SEATTLE (Reuters) – The strike at Boeing Co. “could go on for a while” as workers feel confident they can get bigger pay raises and better pensions, union leader John Holden said in an interview with National Public Radio on Saturday.
More than 30,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), who produce Boeing’s best-selling 737 Max and other aircraft in Seattle and Portland, went on strike Friday after overwhelmingly voting for a new contract.
Boeing and union negotiators are due back at the table next week in talks overseen by U.S. federal mediators, after more than 94 percent of workers voted to reject Holden’s initial contract offer.
Holden said the priorities for his members are a bigger pay raise and the restoration of the defined-benefit pension system that the airport workers union lost during a previous round of negotiations with Boeing a decade ago.
“We have the most leverage and the most power at the most opportune time in our history, and our members expect us to use it,” Holden told NPR.
“I know our members are confident. They are standing together and they are ready. So the strike could go on for a while.”
The initial agreement included a 25 percent wage increase over four years and a commitment by Boeing to build its next commercial jet in the Seattle area, if the aircraft program launches within the four-year period specified in the contract.
Union members, frustrated by years of stagnant wages and rising costs of living, said removing the performance bonus in Boeing’s offer would erode half of the main pay increase.
Boeing’s stock fell 3.7% on Friday. It has fallen about 40% so far this year, cutting about $58 billion off the company’s market value.
A prolonged strike could further damage Boeing’s finances, which are already $60 billion in debt. A prolonged halt to aircraft production would also weigh on airlines that operate Boeing planes and suppliers that make parts.
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