More than two-thirds of a union representing engineers and technicians at Boeing voted on Friday to reject the latest contract offer from the aircraft manufacturer, and signed off on a potential strike action if their current contract expires in October without a replacement.
Members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace rejected Boeing’s proposal of a nearly 30 percent rise in wages over four years, despite its unanimous endorsement by the union’s negotiating committee. The wage increase would have been the group’s largest since 1983, the union said.
In a statement, the union, which represents roughly 17,000 Boeing workers, said the vote underscored a deep distrust between its members and corporate management.
“It’s important to acknowledge how we got here; this mistrust was built brick by brick over the past several contracts,” the union negotiators said in a statement.
A Boeing vice president, Ben Nimmergut, said the company was disappointed with the vote.
“We gave a strong contract offer to position our employees among the market leaders in pay and benefits in the Pacific Northwest,” Mr. Nimmergut, the company’s functional chief engineer for production engineering, said in a statement. “We are now implementing our strike contingency plan,” he added.
Union negotiators will canvass members to better understand what is needed to get the contract passed, with the aim of securing a new deal before the current contract runs out on Oct. 6, the union’s statement said.
“However, we also are prepared to call for a labor stoppage, based on the overwhelming support of our members for the strike authorization vote,” the union said.
Boeing has dealt with other strikes in recent years. About 33,000 Boeing workers who mostly build commercial planes in the Seattle area went on strike for nearly two months in 2024 before reaching a deal and returning to work. The next year, about 3,200 Boeing workers who build fighter jets and weapons in the St. Louis area were on strike for more than three months before approving a new contract.
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