Assembly mechanic Christy Williams strikes outside of her employer, Boeing aerospace company, in Berkeley, Mo. She joined 3,200 other union members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers who went on strike at midnight on Aug. 4 to get better wages and retirement plans (Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent).
After a week of heated exchanges between the leaders of Boeing Defense in St. Louis and the union representing its machinists, the two sides have agreed to resume negotiations Monday.
“The bargaining committees for Boeing and IAM 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,” said Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 in a joint statement Friday afternoon.
The strike by more than 3,200 union members at Boeing Defense facilities in St. Louis, St. Charles and Mascoutah, Illinois, reached 53 days on Friday.
The union announced Friday morning it was aiming to ramp up support with a rally on Wednesday, as well as a meeting “soon” with union members and Democratic U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Last week, workers voted to approve a union-proposed contract, after overwhelmingly rejecting Boeing’s previous two settlement offers.
The union’s four-year contract proposal includes a $10,000 ratification bonus instead of the $4,000 bonus Boeing proposed. It also addresses one of the workers’ biggest concerns of pay raises for top-of-scale members and 401(k) benefits, union leaders said.
The union’s lead negotiator said the “ball’s in their court,” during a press conference Tuesday on Zoom.
“This union is prepared,” said Jody Bennett, IAM Union resident general vice president, said at a press briefing. “If they want to fly in tonight, I’ll stay up all night. We’ll work on weekends, but we’re here to get something that’s fair and equitable.”
Boeing fired back that their position hadn’t changed from the previous week, after they called the workers’ vote on the union’s proposed offer a “publicity stunt” and a “waste of time.”
“It’s unfortunate the union led its members to vote on an offer that we didn’t extend or collectively bargain,” said Boeing in a statement Tuesday.
The company accused Bennett of having “selective memory” on Boeing’s offers, pointing to his statement days before members voted down the company’s original offer in July that the agreement “meets the moment.”
“We agree with him and remain open to constructive talks within the boundaries of our landmark offer for Midwest manufacturing,” according to the company’s Tuesday statement.
The union’s proposed ratification bonus is lower than what the $12,000 Boeing employees in Seattle received last year after a seven-week strike, said Jonathan Battaglia, spokesman for the IAM Union. However, the 401(k) benefits are the same as those Seattle workers received, he said.
The Northwest strike lasted 53 days, and the company ultimately conceded on some of the workers’ main requests.
However, Dan Gillian, Boeing St. Louis vice president of air dominance, said in a statement last week that a contract in St. Louis has to “make sense in the Midwest, not the Pacific Northwest.”
Missouri Democratic Congressmen Wesley Bell of St. Louis and Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, along with members of the Congressional Labor Caucus, urged Boeing last week to return to the bargaining table.
Soon after the joint statement was released Friday, Boeing posted a “mythbuster” video of Gillian talking about the wage growth in the company’s offer being “very real.”
During the press conference Tuesday, Bennett said Boeing has repeatedly expressed the company won’t veer from the parameters of its core offer, calling it a “sound offer.”
“However, our members are telling us that’s not the case,” Bennett said. “So we will meet Boeing, but without parameters. You know, the strike’s been going on now seven weeks. We may have to look at this as it’s a brand new negotiation. I would hope not.”