Boeing machinists plan vote to end strike
Boeing Co machinists will vote within five days on a contract proposal to end an eight-week strike that shuttered the second-largest planemaker's factories and pushed the 787 Dreamliner further behind schedule.
The agreement for a four-year contract, rather than the usual three years, addresses the concerns of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers over job security and compensation while retaining Boeing's flexibility to manage its business, the sides said in statements last night.
The extended time frame would also buy Chicago-based Boeing an extra year of peace with 27,000 machinists in Washington state, Oregon and Kansas after their union struck four times since 1989. This walkout, which started on Sept 6 and is the third-longest in the IAM's 73-year history, idled Boeing's Seattle-area manufacturing hub and cut profit by about $10.3 million a day.
