Boeing workers on strike for the 1st time in 16 years after 96% vote to reject contract

• Of the roughly 30,000 union members, 96 percent of them voted in favor of the strike.
• Boeing's proposed deal included a pay rise of 25% over four years, which was far lower than the 40% workers had demanded.
• The decision also comes as Boeing faces intense scrutiny from regulators and customers amid a series of crises, including when door panel blew off a 737 Max Alaska Air jetliner while in January.

Boeing workers walked off the job early Friday to begin picketing outside the company's plants around Seattle after voting to strike for the first time since 2008.

The overwhelming vote to reject a contract deal is expected to halt operations in the Seattle area – the hub of Boeing's commercial plane manufacturing – and disrupt the company's supply chain, Reuters reported. The decision also comes as Boeing faces intense scrutiny from regulators and customers amid a series of crises, including when a door panel blew off a 737 Max Alaska Air jetliner in mid-air in January.

Tens of thousands of machinists voted Thursday to reject a proposed deal between the company and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM,) whose members produce Boeing's 737 MAX and other jets in the Seattle and Portland areas. The rejection was despite the significantly boosted pay and benefits the deal would have offered, according to multiple reports.

Of the roughly 30,000 union members, 96% voted in favor of the strike, according to reports. Just two-thirds were needed to approve a work stoppage, Reuters reported.

The strike could be seen as a blow to new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took over in August with the mandate to restore the company's image as the premier American aerospace manufacturer. Ortberg's proposed deal included a pay rise of 25% over four years, which was far lower than the 40% workers had demanded, Reuters reported.

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Workers reject Boeing's proposed deal

As recently as Sunday, it appeared a deal was imminent when Boeing announced it had reached a tentative agreement with a union to avert a crippling strike.

That proposed four-year contract included concessions such as a general wage increase of 25% and a commitment to build the next commercial airplane in the Seattle area, provided the program was launched within the four years of the contract. The deal also included better retirement benefits and gave the union more input into the safety and quality of the production system.

Although union leadership called it "the best contract we've negotiated in our history," many workers were angry about the loss of an annual bonus, larger raises and other original demands.

"This is about respect, this is about addressing the past, and this is about fighting for our future," said Jon Holden, who headed the negotiations for Boeing's largest union, before announcing the vote result on Thursday evening, per Reuters.

Strike begins; Boeing wants to get back to bargaining table

Even before Thursday's vote, workers had been protesting this week at Boeing factories in the Seattle area that assemble Boeing's Max 777 and 767 jets.

Now that the strike is in effect, workers assembled shortly after midnight outside factory entrances, waving placards reading "On Strike Against Boeing." Some motorists passing by honked their horns in support, according to Reuters.

Some workers indicated they're willing to maintain the picket line for the long haul.

“I’m willing to strike for two months or even longer," said James Mann, a 26-year-old who works in a wings division at Boeing. "Let’s go as long as it takes to get what we deserve."

But for Boeing leaders, they're hoping to get union officials back to the bargaining table as quickly as possible.

"We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our employees and the union, and we are ready to get back to the table to reach a new agreement," the planemaker said in a statement on Thursday to Reuters.

Holden told reporters that "we're going to get back to the table as quickly as we can," Reuters reported. He did not say how long he thought the strike would last or when talks would resume.

"This is something that we take one day at a time, one week at a time.”

The Biden administration had been closely monitoring the talks, with Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su last week urging the sides in an interview with Reuters to get a "fair contract."

Boeing faces string of crises

The strike is the latest in a series of high-profile setbacks for Boeing.

The aerospace company has been plagued by multiple safety incidents beginning with two crashes of 737 Max jets that left 346 people dead in 2018 and 2019. Those wrecks were ultimately attributed to poorly designed, undisclosed flight control software, and Boeing agreed to plead guilty to one count of criminal fraud in connection with the case.

Then in January, an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 lost a door panel that blew off a section of its fuselage shortly after takeoff. No serious injuries were reported, but more than 100 planes were again grounded, and regulatory scrutiny of Boeing ramped up.

Boeing also experienced major setbacks with its Starliner spacecraft, which it designed and built to one day make crewed missions to the International Space Station for NASA. The Starliner's first crewed test flight encountered a slew of technical issues that forced NASA to return it to Earth last week without its crew, who remain at the space station.

The task of returning the Starliner astronauts to Earth will instead fall to Boeing's spaceflight competitor, SpaceX.

Contributing: Zach Wichter, USA TODAY; Reuters

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com