SEATTLE — Aircraft assembly workers walked off the job early Friday morning at Boeing factories near Seattle after union members voted overwhelming majority decided to go on strike and reject a preliminary contract that would have increased wages by 25% over four years.
The strike began at 12:01 a.m. PDT, less than three hours after the local chapter of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers announced that 94.6 percent of eligible workers had rejected the proposed bill. contract and 96% approved the work stoppage, well above the two-thirds requirement.
The strike involves 33,000 Boeing machinists, most of them in Washington state, and is expected to halt production of the company’s best-selling planes. The strike will not affect commercial flights, but is another setback for the aerospace giant, whose reputation And finances have been plagued by production problems and multiple federal investigations this year.
The striking engineers gather the 737 MaxBoeing’s best-selling passenger plane, along with the 777, or “triple-seven” jet, and the 767 freighter, are at plants in Renton and Everett, Wash. The strike is unlikely to halt production of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, which are built by non-union workers employees in South Carolina.
Outside the Renton plant, people stood holding signs that read, “Historic contract, my ass” and “Have you seen these fucking house prices?” Car horns honked and a boom box played songs like Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do.”
Boeing responded to the strike announcement by saying it was “ready to return to the table to reach a new agreement.”
“The message was clear that the tentative agreement we reached with IAM leadership was not acceptable to members. We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our employees and the union,” the company said in a statement.