USA 
United Kingdom
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Boeing’s largest union, says it will use its current “leverage” to demand a 40% pay rise for 32,000 employees.
The union represents machinists – workers who use machines to manufacture and modify Boeing parts – and is also hoping to secure 50 years of job security.
Boeing has been under a growing amount of scrutiny over its safety practices and culture, including multiple investigations from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) following a series of incidents including two fatal crashes involving Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in 2018 and 2019, and January’s mid-flight Boeing 737 Max 9 panel blow-out.
Union representatives are bullish about their plans to use the crisis to secure a better deal for its members.
“We have a lot of leverage right now and we are going to use it,” said Jon Holden, Union President of the District 751 branch.
A 40% pay rise would be a record increase for Boeing staff. “We are going to push them further than they ever would think they are going to go on wages and job security,” Holden added.
Amid major scrutiny of its quality control practices, including findings from the FAA that Boeing staff feared retaliation for raising safety concerns, Boeing has made concerted efforts to improve channels for whistleblowing.
Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s CEO – who plans to step down from his post at the end of 2024 – appeared in front of the US Senate earlier in June and faced a grilling on the company’s treatment of whistleblowers.
While the victims’ families of fatal Boeing crashes watched on, Calhoun stated he knew that whistleblowers had been fired or disciplined for speaking up but couldn’t say how many.
He added that Boeing is "far from perfect, but we are taking action."
The embattled aircraft manufacturer revealed in April that use of its whistleblowing portal soared by 500% compared to the previous year.
But one mechanic working at a Boeing facility recently described their factory as in “panic mode” and claimed that workers are “hounded” by managers to keep quiet about quality issues.
The union is also pushing for Boeing to guarantee that a new model of plane will be built in Seattle, preventing production being shifted to a lower-cost location.
The final assembly of a 787 model was earlier moved from a site in Washington to South Carolina, which some workers and union officials have claimed was anti-union.
The union acknowledged that guaranteeing production isn’t part of the typical contract negotiations, which focus on wages.
However, Holden said the union believes Boeing’s current vulnerability to the media and regulators represents a valuable opportunity to force a better deal.
The union also said that staff have not had a new contract in 15 years, arguing that it has been consistently forced to sacrifice improved pay to guarantee production.
Holden states this occurred mostly recently in 2023 when Boeing asked for an extension on an earlier contract to keep production of the 777X widebody in Seattle.
The union has also demanded a guarantee in the contract that any new plane Boeing launches will be built in Seattle, preventing Boeing from threatening to move production lines to avoid increasing pay.
Boeing has said it will not comment on the pay negotiations.
“We want to ensure that we can never again be hit mid-contract with threats to take away our livelihoods,” Holden declared. “If we can secure work for the next 50 years, which is the lifetime of an aircraft programme, we’d be helping everyone, not just our members and those that follow them but engineers, management and the whole supply chain.”
Members of The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers will vote in July on whether to approve a mandate for walkouts. However, any strike action will have to wait until September when the current contract expires.
