Photo Credit:Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)
Members of the machinists union and negotiators from Boeing resumed talks on Tuesday after some 33,000 employees went on strike late last week, effectively shutting down two Seattle-area factories.
Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 have been picketing 24 hours a day following the walkout earlyFriday morning, shuttering factories in Renton and Everett that assemble the 737 MAX and 777. The IAM, which has touted support from peer unions and political figures, began surveying the members to rank their priorities as the negotiations enter the next phase.
Meanwhile, Boeing announced Monday a hiring freeze and cutbacks in supplier expenditures and cautioned that it was considering staff furloughs.
The talks, which will be assisted by federal mediators, aim to speed a resolution to Boeing's first strike since 2008 at a time when the aviation giant has been losing money and faces scrutiny from regulators and customers after safety incidents.
Boeing had been hopeful about averting a strike after reaching a preliminary deal with IAM leadership on September 8 that included a 25 percent general wage increase over four years, reduced mandatory overtime and a pledge to build the next new airplane in the Puget Sound.
But rank-and-file workers blasted the deal as insufficient, dismissing the 25 percent figure as misleading and inadequate in light of the agreement's elimination of an annual bonus for workers. Workers also were displeased with other elements of the agreement, including its failure to reinstate pensions. And they said the pledge on building the new
airplane in the Puget Sound needed to be strengthened beyond the four-year lifespan of the contract. Underlying the fury has been a more than decade-long period of essentially stagnant wages at a time when consumer inflation has stressed budgets. Workers late Thursday overwhelmingly rejected the deal and voted 96 percent to strike.
Joining the talks will be three officials from the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service (FMCS), which had been monitoring the talks, reached out to the parties right after the strike began and will facilitate negotiations.
