Aircraft giant, Boeing’s factory workers on Thursday voted to protest for better pay and conditions against the company’s management. According to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) nearly 96 per cent of the aircraft giant’s workers supported the protest.
“This is about respect, this is about addressing the past, and this is about fighting for out future,” said Jon Holden as reported by Reuters. We will begin the protest at midnight, said Holden, who headed the negotiations for IAM.
The decision to protest was made collectively by the workers after rejecting the management’s contract, which offered a pay hike of 25 per cent over four years. According to IAM, nearly 94.6 per cent of its members voted against the contract.
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The workers originally demanded a 40 per cent wage hike, the restoration of a defined-benefit pension plant axed in 2014, and a guarantee that future production would remain in the Seattle region.
Boeing’s CEO Kelly Ortberg while addressing the dissatisfied workers on September 11 said, “Working together, I know that we can get back on track, but a strike would put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together.”
The company has a workforce of nearly 150,000 workers across the US. After the 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019, that took lives of 346 people, the company has already been struggling to revamp. Additionally, the ongoing protest will turn out to be another pain point for the company, as it will impact the production of the 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling airliner, 777 jet and the 767 cargo plane at factories in Washington, near Seattle, according to AP report.
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