Boeing Workers ratified the latest offer from the firm, ending the country’s costliest strike in over 25 years. Yesterday, the International Association of Machinists said that its members voted 59% to accept the deal-which comes after previous proposals were soundly rejected by a landslide majority.
The strike involved nearly 33,000 union members as they walked out of their jobs resulting from conflicts over wages and working conditions. Weeks before that latest decision, the IAM had already rejected Boeing’s first proposals, in which 64% had voted against the second proposal.
IAM union leader Jon Holden called it a win: “It is a win. They achieved a lot, and we’re ready to move forward.” The collective agreement was to see an instant wage hike of 13 percent for the rest of the period over the next two years, including a 9 percent pay increase in each, along with another 7 percent in the fourth year; together, this would lead to an overall pay increase exceeding 43 percent.
Other than wage increases, there is a ratification bonus worth $12,000 that the workers can utilize partly in retirement accounts. The new deal did not, however, reinstate the old pension plan that the workforce lost in 2014. This is one of the major contentious issues.
The IAM leadership urged the workers to accept the deal, arguing that any further rejections could bring worse terms, even though the workers were complaining about the pension. The end of the strike is important to Boeing, which has suffered losses of $6.5 billion due to halted production and deliveries during the strike.
Since a resolution of the labor dispute will settle its operations and work relationship between Boeing and the workers themselves, it plays an essential part in the United States economy.
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