Boeing workers vote to accept the deal and end the strike

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Striking workers at embattled aircraft maker Boeing voted Monday to accept the company's latest offer, ending the costliest strike in the United States in more than 25 years.

According to the International Association of Machinists (IAM), rank-and-file members voted 59% to approve the deal. IAM members had voted almost unanimously against Boeing's first offer on the eve of the strike, and less than two weeks ago 64% voted against the second offer, extending the strike.

“I am proud of our members. This is a victory,” said Jon Holden, president of Boeing’s largest IAM location and the union’s chief negotiator. “They have achieved a lot and we are ready to move on.”

Asked what led to a positive vote this time after two previous rejections, Holden told reporters: “The members are ready, ready to come back. “I look forward to getting them back to work.”

Boeing was satisfied with the result.

“Although the last few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team,” CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a statement. “We can only move forward if we listen and work together. There is still much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”

The 33,000 union members who have been on strike since September 13 will begin returning to work on Wednesday.

The deal calls for an immediate 13% increase and increases of 9% for each of the next two years, plus an additional 7% in the fourth and final year of the contract. Overall, members will receive a salary increase of over 43%.

Workers also receive a $12,000 ratification bonus, a portion of which they can deposit into 401(k) retirement accounts. However, the deal did not restore the traditional pension plan they lost in 2014 under their previous collective bargaining agreement.

Continued worker anger over the loss of that pension plan was seen as a major factor in the rejection of Boeing's (BA) two previous offers and had led to uncertainty over the outcome of Monday's vote.

Holden acknowledged that pensions were likely a big issue for many of the 41% who voted against the deal.

“Fifty-nine percent is a lot, but there are definitely those who were not happy with the agreement,” he said. “Many members struggled to get their pensions back. It’s a fair fight.”

Both union and non-union companies have generally moved away from a traditional pension plan, known as defined benefit plans, in recent decades. Such plans typically pay retirees a fixed amount each month, regardless of their life expectancy or the performance of pension fund assets.

With such plans, the risk lies with the companies. That's why defined benefit plans are available to only about 8% of U.S. private sector workers today, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Compared to 39% in 1980.

Boeing employees have a so-called defined contribution plan, such as 401(k) plans, in which the company's obligations end after it contributes to the individual worker's account. Boeing agreed to increase contributions to these accounts but refused to return to the defined benefit plan as the union and many members had requested.

“Our members deserve a pension, just as every worker deserves a secure and equitable retirement in the future,” Holden said Monday after the vote. “They weren’t wrong in their feelings. I agree with them. We just haven't been able to get the pension out of this company. We will continue to work on this issue.”

Union leadership had urged members to accept the latest offer, even though it was not significantly different from the one they rejected on October 23. The union had urged members to “secure these gains and confidently declare victory” and warned members that further rejection could “risk a declining or reduced offer in the future.”

The strikers collectively lost more than $600 million in wages, but the cost to Boeing was significantly higher, according to estimates from the Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan-based research firm that put Boeing's losses at $6.5 as of the end of last week billion US dollars. In total, the cost to the US economy is over $11.5 billion.

Those losses come on top of the nearly $40 billion in core operating losses that Boeing has reported since two deadly crashes in 2019 and 2020 led to a 20-month grounding of its best-selling jet, the 737 Max. The company has already warned that losses would continue at least until the end of 2025, no matter how quickly the strike ended.

But despite its severe financial problems, Boeing had no choice but to settle the strike and bring workers back to work. The strike has disrupted its main source of income as the company receives most of its money from the sale of commercial aircraft at the time of delivery to airlines. Deliveries of all 737 Max aircraft and freighter models were halted by the strike.

The wages that Boeing pays its workers account for far less than 10% of the total cost of producing an aircraft, with the bulk of the costs coming from raw materials and purchases from suppliers that make everything from the avionics to the planes' fuselages themselves.

Despite its problems, Boeing is still a major contributor to the U.S. economy as it is the largest American exporter.

The strike has caused problems and layoffs for many of Boeing's 10,000 suppliers spread across all 50 states. Boeing estimates its own annual contribution to the U.S. economy at $79 billion, supporting 1.6 million jobs directly and indirectly. It has 150,000 U.S. employees, including strikers.

The Labor Department's latest monthly employment report showed that 44,000 jobs were affected in October, including not just the 33,000 strikers but also workers at Boeing and its suppliers who are not striking but have been temporarily laid off as the strike halts production of commercial aircraft Aviation giants complete.

There were also short-term problems for the airlines. While they were able to continue flying the Boeing aircraft already in their fleet, promised deliveries of new jets were halted. And this delay comes on top of ongoing delays caused by questions about the quality and safety of Boeing jets.

Those problems were compounded by an incident in January in which a door plug flew out of an Alaska Airlines plane shortly after takeoff, leaving a gaping hole in the fuselage. Investigators determined that Boeing delivered the plane without the four screws needed to secure the door stopper.

Ending the strike is important to Boeing's Ortberg, who started his job just five weeks before the strike began. He said he wanted to “reshape” the company’s relationship with the union.

This story has been updated with additional reporting and context.