Boeing defense workers to go on strike.

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In the year There are 2,500 members of the International Union of Machinists scheduled to go on strike on August 1 at 12:01 a.m. Central Time. The plants are located in St. Louis and St. Charles, Missouri and Mascoutah, Illinois.

“Our members spoke loudly and with one voice,” the association’s statement said. “This company continues to make billions of dollars every year off the backs of our hardworking members. Boeing has already taken pensions from our members and now the company refuses to adequately compensate our members’ 401(k) plans. Allow this company to jeopardize our members’ hard-earned retirements.”

In a statement, Boeing said it was “disappointed” by the rejection of a “strong, highly competitive offer.” The company said the offer is matched dollar-for-dollar up to 10% of employee base and incentive pay for 401(k) contributions. Boeing has offered to make a special contribution of 2 percent of employee pay in 2023 and 2024 and to provide student loan repayment matches for employees’ children.

“We are working on our contingency plan to support continued operations in the event of a strike,” a company statement said.

The proposed three-year deal, in addition to giving employees a $1,000 cash bonus, will increase the average salary by 7.2% in the first year of the contract, according to a company website. Workers received a 4% raise in the second year and a 3% raise in the third year, Boeing said.

Boeing has posted huge losses for the past three years. At the beginning of 2019, net losses totaled $18.1 billion. But those losses were primarily related to its commercial jet business, which grounded the 737 Max for 20 months in 2018. Demand for air travel has dropped significantly since March 2019, following two fatal crashes as well as the pandemic.

The company’s defense, space and security business units posted profits of $1.5 billion in each of the past two years. But Boeing reported a $929 million loss on its defense business in the first quarter of this year, including a $660 million charge to refurbish two of its 747 planes as new Air Force planes.

A strike call and even a strike deadline does not necessarily mean a stoppage of work. But last year, the number of walkouts is increasing, workers have taken a stronger position at the bargaining table in the face of high inflation, eliminating the wage increases offered by employers.

According to data from Cornell University, in the first five months of this year, there were 153 U.S. strikes involving about 73,500 workers, up from 78 strikes involving 22,500 workers in the same period last year.

Rank-and-file workers at several companies have gone on strike after their union leadership reached tentative deals with employers.

That wasn’t the case in this vote: Members voted and rejected the company’s best and final offer. Machine spokesman Dylan Adams said the union’s leadership has proposed no vote by the membership. The union hasn’t given the exact number of votes, but strike permits are overwhelmingly passed.

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