JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Now to the Pacific Northwest, where Boeing machinists are walking the picket line today for the first time in 16 years.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike.
SUMMERS: Some 33,000 workers walked off the job at Boeing's Commercial Airplane factories and other operations on the West Coast. Yesterday, union membership voted overwhelmingly to reject a tentative contract agreement and to go on strike. They join unions in other industries that have taken advantage of a strong labor market to make bold demands. NPR's Joel Rose is following the story.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: So Joel, as I understand it, this vote was not close. Tell us what happened.
ROSE: Yeah. It was surprisingly lopsided. I mean, this was a tentative agreement that was announced last weekend after months of negotiations between Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Union leaders recommended that the membership accept it, but they absolutely did not. Ninety-four percent voted to reject the contract, and 96% voted to strike. That is way above the two-thirds needed to authorize the strike - you know, basically unanimous.
SUMMERS: OK, tell me more. What was in this tentative deal? And also, what do we know about why the workers rejected it?
ROSE: The machinists' union local President Jon Holden spoke after the votes were counted late last night, and he tried to explain why the membership voted this way. And a lot of it is because they feel they got a really bad deal in their last contract. Here's some of what he said.
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JON HOLDEN: This is about respect. This is about addressing the past, and this is about fighting for our future.
ROSE: Holden also said, you know, there were some good things in this deal. It would have raised wages by 25% over four years, lowered employee's share of health care costs and boosted retirement contributions by the company. Boeing also promised in this offer to build its next-generation plane in the Seattle region instead of moving it to a nonunion plant, for example, in South Carolina.
But members say that is still not enough. They've been asking for a 40% raise and also to go back to the defined pension benefit plan that they lost in their last contract. You know, clearly, they think they can get a better deal out of Boeing with a strike.
SUMMERS: Now, Joel, we've seen a number of other unions make big demands and contract negotiations recently, and a lot of them have been quite successful. Do you think that was a factor here?
ROSE: Yeah, definitely. I talked to Harry Katz, who teaches in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. Katz says this does seem like a, quote, "solid offer" from Boeing. But he says, keep in mind that Boeing's workforce has a lot of leverage because of the tight labor market, and they have seen what is happening with other unions.
HARRY KATZ: The workers have leverage. They've also been emboldened by hearing what autoworkers got at the Big Three, what Teamster drivers got at UPS. You know, other groups that have substantial bargaining leverage did quite well. And in that sense, I'm not surprised the workers are asking for more.
ROSE: Katz also emphasized the history between this union and Boeing. These workers feel like they've been living for 10 years with a bad contract when Boeing forced the union to accept deep concessions back in 2014 - also low wage growth - and there's still a lot of anger and frustration about that deal. And now, the Boeing machinists believe they have the upper hand, and they do not seem inclined to let Boeing off the hook.
SUMMERS: So what about Boeing, Joel? What's the company been saying about all of this?
ROSE: The tone from Boeing has been very conciliatory. Remember, this company is already grappling with a safety crisis after a door plug panel blew out of a jet in midair. You know, the strike will basically shut down production of the 737, which is its bestseller, at a time when the company is already losing money. Boeing said in a statement last night that, quote, "the message was clear" that the tentative agreement was not acceptable. The CFO said today the company is ready to get back to the bargaining table. You know, the last strike by Boeing machinists in 2008 - that dragged on for eight weeks, and it cost the company an estimated $2 billion.
SUMMERS: That's NPR's Joel Rose. Joel, thank you.
ROSE: You're welcome.
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