike, they narrowly voted through a controversial new eight-year contract extension, from 2016 through 2024, that included higher healthcare costs and the loss of defined-benefit pensions.

This time around, with Boeing desperate to achieve escape velocity from its unending PR death spiral, IAM leaders have a little something they like to call “leverage.” And they made sure to capitalize on their unique opportunity:

• The four-year contract includes a 25% wage increase over the life of the deal, which the company said is its “largest-ever general wage increase,” and includes greater contributions to both healthcare costs and retirement funds.
• The deal also includes language guaranteeing that the manufacturing of any new commercial jet plane launched over the course of the contract would be based in the Puget Sound region. In 2014, Boeing scored union concessions by threatening to move production of the 777X away from the area.

The union called the tentative agreement “the best contract we’ve negotiated in our history,” and recommended the 33,000 workers in the district approve it in a vote scheduled for Thursday. It needs a simple majority to pass.

Safety First: IAM did miss in its quest to secure a board seat for workers, but it scored an annual meeting with the company’s safety committee and a semi-annual meeting with CEO Kelly Ortberg to discuss safety issues as a concession. All in all, we’ll call this a win, win, win: Workers got a raise, Boeing avoided a strike, and we, the passengers, hopefully have slightly safer giant metal tubes to launch us across the skies.