What’s Good for Boeing Workers Is Good for the Public
On the West Coast, 33,000 Boeing workers are in the midst of the US’s largest strike. It’s not just wages and benefits at stake — it’s the question of whether we will continue to have skilled, secure workers making goods as delicate and complex as airplanes.
Boeing Machinists union members picket outside a Boeing factory on September 13, 2024, in Renton, Washington. (Stephen Brashear / Getty Images)
On Friday, some 33,000 Boeing workers went on strike after voting down a tentative agreement (TA) reached on September 8 between their negotiating committee and the airplane manufacturing giant. The strike by the workers — members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), most of whom work at the company’s gigantic Everett, Washington, plant, the largest manufacturing building in the world — is now the largest active work stoppage in the United States. It’s the first strike at Boeing since 2008.
Boeing CEO Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, installed earlier this year after the company suffered yet another publicity nightmare when the cabin panel of a 737 MAX 9 came off midflight in January — not to mention the highly suspicious deaths of two whistleblowers at the company — practically begged the workers not to strike, stating that the walkout puts Boeing’s “recovery in jeopardy.”
“We encourage them to negotiate in good faith — toward an agreement that gives employees the benefits they deserve and makes the company stronger,” White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said on Friday. Negotiations resumed on Tuesday, with a federal mediator present at the bargaining table.
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