Approximately 3,200 Boeing workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 will vote on the company’s revised contract offer on Oct. 26, the union said in an email Thursday.
Boeing’s revisions to the five-year proposal include a $3,000 ratification bonus, down from $4,000 in the last offer. The modified deal also adds a $1,000 retention bonus in year four of the contract and Boeing stock units with a grant date value of $3,000, effective Oct. 31.
Furthermore, the deal removed language that allowed managers and non-union workers to perform Machinists’ work for the first 30 days of returning to the job, IAM said in the email.
“The company also wants to terminate any member who doesn’t immediately return to work, despite the fact that many of our members have taken other jobs to support their families during the strike,” the union said in an Oct. 22 press release. “That is absolutely unacceptable.”
As part of the offer, Boeing also accepted the Machinists’ proposal for a 1.5% general wage increase and a 2.5% lump sum in year four of the contract. Boeing also said it made trade-offs by reducing the good attendance incentive from $0.50 per hour to $0.25 per hour.
The expanded vacation and sick time, free primary care clinic and a pension multiplier increase remain the same, according to Boeing’s contract summary.
“This continues to remain the strongest agreement ever offered to IAM 837,” Dan Gillian, Boeing Air Dominance vice president, general manager and senior St. Louis site executive, said in an Oct. 22 statement. “This deal respects you and rewards your skillset while supporting the future of our St. Louis-area sites for generations to come.”
If the Machinists vote to ratify the contract, the union-represented Boeing workers will return to work Nov. 3.
Boeing employees will be voting on a proposal that IAM District 837’s bargaining committee said it does not endorse, according to an email from the union. The offer comes after the two parties resumed negotiations for the first time since Sept. 29 and spent two days in discussions with a federal mediator. While Boeing made adjustments to its proposal, the Machinists bargaining committee called it an “insulting offer.”
Prior to resuming negotiations, IAM filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Boeing for allegedly refusing to bargain.
The offer also comes after one Boeing union member testified before a Senate committee on Wednesday. Joshua Arnold, a U.S. Army veteran and a support coordinator on the F/A-18 Super Hornet service life modification program, has been with Boeing for 11 years, according to his written testimony.
He told senators that the company would allegedly issue ultimatums to the union and threaten to replace them, actions Boeing has said it began as part of its contingency plan. Arnold added that the company allegedly threatened to move the work out of state. Last month, Boeing announced it was moving the Super Hornet upgrade work to its California, Florida and Texas facilities in 2026 and sunsetting the work at the St. Louis plants by 2027, a decision the company said it made prior to the strike.
Arnold added that union-represented Boeing workers have missed 12 weeks of work and six paychecks and that the company allegedly cut off their healthcare insurance and halted their retirement savings contributions. Union members have been paid $300 a week for strike pay.
Earlier in October, IAM District 751, which represents about 33,000 Boeing workers at the company’s commercial plane facilities, donated $32,000 to the IAM District 837’s strike fund to support members on strike.
“The decision to strike is a hard one, and holding the line for this long is even harder,” Arnold said in his remarks at the Senate committee hearing.
“The chips are undoubtedly stacked against workers in favor of corporations,” Arnold added. “We took this action together because this is the tool we have, and we truly believe the company’s offer does not respect our skill and dedication.”
