St. Louis-area Boeing workers back union proposal to end six-week strike

Missouri Democratic state Rep. Doug Clemens of St. Ann spoke with Boeing employees on strike on Aug. 5 outside of company facility in Berkeley, Missouri. (Photo by Rebecca Rivas/The Missouri Independent)

Boeing union workers on strike in the St. Louis area voted Friday to approve a union-proposed contract, after overwhelmingly rejecting Boeing’s settlement offer last week.

The four-year contract, proposed by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837, includes a $10,000 ratification bonus  compared to the $4,000 bonus Boeing proposed. It also addresses one of the workers’ biggest concerns – pay raises for top-of-scale members and 401(k) benefits. 

“Our members stood up with courage and voted for a fair, responsible pathway to end this strike,” said IAM Union International President Brian Bryant in a statement Friday. “Now, Boeing must honor that decision, accept this deal, and show respect for the skilled workers who are the backbone of its defense business.”

The union’s proposed ratification bonus is lower than what the $12,000 Boeing employees in Seattle received last year after a seven-week strike, said Jonathan Battaglia, spokesman for the IAM Union. However, the 401(k) benefits are the same as those Seattle workers received, he said. 

About 3,200 Boeing workers who assemble advanced aircraft and weapons systems at the company’s facilities in St. Louis, St. Charles and Mascoutah, Ill. have been on strike since Aug. 4.

Earlier this week, Boeing officials called the vote on the union contract a “publicity stunt” and told workers it was a “waste of your time.” 

Dan Gillian, Boeing St. Louis vice president of air dominance, said in a statement Friday that the company’s last offer would make workers the “highest paid manufacturing employees in the St. Louis area.”

“We want all 3,200 of you back at work as soon as possible,” Gillian said. “But that has to happen with a contract that makes sense in the Midwest, not the Pacific Northwest. Our previous offer is far more lucrative than other recently ratified contracts for complex manufacturing work in our region.”

He pointed to GE Aerospace and the IAM union in Cincinnati that ratified a five-year contract with general wage increases of 19.5% over five years. Boeing’s last offer was 24% over five years.  

Gillian said this week that Boeing is open to further discussions, but the “overall economics of our offer will not improve.”

Missouri Democratic Congressmen Wesley Bell of St. Louis and Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, along with members of the Congressional Labor Caucus, urged Boeing this week to return to the bargaining table. 

“These workers—among the most talented in their fields—deliver quality products that serve the entire nation, and the world,” said Bell and Cleaver in a letter to Boeing president and CEO Kelly Ortberg. “If an agreement is not reached soon, the loss of income, healthcare, and other essential resources could cause hardships not seen since 1997.” 

Last week, the union workers voted to reject Boeing’s settlement second offer that the company touts as offering 45% average wage growth. The workers said that it wasn’t much different than the company’s first offer in August that caused the strike.

Chad Stevenson, a plant chairman for the union at the St. Louis facility, told The Independent in August that the company’s offer wouldn’t equally benefit the longtime workers who endured pay freezes when the company’s contracts were “lean” over the last several years.

“Our members took concessions to help this company and continued to produce the same amount and the same quality of work,” said Stevenson, who works as an assembly mechanic. “So really it was over eight years, top-scale wasn’t raised.”

The union’s proposed contract includes an hourly increase for two of the four years, instead of “lump sum” amounts that Boeing proposed. Battaglia said employees prefer the $1.50 hourly increase because it “builds on each other,” unlike the lump sum.

“Our members have spoken loudly — we are ready to return to work once Boeing accepts this agreement,” said IAM District 837 Directing Business Representative Tom Boelling in a union statement Friday. “It’s up to the company to get our members back to what they do best: building world-class aircraft for our nation’s defense.”