British Broadcasting CorporationMore than 30,000 Boeing employees went on strike after the union rejected a deal that would have offered higher wages in exchange for lost bonuses and pensions.
The employee strike is now entering its second week, with no sign of any agreement with Boeing management.
We asked workers on the picket line outside the Boeing plant in Auburn, Washington, why they felt they had no choice but to strike.
Many strikers interviewed by the BBC cited the loss of bonuses and pensions, as well as inflation and the cost of living, as reasons for their strike.
Davon Smith, 37, earns less than $28 (£21) an hour installing wings on Boeing 777X aircraft, which sell for more than $400m (£300m) each. He also worked as a bouncer at a bar to make ends meet.
“It kept me afloat a little bit,” he said of his part-time security job.
His fiancée earns more than he does as a secretary in a Seattle school.
Smith, who has only been with Boeing for a year, said his salary doesn’t compensate for the level of safety he puts into making sure planes don’t malfunction.
He said he feared he could be held criminally responsible if he didn’t do his job well.
“Every time we build an airplane to their specifications, we’re pretty much risking our lives. Because if anything goes wrong — like the torque is out of spec or something like that — and the airplane could crash, we’re obviously going to get [jail] It’s time,” he said.
A deal tentatively agreed to by union representatives and Boeing would give workers 25% salary increase in four years.
It also provides improved health care and retirement benefits, 12 weeks of paid parental leave, and gives union members a greater say on safety and quality issues.
However, the union’s original goal of a 40% wage increase was almost 95% of union members who voted rejected the deal.
Many are still angry about benefits lost in contract negotiations years ago, especially superannuation, which guaranteed certain payouts in retirement.
The company now contributes to employee investment accounts called 401(k)s, whose value is affected by the strength of the stock market.
“They took everything away. They took away our pensions, they took away our bonuses that our people depended on,” said Mari Baker, 61. She started working for Boeing in 1996 and currently works as a chandler, overseeing the tools used in the factory.
She called the rejected deal “a slap in the face,” but said she worries about losing her health insurance at the end of the month if the strike continues and whether she can afford prescription drugs.
Boeing declined to comment for this story, pointing to earlier comments from senior executives pledging to recalibrate its relationship with workers and reach a deal as quickly as possible.
Before the shutdown, the company was already facing deepening financial losses and struggling to repair its reputation after a series of safety issues.
New CEO Kelly Ortberg, appointed to turn the company around, urged workers not to strike or else there would be a strike. Putting company’s recovery at risk.
On Wednesday, the company announced Tens of thousands of employees suspended from work In the United States as a money-saving way to deal with strikes.
Patrick Anderson, chief executive of Anderson Economic Group, a research and consulting firm, said Boeing is a company “on the edge of a cliff.”
His company estimates that in its first week alone, the strike has cost the company’s workers and its suppliers more than $100 million in lost wages, and caused more than $440 million in economic losses to shareholders.
“This strike threatens not just revenue but the company’s reputation, which has already suffered huge damage,” he said.
Workers on the picket line dismissed threats to the company, saying they had nothing to lose.
“I couldn’t pay the mortgage last year when I was working here,” said Kerri Foster, 47, who joined Boeing last year after leaving her previous career as a nurse and now works as an aerospace machinist.
Foster said she “doesn’t make enough to pay my basic bills.” At the same time, the cost of living is increasing, as are mortgage and property taxes.
Although she will lose income while the strike continues, she is willing to continue the strike until wages are increased and pensions are reinstated.
“I’m already hungry. I mean, if you can’t pay your bills when you go to work, what difference does it make?” she said.
Ryan Roberson, 38, works in Boeing’s assembly division. On Wednesday, he took two of his six children with him to the picket line.
As an employee who has been with Boeing for less than a year, the plan rejected by the union will not have any impact on his salary. The pay increase will only be for those who have worked for more than a year.
He said he planned to continue the strike until “entry-level workers can earn a living wage.”
The International Union of Machinists and Aviation Workers, which represents the strikers, has issued debit cards to members.
As the strike enters its third week, workers will receive $250 per week, which will be deposited onto a card.
$250 “can buy you a lot of top-shelf ramen,” Robertson said, referring to ultra-cheap instant noodles.
Marc Cisneros, 29, said he was on strike because “it seemed unfair that I couldn’t pay my rent, given the amount of work I do and the quality of my output.”
Boeing, he said, “kept me in deep poverty even though I was working 40, 50, 60 hours a week.”
Cisneros has been with Boeing for four years. His girlfriend also works there. His mother also worked there and “made a lot of money” to support him and his siblings.
He said he was proud to work for Boeing but was disappointed that he was not being paid at the company where he hoped to work until retirement.
“I mean it’s dangerous. It’s big chunks of metal flying through the sky,” he said.
“You have to be proud of quality [and] Everything you do here. Every product we make has our name on it.
