Boeing faces threat of tough strike

Vuvuzelas, chanted slogans, whistles… A hundred Boeing workers and technicians demonstrated noisily at the Renton (Washington State) plant where the 737 Max is assembled this week. They took advantage of the presence of around forty journalists from 13 countries, invited by the American giant, as part of a communication operation aimed at showing the implementation of the industrial action plan intended to remedy production and quality problems, submitted to the American Aviation Safety Agency (FAA) at the end of May.

The International Association of Aeronautical Machinists and Technicians (IAM) has been mobilized since the opening of negotiations on a new collective agreement on March 8. The IAM represents more than 30,000 aeronautics workers in Washington State, Boeing’s industrial headquarters with its two main assembly sites in Renton and Everett (777 headquarters), in the suburbs of Seattle. The crisis in which…