- More than 30,000 Boeing workers, members of the company’s biggest unionized group, were set to strike Friday after staff rejected a new labor contract and approved a strike with a 96% vote.
- The work stoppage will halt production of most of the company’s aircraft, including its best-selling 737 Max.
- The strike is another costly blow to the company trying to increase output and improve its reputation.
The contract vs losses from the strike is about ~1 billion to pay the desired contract or 1.5B to just literally do nothing. I imagine Boeing will either do the usual maneuver, which is let them strike for two months and then, when the workers are softened by the cost of the strike (especially with the cost of living in the northwest), make a minor concession and get something very similar to the original contract they offered.
Alternatively, they can pull the manufacturing plans for their newer models away from union shops and expand their non-union shops. It was the case already that non-union shops, specifically in North Carolina, were handling contracts for the newer models. They said they’d move some of those contracts to union shops in the PNW, but if they were feeling like it, they could just double down on the movement to non union shops and turn the strike into a lockout by management (a “reverse strike”), retain who decides to stay at a lesser contract, and just begin a long-term movement away from their PNW operations.
Basically, I’m unsure (but I’m actually not sure that’s not rhetorical) that the union has enough practical, concrete leverage to get what they want. Since boeing is already hemorrhaging cash, now may be the time for them to pivot on how and where they allocate their labor costs. I wish the strikers luck though, their demands seem reasonable to me.