March 28, 2024

Boeing Machinists’ Union Seeks to End Labor Complaint

About 74 percent supported the contract on Wednesday in a ballot among 31,000 union members, mostly in the Seattle area, who accepted the surprise proposal unveiled last week.

Boeing plans to increase output by 60 percent after four union walkouts since 1989 delayed hundreds of deliveries. Workers were promised that a revamped 737 jet would be built at a current factory near Seattle, and the union requested that the N.L.R.B. retract the complaint filed over a new 787 plant in South Carolina.

The faltering relationship between the plane maker and its largest union reached a low point two years ago, when Boeing decided to build its first commercial assembly plant outside the Puget Sound area, where the company was founded in 1916.

The union complained to the N.L.R.B. after company executives said that the new 787 factory in South Carolina would avoid walkouts in Washington. The new plant is not unionized. After an investigation, the labor board accused Boeing of violating workers’ federally protected right to strike.

The N.L.R.B. has said it would consider the union’s request for a dismissal of the case.

Workers will get a 2 percent raise each year of the contract, a new performance-based incentive program and a $5,000 ratification bonus that will be paid this month. Pensions and retirees’ medical benefits will be preserved.

Employees will have to pay more of their health costs, which was one proposal that prompted a strike three years ago.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=d4163817d3882ebbcd9901a0c4ba5f18

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