• Teamsters contract expires in April 2025.
• IAM’s contract with Boeing’s defense unit follows in July.
• SPEEA engineering contract negotiations come up, too.

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By the Leeham News Team

Analysis

Nov. 15, 2024, © Leeham News: Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg’s performance during the IAM strike is getting low marks from the men and women who will do the work that turns Boeing around-–the mechanics, techs, and engineers in the factories, according to those LNA has spoken with.

Kelly Ortberg, Boeing CEO. Credit: Boeing.

Ortberg came in talking about a “reset” in the company’s relationship with its unionized workforce. He took a good symbolic step by announcing he’d relocate to Seattle and work from there.

But while Wall Street hailed the move, it didn’t land as well as it could have.

Ortberg spent one day in the Renton factory before the strike. Boeing got a good photo of him touring the factory floor, but it’s unclear if he met with many workers.

Likewise, it’s unclear how much Ortberg was involved in one of the biggest crises his new company faced when he took over: the Machinists Union negotiations.

• Ortberg went with Calhoun’s plan
• Boeing bureaucrats believed their own spin
• Behind-the-scenes hardball
• Boeing’s billion-dollar blunder
• Absent Ortberg
• Furloughs and layoffs
• Looking ahead