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Boeing workers vote overwhelmingly to strike in defeat for troubled company

Updated September 13, 2024 at 12:59 a.m. EDT

SEATTLE — Tens of thousands of Boeing machinists voted overwhelmingly to walk off the job early Friday morning after rejecting a deal that would have significantly boosted pay and benefits even as it fell short of other union demands.
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A shockingly large number of members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 (IAM) voted in favor of the strike, some 96 percent — far more than the two-thirds needed to launch the work stoppage.

“We strike at midnight,” IAM President Jon Holden told a room of machinists at the Seattle union hall. He was met with loud cheers and a chant of “STRIKE, STRIKE, STRIKE,” from the workers, many of whom carried strike signs.

The walkout is a stinging rebuke for Boeing and could represent the most disrupting challenge yet for a company that has spent much of this year in damage control as it careened from crisis to crisis.

The strike risks derailing the aerospace giant’s recovery from ongoing financial and safety challenges and could cost the cash-strapped company an estimated $1 billion per week, according to analysts. The union plays a key role in assembling some of the company’s best-selling aircraft.

The most direct impact is on Boeing’s assembly plants in Washington, especially in Everett and Renton. An extended work stoppage could also impact Boeing suppliers and possibly shrink its share of the aerospace market.