After an overwhelmingly negative reaction to a deal struck by Boeing and Machinists union leaders, union leader Jon Holden said Monday he expects rank-and-file members will reject the contract and strike late this week.
“The response from people is it’s not good enough,” Machinist union district 751 president Holden said in an exclusive interview with The Seattle Times at the union’s South Park headquarters. “Right now, I think it will be voted down, and our members will vote to strike.”
Boeing and union leaders announced the tentative agreement, which Holden has endorsed, early Sunday morning. Machinists union members will vote Thursday on both the proposal and whether to strike.
On Monday, hundreds of Machinists marched in protest through the Everett widebody jet plant during the lunch break, then gathered outside facing the factory’s giant doors, shaking their fists in the air and chanting “Strike! Strike! Strike!”
International Association of Machinists District 751 union members in the Puget Sound region and District W24 members in Portland, Oregon, as well as hundreds of Machinists scattered at other Boeing locations, including Moses Lake and Edwards Air Force Base in California, will vote on the offer.
If the union’s 33,000 members reject the proposed contract, as Holden now expects, a strike will begin at 12 a.m. Friday.
A strike would effectively shut down Boeing’s jet plants in the Puget Sound region and the parts plant in Portland, as well as stopping work on airplanes being reworked or stored at Moses Lake.
With Boeing’s credit rating now just one rung above junk bond status, a lengthy strike that hits cash flow and increases debt could have a dramatic effect on its financial standing.
Holden said the union will try to convey to its members the benefits of the offer, and why he’s recommending it be accepted. However, he doesn’t think that will turn sentiment around and get to a “yes” vote.
“I don’t believe that’s going to happen,” Holden said.
Boeing is planning for the same outcome.
A Boeing employee forwarded a message to The Seattle Times that was sent Monday by an engineering manager at the Auburn parts plant, stating that he was “asked to provide leadership with a list” of engineers willing to volunteer to perform work normally done by Machinists.
Targeting members of the white-collar union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, the memo cites an incentive of pay at overtime rates, either 1 1/2 times or double the normal pay.
SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth expressed surprise when told of the memo and said his union would likely lodge an objection.
Boeing did not comment on the issue.
The best possible contract without a strike?
Holden gained respect among Machinists union members over the past couple of years as he adroitly maneuvered the union into a position of maximum leverage in these contract talks.
He could have taken the easy way out Sunday and just released Boeing’s contract offer to his members with no recommendation one way or the other.
When he instead recommended acceptance, the first time the union has done so in more than 30 years, many of the most militant IAM members unloaded their anger on him personally.
On social media and in emails to The Seattle Times, he was labeled a “sellout” for “betraying” the members.
Rob Davis, a 13-year Boeing mechanic who assembles aircraft wire bundles in Everett, Washington, said Holden “let us all down.”
Davis said he has lined up a construction job in anticipation of a strike and colleagues are looking to work for Amazon or other companies during what might be a prolonged period without Boeing pay.
“We will be going on strike,” Davis said. “Holden will then be voted out.”
A 34-year Renton, Washington, mechanic, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said this morning that the buzz in every part of the factory and the flight line outside, among old and young, was of voting no and striking.
“Everybody’s pissed,” he said. “How could the union tell us to vote for this?”
In the interview, Holden said he felt he owed it to his members to give them a recommendation.
“I’ve been working to rebuild this district for almost 11 years, and I owe them that,” he said. “They have to know what I know.”
He said he believes the offer on the table is the best the union could get without a strike.
Union members had hoped for a 40% pay hike and were disappointed by the contract’s 25% increase. But Holden said that’s the largest general wage increase for all members “in our history.”
In addition, he said, a change to the system whereby an employee’s pay escalates over time means that about 1,500 Machinists would immediately go to the maximum pay scale, their wages rising at least 40%, while 2,000 others would find their wait for that maximum pay jump substantially shortened.
Although the contract abolishes the Machinists’ annual bonus program, he said the guaranteed general wage increase that compounds over time is much more valuable.
Some Machinists were set on getting back their traditional pension, given up in 2013. Holden said no company has ever restored such a pension after taking it away, and Boeing wouldn’t budge on that.
The offer instead includes substantial new Boeing contributions to employee 401(k) retirement plans.
He also pointed to reduced employee health care costs, changes to how paid time off is accrued and other benefits.
The last detail hammered out at 2 a.m. Sunday in the marathon bargaining talks at the Westin was Boeing’s explicit commitment to build its next jet here, including final assembly and fabrication of the wings and other major parts.
New CEO Kelly Ortberg dropped by the Westin that evening and gave Holden his personal assurance of that commitment.
Boeing’s promise would apply only if a new plane is launched during the four years of the contract. Yet Holden insisted it’s still a meaningful win for job security and the region’s prosperity because if Boeing were to try to walk that back next time, in 2028, it would trigger a heavy union response.
If the company tried then to threaten, as it did in 2011 and 2013, to build a new plane elsewhere, it would have to take that promise out of the contract, which would be a strike issue, Holden said.
He said that the negative reaction to Boeing’s offer from his members is colored by their bitterness over their treatment in the last contract 10 years ago, and how they have been affected in the ensuing decade as wages lagged inflation and health care costs grew.
“We bargained hard on those issues the company wouldn’t agree to,” Holden said. “Did we want to do more? We absolutely did. And so our members are angry.”
He said he hopes his members will take the time to read all the contract details and how they would apply to each employee personally.
“I hope they will understand the value that the improvements bring,” Holden said of the contract offer. “But again, it’s in their hands.”
“I am not going to change my recommendation. I have integrity. It wasn’t done lightly,” he added. “We will encourage our members to vote, and if they vote to strike, we will use that power to attempt to get more.”
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