(New York) The vote on Wednesday by the more than 33,000 Boeing employees, on strike since September 13, on the new draft social agreement, will be “close”, said Tuesday the president of the branch of the machinists’ union (IAM) in the Seattle area (northwest).
Published yesterday at 2:37 p.m.
“I think it’s going to be a close vote,” Jon Holden, president of IAM-District 751, said on CNBC. “There are a lot of emotions, a lot of liabilities,” he noted.
“We were able to negotiate the best we could get and we hope our members will take that into account,” Mr. Holden continued.
A draft social agreement was announced on Saturday by the union, but for it to be validated, a simple majority of members must approve it. A vote is organized on Wednesday, the result should be known in the evening.
If ratified, work could resume as early as Friday.
If it is rejected, “we will resume negotiations. […] This is the only option, our members will make this choice,” explained Mr. Holden.
This strike particularly paralyzes the group’s two main factories, which produce the 737 – its best-selling aircraft –, the 777, the 767 and several military programs.
This is the second project submitted to a vote by union members. They in fact massively rejected the first, on September 12, and voted for an immediate strike.
Negotiations on the new social agreement began in May and, after the start of the walkout, were held several rounds under the auspices of federal mediation. In vain.
District 751 finally announced an agreement in principle on Saturday, thanks to “help” from the Joe Biden administration, through its Minister of Labor Julie Su.
In particular, it provides for a salary increase of 35% over four years – Boeing offered 25% on September 8, then 30% on the 23rd; the IAM demanded 40% -, the reestablishment of a revalued annual bonus, an increased employer contribution to the retirement plan and a reevaluated signing bonus.
According to union information, this would represent between $104,136 and $137,276 in additional annual compensation on average by 2028.
“This is the biggest salary increase we have ever negotiated,” Mr. Holden said on Tuesday.
But many members have made the restoration of the old retirement system, abolished in 2008 in favor of a funded system, a sine qua non condition for their approval.
The union did not explicitly call on its members to approve the project, stressing that the future of the agreement was “in (their) hands”, but noted that it was “worthy of consideration”.
The last strike, in 2008, lasted 58 days.
