09/13/2024 – 7:33
Boeing employees voted Thursday to strike and reject a contract with the company, which is now suffering another setback. With its reputation and finances damaged, the company now faces a halt in the production of its most successful aircraft.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said 94.6 percent of workers voting rejected the contract, which would have raised wages by 25 percent over four years, and 96 percent approved the strike — easily surpassing the two-thirds requirement.
The strike by 33,000 train drivers was scheduled to begin at one minute past midnight on Friday the 13th. “This is about respect, this is about the past and this is about fighting for our future,” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden said in announcing the vote.
Boeing did not immediately comment on the vote.
Little has gone right for the company this year, from a panel exploding and leaving a gaping hole in one of its passenger jets in January to NASA leaving two astronauts in space instead of sending them home on a troubled Boeing spacecraft.
While the strike lasts, it will deprive Boeing of much-needed cash that the manufacturer makes from delivering new planes to airlines. That will be another challenge for new CEO Kelly Ortberg, who six weeks ago was tasked with turning around a company that has lost more than $25 billion over the past six years and fallen behind European rival Airbus. Source: Associated Press
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