Boeing workers vote on a proposal that could end the strike

Tens of thousands of Boeing engineers will vote Wednesday on a new contract proposal that could end a weeks-long work stoppage at the embattled aerospace company.

Workers overwhelmingly rejected an earlier bid last month, throwing the outcome of the upcoming vote into doubt.

Hours before workers were set to vote, Boeing released an earnings report showing that the company had lost as much as $6.1 billion last quarter, mainly due to costs related to the strike.

“We have some very big rocks we need to get behind us to move the company forward,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a letter to investors on Wednesday.

Ortberg called the strike a problem that must be addressed “first and foremost.”

“We have been working feverishly to find a solution that works for the company and meets the needs of our employees,” Ortberg said.

The new offer provides an increase of 35% over the four-year term of the contract, an increase from the cumulative increase of 25% from the previous offer. However, the offer does not meet the employees’ demand for a cumulative wage increase of 40%.

The proposal also increases Boeing’s contribution to a 401(k) plan, but it refuses to heed workers’ calls to restore the company’s defined benefit plan. The contract includes a $7,000 ratification bonus for each employee, as well as a performance bonus that Boeing had agreed to jettison.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing 33,000 Boeing employees, released a statement on Saturday calling the proposal “worth considering.”

“With the assistance of Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su, we have received a negotiated proposal and resolution to end the strike, which should be presented to members,” IAM said.

The company and its employees suffered significant financial losses during the nearly six-week strike.

Union members have received $250 per week from a strike fund beginning in the third week of the work stoppage. This compensation means a large pay cut for many employees.

Mid-level workers involved in the strike typically earn $20 per hour, which equates to $800 per 40-hour workweek, while higher-paid members earn salaries as high as $100,000 per year, or nearly $2,000 per week.

“The question is whether employees and their union determine that they have the power to get more out of Boeing,” Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group, told ABC News. “It’s about whether they think they can get more out of Boeing, or whether Boeing says, ‘You know what, this is it.'”

The strike would cost Boeing $108 million a day in lost revenue, amounting to as much as $5.5 billion in losses if the work stoppage lasted 50 days, investment bank TD Cowen said in a report published early in the dispute. ABC News was reviewed. . So far the strike has lasted for forty days.

In September, Boeing announced furloughs and pay cuts for some employees in response to the strike. Last week, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg announced plans to cut 17,000 jobs, representing about 10% of its global workforce.

“This is really painful for Boeing,” Richard Aboulafia, director of aerospace consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, told ABC News.

The most recent IAM attack on Boeing in the Pacific Northwest, in 2008, lasted 57 days. Work stoppages by unionized Boeing workers in the same region have historically lasted an average of 60 days, according to an analysis by Bank of America Global Research after examining seven previous strikes, the first in 1948.

Workers will cast their votes in a ratification vote on Wednesday. If a majority of workers support the proposal, the contract will be accepted and the strike will end.

In the days leading up to the vote, the outcome remained unclear, Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis who studies labor, told ABC News.

“What are the workers going to do?” Rosenfeld said. “That’s a very difficult question.”