Boeing strike ends as workers accept new contract

Boeing's US West Coast factory workers accepted a new contract offer on Monday, ending a bitter seven-week strike that halted most jet production and deepened a financial crisis at the troubled planemaker.

The union said members voted 59% in favor of the new contract, which includes a 38% pay rise spread over four years, easing pressure on new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg after two previous offers were voted down in recent weeks.

"This is a victory. We can hold our heads high," Jon Holden the union's lead negotiator, told members after the results were announced. "Now it's our job to get back to work."

The end of the first strike in 16 years by Boeing's largest union provides welcome relief for a company that has lurched from one setback to the next since a door panel blew off a near-new 737 MAX plane in mid-air in January.

In a message to Boeing employees after the vote, Ortberg said he was pleased the union had ratified a deal.

Jon Holden greets union members after announcing they voted to accept a new contract. AP

"While the past few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team," he said. "There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company."

Around 33,000 machinists who work on the best-selling 737 MAX jet, as well as the 767 and 777 widebodies, have been on strike since Sept. 13, demanding a 40% wage increase and the restoration of a defined-benefit pension they lost a decade ago for a 401(k) retirement plan.

"I'm ready to get back to work," said David Lemon, a worker in equipment calibration certification in Seattle who voted in favor of the contract.

He calculated that the pay hike and a 4% bonus - the guaranteed minimum annual payout to the reinstated incentive plan - amounted to the 40% increase they'd gone after. "We got there," he said.

The old pension will not be restored, but workers received a bump to company matching contributions for their 401(k) plans.

A Singapore Airlines Boeing 737 approaches for landing at Singapore Changi airport in Singapore on Tuesday. AFP

Boeing also promised to build the next airplane in the Seattle area. "They've never given us a commitment" to a new airplane before launch, Holden said.

President Joe Biden and Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, who facilitated the contract talks, congratulated workers and the company on the outcome. "We've shown that collective bargaining works," Biden said.

Boeing said Su was instrumental in moving both sides toward reaching a ratified deal.

Biden has been particularly supportive of unions as president, and the union vote comes the day before Americans go to national polls to pick his successor.

Reuters