SEATTLE (Reuters) – A strike at Boeing “could continue for a while” as workers remain confident they can win bigger pay raises and improved pensions, union leader Jon Holden said in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) on Saturday.
More than 30,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which produces Boeing's 737 MAX and other aircraft in Seattle and Portland, began a strike on Friday after overwhelmingly rejecting a new contract.
Boeing and union negotiators are due to return to the bargaining table next week in talks overseen by U.S. federal mediators after more than 94 percent of workers voted to reject an initial contract offer that Holden had backed.
Holden said its members' priorities were a bigger pay rise and the restoration of a defined benefit pension plan that the IAM lost during a previous round of negotiations with Boeing a decade ago.
“We have the most influence and the most power at the most opportune time that we've ever had in our history, and our members expect us to use it,” Holden told NPR.
“I know our members are confident. They are united and prepared. So (the strike) could continue for a while.”
The initial agreement included a 25% pay increase spread over four years and a commitment by Boeing to build its next commercial airplane in the Seattle region if the jetliner program was launched within the four-year contract period.
Union members, expressing frustration over years of stagnant wages and rising living costs, said the elimination of a performance bonus in Boeing's offer would erode half of the headline pay increase.
Boeing shares fell 3.7% on Friday. They are down nearly 40% so far this year, reducing the company's market value by about $58 billion.
A prolonged strike could further damage Boeing's finances, which are already struggling under $60 billion in debt. A prolonged pause in aircraft production would also affect airlines that use Boeing planes and suppliers that make parts.
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