NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY — The union representing some 3,200 local assembly workers said a federal mediator will step in as it and Boeing resume talks Monday to end a strike that has dragged on for nearly two months.
“The bargaining committees for Boeing and (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837) have agreed to return to negotiations on Monday with the help of a federal mediator in an effort to find a path to end the strike,” the union said in a one-sentence statement Friday.
Boeing workers represented by the union rejected the aerospace giant’s proposed contract in late July and workers that make up a chunk of Boeing’s nearly 17,000 employees here headed to the picket lines Aug. 4. Earlier this month, union members voted down another proposed deal between union leadership and the company.
As the strike ground on, Boeing said it would begin hiring replacement workers and this week announced it would move work upgrading F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters — the U.S. Navy jet churned out of its North St. Louis County factories for decades — to sites in Texas and Florida. The company said the latter move was to free up capacity and workers for the new F-47 fighter contract that the military awarded to the company this year.
Last week, union members endorsed their own counter-proposal to Boeing calling for a $10,000 ratification bonus — more than double what Boeing had offered — and larger increases to pay for members at the top of the pay scale and 401(k) retirement benefits compared to past Boeing offers. It also would have bumped pay 20% over four years — instead of 24% over five years as the company has proposed.
Boeing dismissed the union’s proposal as a “publicity stunt” and a “waste of time. The union noted the signing bonus compares to $12,000 the company offered to its far larger commercial plane workforce in the Seattle area last year.
The strike at Boeing’s St. Louis-area factories is the first since 1996, when workers at what was then home-grown McDonnell Douglas walked out for 99 days. Boeing assembles the the F-15 and F-18 fighter jets and T-7A trainer near Lambert St. Louis International Airport, the MQ-25 refueling drone in Mascoutah and Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) in St. Charles.
The strike at its defense business is less of a strain on Boeing’s finances than the strike at its much larger commercial plane plants last year, aerospace anaylst Richard Aboulafia told Reuters Friday.
“It’s hard to see a pain point for Boeing,” he said. “They’re banking on outlasting the other guy, and they might just get away with it.”
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Jacob Barker | Post-Dispatch
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