More than 30,000 Boeing employees walked off the job Thursday night amid union contract negotiations. Talks had seemed to be going well. Boeing and the union had tentatively agreed to a 25% wage hike over four years. Union leadership even recommended the workers take the deal.
Members said no. One of their central demands was a 40% raise over three years. So 96% of them voted to strike instead — not great news for the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer, which is having a tough year. Grounding faulty planes, slowing down production, and now this.
This strike comes at a time when Boeing’s already not meeting production goals. And it will effectively stop production on the 737 Max jet — that’s the model with the door that came off mid-flight in January. Two others crashed several years ago, killing everyone on board.
“Obviously the 737 Max stuff has created additional oversight by regulators. And then there’s, you know, obviously the quality control issues that have come as well,” said Ryan Ewing, editor and founder of the aviation news site Airline Geeks.
So the strike is bad news for airlines that ordered the jets and the companies that make stuff that goes inside the planes, said Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group.
“Fuselages, wings, landing gear, engines, seats, lavatories, galleys, overhead bins,” he said. “Everything like that. It is going to be affected.”
The ripple effect could last longer than the strike itself, Harteveldt said, because those suppliers have to scale back.
“And that contributes to the ability to get back to a normal production rate,” he said.
Most of us only interact with Boeing as passengers on their planes. And all this may not affect us much, said Robert Mann, head of the aviation analysis and consulting firm RW Mann and Company.
“Most customers don’t know what type of aircraft they’re flying on, even if there’s a safety card right in front of them,” he said.
Boeing said in a statement that the company is ready to get back to the bargaining table. The union said its goal is to get a strong contact that meets its members’ needs.
