SEATTLE — Bosses at Boeing took what they called their “best and final” offer directly to 33,000 striking workers in an attempt to go around their union, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 751 and District W24. The offer, they said, would only be on the table for four days.
“This offer was not negotiated with your Union; it was thrown at us without any discussion,” said the leadership of Local 751. Union members “will not be voting on the 27th.”
Workers at Boeing aerospace plants across Washington, Oregon, and southern California struck Sept. 13, after votes of 94.6% against the company’s contract offer, and by 96% to strike. They are fighting for conditions millions of workers confront: the need for wages that keep up with inflation, safety issues and livable work schedules with limits on boss demands for overtime that impedes any sort of life off the job. Workers also want to restore the pension that bosses cut a decade ago.
The strike has won wide support from working people. Some 300 people rallied outside Boeing’s Gresham, Oregon, plant Sept. 21, where 1,300 work. Alongside the striking Machinists, members of the Oregon Nurses Association, the American Postal Workers Union, United Auto Workers and other IAM locals attended, as well as a delegation of some 25 United Food and Commercial Workers who had struck Fred Meyer groceries a few weeks ago.
Members of the Laborers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers helped shuttle people from the Laborers’ union hall parking lot to the rally.
Strikers have “got the support of our 600,000 both active and retired members all across the United States and Canada,” International IAM President Brian Bryant, told the rally. Boeing has “been paying exorbitant salaries to their executives and managers; the bonuses that they’ve given; the stock buybacks that they’ve given,” he said. “They can go to that same well and settle this contract with the workers.”
In Seattle, striking production workers have received support from Boeing firefighters, who were locked out earlier this year during their fight for a new contract.
“Last time we got a raise was two years ago at 1%,” Jeff Seifert, a gear cutter at the Gresham plant, told KOIN 6 News. “I have worked every other weekend for the last year in order to make my bills and have nothing extra at all to spend, to do anything with my family.”
“Boeing’s disregard for working people in the pursuit of ever higher profits has directly led us to this strike, and caused the safety issues that have damaged public trust in Boeing,” IAM Local 751 wrote in a statement in the Portland Tribune. Crashes of Boeing 737 MAX planes in 2018 and 2019 left 346 people dead.
Engineers contract up soon
The engineers at Boeing have been gearing up for their own contract talks and have been strong supporters of their striking co-workers.
“Boeing needs to make striking Machinists an offer that would end the current dispute and put them back to work,” said John Dimas, president of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace in a union statement.
“The IAM’s success at the bargaining table now will lay the foundation for our own SPEEA contract talks in 2026,” he said. “I encourage members of our union to continue supporting the Machinists, and in particular to volunteer to spend time during your off-work hours standing on picket lines alongside them.”
Boeing announced it would implement “rolling furloughs” for mostly nonunion employees with one week off unpaid every four weeks. This includes departments involved in defense and space, commercial aircraft, aftermarket services and safety compliance.
Bosses tried to get SPEEA to go along with the furloughs, but the union refused.
“Why would we do something that would hurt our union brothers and sisters?” Ryan Rule, a SPEEA Local 2001 member in Seattle, told the Militant Sept. 23.
Boeing has flown in some 400 janitors from a few southern states to clean up the facilities during the strike. The work they’re doing is normally performed by Machinist union workers.
Government mediators joined negotiations Sept. 17 between the union and the company, with talks breaking off the next day. No further talks are scheduled.
Show your support! Walk the picket line and bring a friend. Foodstuffs, donations, firewood, and help staffing kitchens and shuttles are needed. Contact the IAM hall at 9125 15th Place S., Seattle, WA 98108. To make contributions to the strike, go to iam751/hardship fund.