109,000 Boeing workers receive bonuses

SEATTLE – About 109,000 Boeing Co. workers received bonuses totaling $439 million this week, as part of an employee incentive plan that rewards workers if the company meets certain financial targets.

The money, delivered in workers’ paychecks Thursday, was the equivalent of 14 days’ pay, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

It was paid out to non-union workers and some union-covered engineers and technical workers, but not to the Machinists union members who assemble Boeing’s commercial airplanes in the Puget Sound area.

The Machinists were offered participation in an incentive plan during contract talks last year, but it was not in the final agreement that the union members accepted after a four-week strike.

In all, about 45,000 of the more than 62,000 Boeing workers in the Seattle area received a total of $182 million in bonus pay.

Chicago-based Boeing’s board decided on the payment in late January, using undisclosed financial targets.

The plan allows for an annual payment of up to 20 days’ pay.