St. Louis-area Boeing machinists returned to work this week after reaching a new contract agreement with the company.
The settlement of the strike came during the 15th week of a bitter fight over pay and benefits for members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 union. The 68% to 32% vote was on the company’s fifth contract proposal and was the sixth vote overall since the strike began Aug. 4.
Labor experts said time caught up to the strikers. After more than three months of missing paychecks and losing health insurance, members settled for less than the union proposed.
“Really I think the members just realized that no matter how long we were going to be out on strike, we really weren’t going to get much more out of the contract,” said union member Frank Maniaci.
Boeing said after the vote Thursday that it was pleased with the result. The company declined to comment on the impact of the strike.
‘Time is the enemy of the union’
The strike was the longest in Boeing’s St. Louis history.
Michael Duff, St. Louis University law professor and an expert on employment law, said he teaches his labor law students that “time is the enemy of the union.”
“You're coming up on the holidays,” Duff said. “You're coming into winter, you can’t imagine being out on the picket line during the winter. All those kinds of things start to factor in.”
Duff served as a union shop steward in the airline industry before he started his law career.
“Rank-and-file union members … they're realists, you know, they look at the overall terrain, and they say, it’s not worth it to me right now,” Duff said.
The day of the vote, most members appeared relieved. Even the 38% that voted no were largely ready to return to work.
Union member Davon Evanson did not share how he voted but said he was happy with the result.
“It’s not ideal, but I’m just glad it’s over for real,” Evanson said. “We all work insanely hard. We should be paid more. But not getting paid is not fun either.”
Compared to negotiations with Seattle Boeing workers in 2024, company leadership in St. Louis responded more aggressively to the strike, said Jake Rosenfeld, Washington University sociology professor and labor expert.
The contract also has a lesser ratification bonus and 401(k) match than a union-proposed offer that the company didn't accept despite overwhelming approval from union members.
One of the company’s main threats to St. Louis workers was hiring permanent replacements, and the company said it already hired some. That strategy was not employed in Seattle.
“I anticipate a lot of the workers were surprised just how dug in the company remained and just how firm they stuck to a lot of their core negotiating stances throughout,” Rosenfeld said.
Last week’s contract ratification guaranteed that no union workers would be displaced by replacements.
Who won?
Compared to Boeing’s first two proposals that resulted in overwhelming rejections and the strike, the final contract includes two wins for the machinists: $1,000 more in their ratification bonus of $6,000 and an extra year of pay raises for top-paid employees.
In its third-quarter earnings report released Oct. 29, Boeing posted $23 billion in revenue. This profitable quarter further convinced union members that the company had the ability to pay them more than it was proposing.
Company officials said the average base pay will go from $75,000 to $109,000 a year. Most employees get an 8% general wage increase in the first year and 4% in each of the following years of the five-year contract.
For top-paid employees, the new contract added a 1.5% general wage increase and a 2.5% lump sum in year four for top-paid employees. This replaced a 5% lump sum with no wage increase.
The tradeoff for these improvements, though, was 15 weeks without pay.
Rosenfeld said he thinks the so-called winner of the strike isn’t necessarily a cut-and-dried answer.
“On the one hand, it's a much better contract than the one the workers were laboring under,” Rosenfeld said. “So that's an indication of a win, but it does raise the question of what the last couple of months were really all about.”
The previous deal that expired in July included a 14% general wage increase over three years, the same 401(k) plan and an $8,000 lump sum payment.
He said even though the monetary gain wasn’t what they were hoping for, the union members gained something from this experience.
“The workers learned a lot about their internal solidarity here. I think it's impressive how they were able to maintain such solidarity for such a long period of time,” Rosenfeld said. “They learned a lot about the company's stance towards them and what the company believes they deserve at work.”
Duff agrees, saying the strike was still worth it because the union explored its “power to say no.”
He said he thinks the company won in this dispute, and he thinks most rank-and-file union members would agree.
“I don't see how you can look at what the union got and think that the company didn't win, right? The company did win,” Duff said. “But the question is, will the company and similar companies win out into the future?”
Long-term effects
Duff and Rosenfeld said that a lot could change in the next few years. Much of future contract negotiations for Boeing and other companies depends on the health of the larger economy.
Rosenfeld said that in disputes like this, union members’ memories last a long time. If the economy and Boeing are in good shape, he said they will likely be ready to fight in 2030 when the next contract negotiation comes around.
Duff agrees.
“They will never forget this,” Duff said. “They will never forget that the company was profitable and wouldn't give them a raise that seemed to be equivalent to what other similarly situated workers were receiving.”
For other unions, Duff said skyrocketing health care premiums and the emergence of AI, along with other changes to the economy, is leaving workers more vulnerable. He said unions must show that they are willing to fight back against major companies, and the St. Louis machinists did just that.
“In the economy that I see coming, I think unions are simply going to have to be more militant,” Duff said.
