Boeing sends last offer to union
Proposal includes bonus to workers for ratification
Boeing Co. delivered a final contract offer to its union machinists Thursday that would boost pay by $34,000 on average over three years, the latest effort by the airplane maker to avoid a strike that could cost it millions of dollars a day.
Chicago-based Boeing said the proposed contract was its “best and final” offer and would increase compensation for the roughly 27,000 union workers in Kansas, Oregon and Washington. It includes a $2,500 bonus for workers if the contract is ratified.
The company said it had withdrawn proposals that drew concern from the union, including plans to cut early retiree medical coverage and create a defined-contribution retirement program for future employees.
“This is, as we told the union leadership this morning, our best shot,” Doug Kight, Boeing vice president of human resources, told a news conference Thursday. He called the offer “the best package of pay and benefits in the aerospace industry.”
The two sides have been engaged in negotiations at a Seattle airport hotel since Aug. 21. The current contract expires Wednesday. The last round of negotiations, in 2005, led to a strike.
Peter Arment, an analyst with American Technology Research Inc., said that Boeing has its largest-ever order backlog, and that a strike would mean halting production and deferring revenue on the company’s books.
“So even a small disruption of a week or two can cause a slippage in the delivery schedule,” he said.
A strike could cost Boeing roughly $100 million a day in deferred revenue, Arment said.
Union representatives were reviewing the 300-page final proposal “line by line,” said Connie Kelliher, a spokeswoman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 751.
Boeing’s latest offer comes a day after the company received a counterproposal from the union, which asked for more money and stronger language about job security, according to Kelliher.
The company’s latest offer includes proposed wage increases of 11 percent over three years, pension increases and a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment.
The average Boeing machinist earns $27 an hour, or about $56,000 a year, before overtime and incentives.
In its prior offer earlier this week, Boeing had bumped a proposed wage increase to 9 percent over three years and raised the basic pension benefit. It also included a yearly 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment.