Boeing Defense labor union rejects contract, authorized strike Aug. 1

July 24, 2022, © Leeham News: The labor union representing Boeing workers at three plants in and near St. Louis (MO), the company’s defense operations, voted “overwhelmingly” to reject a new contract. The members of IAM District 837 voted to authorize a strike at 12:01 AM on Aug. 1.

The union leadership did not release the vote totals for the contract and separate strike authorization votes, leaving no way to verify the outcome or the margin.

Union statement

“Our members have spoken loudly and with one voice. We reject Boeing’s current contract offer and will strike at all three St. Louis area locations, starting at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022,” the union leadership said in a statement. “We cannot accept a contract that is not fair and equitable, as this company continues to make billions of dollars each year off the backs of our hardworking members.

“Boeing previously took away a pension from our members, and now the company is unwilling to adequately compensate our members’ 401(k) plan. We will not allow this company to put our members’ hard-earned retirements in jeopardy.”

Boeing statement

“Boeing is disappointed with Sunday’s vote to reject a strong, highly competitive offer,” Boeing said in a statement. “We are activating our contingency plan to support continuity of operations in the event of a strike.”

The union spokesman did not respond to an LNA request to release the vote totals. Although the union claims Boeing “continues to make billions of dollars each year,” in fact Boeing recorded losses each year since the 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019 and from the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic.

8 Comments on “Boeing Defense labor union rejects contract, authorized strike Aug. 1

  1. “Although the union claims Boeing “continues to make billions of dollars each year,” in fact Boeing recorded losses each year since the 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019 and from the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic.”

    Those losses come (primarily) from the Commercial and Space divisions. If considered in isolation, has the Defense division being making a profit? Or have costs associated with the KC-46A and AF1 debacles also caused a net loss there?

    • Boeing has been boasting excellent Quarterly results (buybacks and dividends) with “free” cash flow (2012-2019), pushing out debts & investments.

      WS, Motley, Bloomberg were overjoyed & they weren’t the only ones (e.g. executives & employee stock holders).

      Now chickens have come home to roost & ask where’s the money.

  2. “Although the union claims Boeing “continues to make billions of dollars each year,” in fact Boeing recorded losses each year since the 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019 and from the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic.”

    Talk about twisting words here. As a company, Boeing did not make profits (hence the losses), but it still recorded revenue (some of which was used for stock buybacks). Break the company down to each sector, and Defense DID make profits during that time. Break it down further by program and some programs are definitely profitable.

    • The Defense unit is hardly the example within Boeing to follow. SLS, Starliner, KC-46A, T-7, MQ-25 are all problem programs. Billions written off. Lockheed, Northrop winning crucial new programs.

      • This is also an answer to my query above — thank you 👍

        Hardlly surprising that defense is just as much of a mess as the other BA divisions.

      • I would tend to disagree, the traditional defense side of the house has done a much better job with producing decent results. KC-46A is a commercial derivative, SLS and starliner are from the space division, again not what I would call the traditional defense side of the house. Yes they fall under the defense umbrella overall but not what I would call the old defense side of the house. So far T7 and MQ have performed fairly well, they have had some write off’s but are performing, not to mention the f15, f/a-18 and weapon sales which are all in production and making profits. They need to stop bidding on fixed price contracts, Northrop and Lockheed seem to do a better job of that and bid on the cost plus contracts. Of the ones listed above KC46, Starliner and SLS are the ones that have been way over budget.

  3. Apart from all I really hope there will be no strike & Mngt & Employees find each other in a reasonable compromise. A strike could prove a loose – loose scenario.

    Scrapping their bonusses, get real on finances, admit the damaging short term capitalism 2012-2019, might be a good start from the board.

    Show humbleness iso half truths, rosy outlooks, threaths and promises.

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