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Boeing workers strike, the first in 16 years

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Boeing’s U.S. West Coast factory workers walked off the job on Friday after overwhelmingly rejecting a contract deal, halting production of the planemaker’s strongest-selling model and sending shares down over 2%.

This is the company’s first strike in 16 years. The previous strike was in 2008 and lasted more than 50 days, paralyzing production and costing Boeing some 100 million dollars per day, according to U.S. media such as WSJ and FT.

New CEO Kelly Ortberg was brought in just weeks ago to restore faith in the planemaker and proposed a deal including a pay rise of 25% over four years, far lower than the 40% workers had demanded.

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Roughly 30,000 International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) members who produce Boeing’s top selling 737 MAX and other jets in the Seattle and Portland areas voted on their first full contract in 16 years, with 94.6% rejecting it and 96% favoring a strike in a two-part ballot.

“This is about fighting for our future,” said Jon Holden, who headed the negotiations for Boeing’s largest union, before announcing the vote result on Thursday evening. The union will get back to the table as quickly as it can, Holden told reporters, without saying how long he thought the strike would last or when talks would resume.

Boeing said it was ready to get back to the negotiating table, a sign that it could sweeten the deal.

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