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Assembly mechanic Christy Williams strikes outside of her employer, Boeing aerospace company, in Berkeley, Mo. She joined 3,200 other union members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers who went on strike at midnight on Aug. 4 to get better wages and retirement plans (Rebecca Rivas\/Missouri Independent).<\/p>\n
Democrat and Republican U.S. senators voiced their outrage during a committee hearing Wednesday that Boeing cut off health care to 3,000 striking workers at its St. Louis-area facilities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And they accused the world\u2019s largest aerospace company of failing to offer its workers a fair contract.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is really unbelievable,\u201d said Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, during a meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.<\/span><\/p>\n Josh Arnold, a union member from St. Louis and coordinator for a Boeing program that supports the U.S. Navy\u2019s FA-18 Super Hornets fighter aircraft, told the committee that the workers have been on strike for 12 weeks demanding wage increases and better retirement benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n Arnold, who is also a union shop steward for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837, said the cost difference between the company\u2019s offer and union\u2019s ask is half the cost of one F-15 fighter jet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to blow our shoulders out drilling on titanium for four years to make 96 F-15s,\u201d Arnold said, noting that they\u2019ll also make a number of other fighter jets, weapons, launch systems and flight simulators. \u201cWe\u2019re saying we\u2019re going to deliver all of that to you. We want a fraction of 1% of one of the programs. And that\u2019s when [the company] said, \u2018Cut your health care. Get back to work.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On Wednesday afternoon after the hearing, Boeing announced a new settlement offer, which decreases parts of the company\u2019s original offer that led to the strike that began on Aug. 4. The new offer followed two days of meetings with a federal mediator and union negotiators.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The union responded in a statement, \u201cWe\u2019ve said it many times, and we\u2019ll say it again: we will not vote on an insulting offer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n At the Senate committee hearing, Hawley said Boeing\u2019s stance in the Missouri strike negotiations reflects how the company has been \u201cstripmined for parts\u201d from what it used to be.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is a company whose planes have literally been falling out of the sky in pieces in recent years,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cWhy is that? I think we all know why. Because they won\u2019t commit to safety standards. They won\u2019t pay their workers well, but they pay their CEO and their C-suite more than ever before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Democratic U.S. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts echoed Hawley\u2019s criticism, saying the company\u2019s \u201cunion busting is a threat to aviation safety.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOver the last 30 years, Boeing has transformed from a company known for safety excellence to a company with its safety record in shambles,\u201d Markey said. \u201cAt the same time, the company, which was once working in partnership with its unions, has turned hostile.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Markey said the company\u2019s refusal to agree to a fair contract with striking machinist workers \u201cmakes you wonder how Boeing can ever expect to restore its safety culture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Independent U.S. Bernie Sanders of Vermont asked Arnold what message it sends workers when the company\u2019s CEO earns $18 million for four months but says they don\u2019t have enough money to negotiate a fair contract with the workers \u201cproducing some of the most sophisticated fighter planes in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt tells us that they don\u2019t value us,\u201d Arnold said. \u201cIt tells us that they\u2019re seeking to maximize shareholder value by limiting inputs like wages for laborers. That\u2019s us. We produce the value, but we don\u2019t get any piece of that value, or as little of a piece as they can allow to get by with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Assembly mechanic Christy Williams strikes outside of her employer, Boeing aerospace company, in Berkeley, Mo. She joined 3,200 other union members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers who went on strike at midnight on Aug. 4 to get better wages and retirement plans (Rebecca Rivas\/Missouri Independent). Democrat and Republican U.S. senators voiced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Arnold.jpg\")