Boeing engineers receive new offer | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Boeing machinists’ union leadership has received another contract offer in an effort to end the ongoing strike, which entered its eighth week on Friday.

The union announced the proposal Thursday afternoon and recommended that members approve the deal. The 33,000 striking train drivers’ union members will vote on the proposal on Monday.

“It is time for our members to capture these gains and confidently declare victory,” the union wrote. “We believe that it would not be right to ask members to continue on strike because we have had so much success.”

The offer includes an across-the-board wage increase of 38% over the next four years, amounting to about 43% over the life of the agreement, the union said in a statement Thursday. Wages would increase by 13% in the first year, and then by 9%, 9% and 7% in subsequent years.

A simple majority will determine whether the contract is accepted, which will allow the operators to return to work, or rejected, meaning the strike will continue. The strike has shut down Boeing’s Renton and Everett factories in Washington and elsewhere.

“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything we could during the negotiations and by withholding our labor,” the union said. “We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lower offer in the future.”

The latest proposal includes a $12,000 ratification bonus.

The $12,000 is a combination of the $7,000 ratification bonus and the $5,000 lump sum contribution to the 401(k) plan that Boeing had offered in its previous contract proposal. This time, members can choose how to split the $12,000 between their salary and the 401(k) plan, the union said.

The proposal retains many of the provisions from previous contract offers, including an annual bonus of at least 4% and a 100% company 401(k) match for up to 8%. It also increases the amount of money pension workers will receive each year.

It does not restore the pension plan, which many union members have said is a priority in recent weeks.

If union members approve the deal and end the strike, machinists must return to the plant by Nov. 12, according to a strike agreement posted on the union’s website. The agreement also stated that all employees “will return to the same job they had before the strike.”

Boeing said in a statement Thursday “we encourage all of our employees to learn more about the enhanced offering” and cast their votes Monday.

Partly to cushion the financial impact of the strike, Boeing launched a massive stock sale this week.

It raised $21.1 billion to strengthen its balance sheet, help avoid a credit rating downgrade and buy more time as the strike continues.

This is the third contract offer the machinists’ union will vote on since negotiations began last spring. Union members voted overwhelmingly against the first offer, leading to the strike that began on September 13.

The union refused to put a second Boeing offer to the vote in September because management said it did not meet members’ demands. Union leaders also objected to Boeing’s decision to release details of the offer to the media shortly after it was presented to the union’s bargaining committee.

Union members voted against a new contract offer in October, although members were more divided, with 64% voting to reject the offer and 36% voting to accept the deal and end the strike.

About a week after that vote, the union met again with Boeing to “address important bargaining issues,” the machinists’ union said in a statement Tuesday evening. Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su is helping mediate the negotiations.

Union members who voted against the latest contract proposal earlier this month said the deal did not provide sufficient pay increases and did not address other key issues such as paid leave and faster progression steps for employees to move up in Boeing’s ranks.

Other workers said they wouldn’t settle for a contract that wouldn’t restore the defined benefit plan.

In a bitter sentiment that still resonates with machinists today, the union voted to end the pension plan a decade ago after threats from Boeing that it would take some of the aircraft production out of the Puget Sound region.

Boeing has said during these negotiations that reinstating the pension plan is a non-starter. But in the last vote on the contract, operators said they were still hopeful their demand would move. Some workers held signs reading “No pension, no planes.”

After counting votes last time, Jon Holden, president of machinists’ union District 751, told reporters that the pension plan is “at the heart of this for many.” If Boeing isn’t willing to fix it, then “we need to get something to replace it,” Holden continued, such as higher wages, a larger 401(k) contribution or other options that provide some benefit.

Negotiations have been tense in recent weeks, with each side accusing the other of not negotiating in good faith. The drivers walked out in September due to an unfair labor strike. Boeing filed an unfair labor practice charge against the machinists’ union leadership in October with the National Labor Relations Board.

As part of the strike agreement, both sides would drop the charges before the labor board.

Boeing has steadily increased the overall wage increase in its contract offers, starting with a 25% increase over four years, then 30% and then 35% in the early October offer. The latest offer unveiled on Thursday includes an across-the-board pay increase of 38%.

That’s one of the highest overall contract operator wage increases since 1977, according to union data.

Some contracts had a lump sum of 12%, while most had an annual general salary increase ranging from 7% to 2%.

Boeing said Thursday that the average annual machinist wage would be $119,309 at the end of the proposed four-year contract.