Boeing has been beneath intense scrutiny following a dangerous incident on an Alaska Airways flight final month, capping off a difficult 5 years for the plane producer within the aftermath of two main crashes. However Boeing might be confronted with yet one more headwind as its largest union, the Worldwide Affiliation of Machinists and Aerospace Employees, prepares for contract negotiations.
When negotiations start in March, union leaders are planning to demand a 40% increase and are able to go on strike if essential, in line with a Bloomberg report. (Negotiations had been slated to start this month however had been postponed on the request of Boeing administration, in gentle of its present enterprise challenges.) In addition they intend to push for higher medical insurance protection and pension advantages, in addition to “extra flexibility round additional time,” Bloomberg reviews.
This stance is partly pushed by the deal union leaders had been pressured to ink again in 2014, which froze pensions and restricted complete pay raises to only 4% over a decade. On the time, Boeing used its 777X jet program to power the union to simply accept these circumstances, partially by threatening to relocate manufacturing jobs.
However union leaders say they’re emboldened by the significant uptick in strikes final 12 months and the good points they noticed employees make throughout sectors, from Hollywood to the auto industry. The negotiations additionally come at an particularly fraught second for Boeing, giving employees extra leverage. Boeing is already reeling from manufacturing delays and bills related to the current incident—which might complete $1 billion, analysts told the New York Times—to not point out elevated oversight from regulators and lawmakers. The present union contract is ready to run out in September, and a strike might halt manufacturing in Washington State and Oregon and derail the 737 program, simply as Boeing is trying to get better its losses.
The union’s calls for additionally replicate the truth that Boeing’s high quality management points will be traced, to some extent, to labor-related issues like excessive turnover, in line with specialists. “Individuals don’t get stupider,” Cliff Collier, a seasoned aerospace manufacturing advisor, instructed Bloomberg. “Individuals get overworked, folks get pushed to do issues they most likely shouldn’t do.”
