Anatomy of a Strike: Boeing Machinists Edition

On September 13th, at 12:01 a.m., local unionized Boeing machinists represented by the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers District 751 (IAM 751) walked off the job, initiating a strike that their 33,000 union members overwhelmingly voted for at a 96% clip.

As they embark on the third week of the strike, we thought we’d take a second to understand how we got here, and what the machinists hope for moving forward. In this saga we have exploding planes, golden parachutes, an armed altercation, and a tense mediation session. You have questions and I have answers, with help from folks on the pickets. Let’s dive in.

The History

Founded by lumber baron William E. Boeing in Seattle in 1916, the company produced planes for the U.S. government during World War I and II before expanding into the commercial flight industry. In the 20th century, Boeing developed a sterling reputation in Seattle by providing stable and lucrative careers for working-class people, giving folks a shot for upward mobility into the middle class. However, as Jon Voss, a 14-year Boeing machinist at the Renton plant says, “Boeing was the quote-unquote best job in town, and it’s no longer the gold standard it once was.” Many perceive Boeing’s $14 billion acquisition of the plane manufacturer McDonnell Douglas in 1997 as a turning point for the company, feeling that the company has since swapped safety for speed—and maximizing shareholder value on the backs of their workers. This was echoed by an FAA report released on Wednesday. They remain the second-largest employer in the state, with nearly 67,000 workers, but for two decades now, they’ve signaled that if workers ask for too much, they’ll leave.

Who’s on the picket line?

The machinists are the folks who assemble Boeing’s planes in the factories—currently responsible for the 737 Max, 777 jet, and 767 cargo planes. The 737 Max, the most popular of the three, is flown around the world by over 80 airlines, carrying 700,000 passengers on around 5,000 flights a day.

In other words: The engineers (represented by SPEEA) design the Lego sets. The machinists put them together. 

How’s Boeing doing?

Bad. The company’s local reputation has soured since they began shifting operations away from our damp little corner of the world. In 2001, Boeing moved their headquarters from Seattle to Chicago in exchange for $60 million in tax breaks. The company further alienated its Seattle-area workers when in 2009, it started a new non-union production line in South Carolina for its 787 Dreamliner jet. During contract negotiations in 2011, they threatened to move even more production out of our area.

Globally, Boeing’s reputation has taken a hit due to a series of accidents and crashes. In 2018 and 2019, two deadly crashes of their 737 Max 8 jets killed a total of 346 passengers. This year, on January 5th, a door plug blew out of a 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines six minutes after taking off from Portland, OR, for Ontario, CA. In a scene straight from Breaking Bad, the equipment landed in the backyard of a Portland high school science teacher. Luckily, there were no fatalities.

This accident raised concerns about Boeing’s manufacturing process. Days after the accident, The Lever reported that Spirit AeroSystems, the company that manufactured that faulty door plug for Boeing, had been sued in 2023 by their investors who claimed they “concealed from investors that Spirit suffered from widespread and sustained quality failures.”

Whistleblowers have spoken out about safety issues within Boeing, testifying to Congress that the company instructed workers to hide defective parts from federal regulators and falsify records. They also spoke to a culture of blatant retaliation. The optics couldn’t have been worse when two whistleblowers died this spring under mysterious circumstances, one developing a fast-moving staph infection and another dying from what investigators called a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Their bottom line is now taking a beating. This summer, the company posted a quarterly loss of over $1.4 billion and is now nearly $58 billion in debt. Their stock is down nearly 40% over the past year, and their credit was at risk of being downgraded from BBB- into junk territory.

But don’t cry for these capitalists. Despite all these issues, Boeing remains the biggest commercial plane manufacturer in the country, with Airbus in Europe as their only real global competitor. At the end of the second quarter, they reported a backlog of 5,400 commercial planes already ordered that will earn the company $437 billion. And the company has been feeling bullish enough to purchase $342 million in stock buybacks over the past year.

Still, after all this chaos some heads had to roll, the most notable being Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun, who in August gently coasted to the ground aboard a $45 million golden parachute. The new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, stands to make $22 million next year if the company hits certain performance targets. He just bought a $4.1 million house in Broadmoor.

Must be nice! How much do the workers make?

Not millions, and not close. The average salary for a Boeing machinist is $75,608, bested 290-to-1 by the new CEO’s pay and no comparison to the bootstrapping buying power of generations past as inflation and cost of living has skyrocketed. Under their previous contract, Boeing machinists’ pay raise was outpaced roughly 2-to-1 by inflation and 10-to-1 by housing prices.

That number again: 10-to-1.

This has caused serious issues of housing insecurity for the workers. “The Boeing company pays so little in certain departments that some people are homeless. They live in their cars. They stay in shelters,” Voss says.

Worse still, in the last contract health care benefits were whittled down and out-of-pocket costs for employees went up year over year. For example, Voss, a type-1 diabetic, says before the 2014 contract his health insurance was “phenomenal” and his out-of-pocket costs minimal. But over the decade, he says his health care costs seem like they “doubled and they doubled again,” and he now receives random bills for specialty visits and blood work that used to be covered.

How is the work?

Exhausting and stressful. The workload varies from position to position and day to day, but much of the work is performed in confined spaces with one entrance and one exit in low light. Machinists have to wear respirators and other company-provided equipment to protect themselves from the dangerous chemicals they’re working with, and it gets brutally hot. Some locations have fans and blowers that move fresh air, but some locations are difficult to cool off.

This takes a toll. Lots of repetitive motion causes frequent injuries to shoulders and wrists, and even with earplugs and earmuffs, after a day of loud work like heavy riveting, workers are worried about hearing loss.

And it’s relentless. Under their old contract, workers could be pressed into mandatory overtime and worked up to 19 days in a row without a day off.

Voss says when he isn’t physically working to install fuel systems on 757’s, there are endless administrative meetings and safety concerns to address. Workers are quickly bounced out due to the low wages, so the average worker has less than two years’ experience and veteran workers feel like they’re on their own to show new hires the ropes—“thrown to the wolves” by management.

The typical workday? “Confusing and chaotic.”

What are they asking for?

As with most contract disputes, money is #1. (After all, it’s not charity, and they’re not volunteers.)

The company offered a 25 percent salary increase over the next four years, which sounds pretty good had the workers not been crushed by the “garbage contract” of the last decade (remember that 10-1 figure). Instead, the union is asking for a 40 percent increase to their wages. They’re also looking to reinstate traditional pensions, which were shelved in favor of 401(k) plans in a contested 51-49 vote in 2014.

The union wants a seat on the board, as well. “We have to save this company from itself,” district president Jon Holden said.

What’s the latest on the strike? 

Boeing is under a lot of pressure to move these negotiations along. They’ve learned the hard way that they simply can’t operate without the machinists, and in an effort to save some cash, the company has implemented a hiring freeze, pay cuts to leadership, and stopped paying “most” of its D.C. lobbying firms. The company is projected to lose $1.4 billion by today.

But that hasn’t stopped their (alleged) bad behavior. Around 6 a.m. last Monday morning, workers walking the picket line at Boeing’s SeaTac spare parts distribution center called the cops to report that after a verbal altercation, a Boeing-contracted security guard pulled a gun on the picketers. (In a statement to the Seattle Times later that day, Boeing ominously said the guard “would not return.”)

Last Tuesday, the IAM 751 began federal mediation sessions with Boeing management to try to hammer out a deal their membership will accept. In a statement following the first session, the union said, “We will not mince words — after a full day of mediation, we are frustrated. The company was not prepared and was unwilling to address the issues you’ve made clear are essential for ending this strike: Wages and Pension.”

The second scheduled mediation last Wednesday ended without a deal, with the union reporting, “No meaningful progress was made during today’s talks.” There are no future mediation sessions scheduled.

Not to say Boeing hasn’t been busy since. They’re apparently trying to negotiate through a certain local newspaper eager to carry water for big business, announcing a series of reports intended to turn public sentiment against the workers: that they’ll be furloughing employees and may lay off some others. Then, in a bizarre move, instead of negotiating through the union’s elected bargaining committee, the company sent their latest contract offer directly to workers via emails, text messages, video messages, and even targeted Instagram ads.

The website these messages link to says, “We heard your feedback. We’ve made significant improvements to provide more money in key areas.” Yet the offer was only marginally better and claimed it was “contingent on ratification by 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 27.”

The union said, in response: “Many comments [from union members] expressed that the offer was inadequate and the company’s decision to bypass the Union was viewed as disrespectful.” They rejected this new voting deadline, and the company backed off. The two sides resume negotiations today.

Until they can come to an agreement, the machinists will be out of work, forced to survive on a $250 a week benefit from the union that kicks in if the strike reaches three weeks. 

It cannot be understated: nobody wants to have to go on strike, and it’s never easy. This looks like it could be a long haul, too: the IAM’s two previous strikes in 2005 and 2008 lasted roughly a month and two months, respectively.

Got it. How can I help?

Check out part two for tips on how you can support the strike, both in-person and from afar.