Boeing offers 35pc pay hike over four years to end machinists’ strike

WASHINGTON: Boeing and its striking Seattle-area workers have reached a tentative deal to end a more than month-long stoppage, the union said Saturday.

Boeing confirmed a tentative deal was reached and said it includes a 35 percent pay raise over four years and a one-time signing bonus of $7,000. 

Union members will vote Wednesday on the proposal. The strike began September 13 in a dispute over pay and other compensation issues, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said on social media platform X in a message to its members. “It warrants presenting to the members and is worthy of your consideration,” IAM Union District 751 said.

The strike by some 33,000 unionized workers, mainly in Washington state, halted work at two Seattle-area assembly plants and production of its 737 MAX planes. The workers were seeking hefty wage hikes and other gains, complaining of more than a decade of near-flat wages amid inflation.

Wage increases had been a stumbling block. Boeing first offered a 25 percent raise, and then 30 percent, while the union wanted 40 percent. Workers had also been pressing for the restoration of a traditional employer-paid pension plan, which Boeing withdrew in 2014, but they did not get it.

Such retirement plans had been a staple of the American workplace for decades but they are now rare, as the onus for preparing for old age has shifted from employer to employee. Instead, among the sweeteners Boeing is now offering are enhanced contributions to largely worker-funded retirement schemes called 401(k) plans.