New York (AFP) – Labor leaders reached a tentative agreement with Boeing that could resolve a strike in the aviation giant’s defense business, the union announced Wednesday. Some 3,200 workers in Missouri and Illinois are set to vote Friday on a preliminary agreement that includes wage increases, said a press release from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union.
Boeing confirmed the development and expressed hope that striking workers would accept the deal. “We’ve found a path forward on a 5-year contract offer that grows wages by 45% on average,” said Boeing vice president Dan Gillian. “It remains the best deal we’ve ever offered to IAM 837 and we encourage our team to vote yes so we can get back to work building amazing products for our customers.”
Workers walked off the job on August 4 after voting down an earlier contract offer. Boeing announced last week that it was launching a recruitment drive to find “permanent” manufacturing workers to replace the striking employees. IAM is one of North America’s largest unions, representing some 600,000 members in aerospace, defense, shipbuilding, transportation, health care, manufacturing, and other industries.
Products produced at Boeing’s St. Louis operation include the F-15 and F-18 combat aircraft, the T-7 Red Hawk Advanced Pilot Training System, and the MQ-25 unmanned aircraft. The site was originally part of the McDonnell Douglas company, which Boeing acquired in 1997. The strike comes on the heels of a much larger stoppage in Boeing’s commercial aviation business involving some 33,000 workers who halted production at Pacific Northwest factories for more than seven weeks.
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