Striking workers at Boeing Defense rejected the company’s latest contract offer on Friday, sending the stoppage toward its seventh week.
The roughly 3,200 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 837 went on strike on August 4 after rejecting the company’s previous offer.
The St. Louis-area workers assemble the company’s fighter jets and other military products. Boeing has used non-union workers to limit the effects of the work stoppage.
“Our members in St. Louis have once again shown that they will not settle for Boeing’s half-measures,” IAM International President Brian Bryant said in a statement. “Boeing must start listening to its employees and come back to the table with a meaningful offer that respects the sacrifices and skill of these workers.”
The rejected offer included smaller increases to retirement plan contributions and a smaller ratification bonus than those in a contract approved last year by IAM District 751 members who assemble Boeing’s commercial jets in the Northwest.
“We’re disappointed our employees have rejected a five-year offer, including 45% average wage growth,” Boeing Defense Vice President Dan Gillian said in a statement. “We’ve made clear the overall economic framework of our offer will not change, but we have consistently adjusted the offer based on employee and union feedback to better address their concerns.”
No further talks are scheduled, and the company is going forward with its plans to hire permanent replacement workers, he said.
(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle, Editing by Franklin Paul, Kirsten Donovan)
