Striking Boeing workers rejected a recent deal. Here’s what happens next

Boeing machinists overwhelmingly rejected a deal proposal this week, opting to extend a weekslong strike and send negotiators back to the bargaining table.

Sixty-four percent of workers voted against the recent deal, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing 33,000 Boeing workers in Washington, Oregon and California.

The outcome follows the resounding loss of a previous proposal last month, which drew rebuke from more than 90% of union members.

The consecutive “no” votes set the stage for a standoff between Boeing and its workers that will strain the finances of both sides over the coming days and weeks, experts told ABC information. That monetary pressure will push the dispute toward resolution but workers appear unlikely to budge without major concessions, they added.

“The union has sent a very obvious communication to Boeing that it will receive significantly more to get a settlement,” Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who focuses on labor history, told ABC information.

The proposed deal would have delivered a 35% raise over the four-year duration of the deal, upping the 25% cumulative raise provided in a previous propose overwhelmingly rejected by workers in a vote last month. Workers had initially sought a 40% cumulative pay boost.

The proposal also called for hiking Boeing’s contribution to a 401(k) schedule, but it declined to fulfill workers’ call for a reinstatement of the business’s defined superannuation. The deal would have included a $7,000 ratification bonus for each worker, as well as a act bonus that Boeing had sought to jettison.

But union leaders said the concessions offered in the proposal were not enough to meet the demands of rank-and-file union members.

“This deal battle began over ten years ago when the business overreached and created a wound that may never heal for many members,” said Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751 in Seattle, in a statement after the vote. “I don’t have to inform you all how challenging it has been for our membership through the pandemic, the crashes, massive expense boost, and the require to address the losses stemming from the 2014 deal.”

Boeing did not immediately respond to ABC information’ request for comment.

Experts who spoke to ABC information forecasted a willingness on the part of Boeing to reenter talks and even revisit key parts of the propose.

Hours before workers cast ballots on Wednesday, Boeing released an returns update showing the business had lost a staggering $6.1 billion over the most recent quarter, even though most of that period took place before the strike began.

The strike is expected to deepen that monetary hole. A 50-day work stoppage would expense Boeing $5.5 billion, property financial institution TD Cowen said in a update reviewed by ABC information at the outset of the dispute. So far, the strike has lasted 41 days.

“This rejection adds further uncertainty, costs, and recovery delays,” financial institution of America Global Research said in a note to clients on Thursday. “We anticipate further concessions of wages will be required for a deal to pass.”

monetary stress will mount for workers as well, experts said.

Union members have received $250 per week from a strike financing apportionment, beginning in the third week of the work stoppage. That compensation marks a major pay cut for many of the employees.

“When strikes leave longer than five or six weeks, the monetary pressures really commence to work on the union rank and file,” Robert Forrant, a professor of U.S. history and labor studies at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, told ABC information.

While union members remain widely opposed to the latest deal propose, it drew greater back than the first one. That incremental advancement may prompt Boeing to continue the way of upping worker pay while standing firm in its refusal to reinstate a defined superannuation, Ryan Stygar, a labor lawyer at San Diego, California-based Centurion Trial Attorneys, told ABC information.

Workers lost a traditional superannuation schedule in a deal ratified by the union in 2014. The union’s demand for reinstatement of the superannuation may appeal more to longtime employees who feel they’ve lost superannuation benefits than younger ones who’ve joined the business since its shift to a 401(k), Stygar said.

“Boeing’s way will be to try to exploit that generational divide,” Stygar said, noting that increased pay and a larger ratification bonus may entice younger workers to back a upcoming proposal even if it omits superannuation reinstatement.

“As the strike goes on and Boeing’s losses accumulate, I ponder we will view more aggressive negotiation,” Stygar added, saying the standoff could stretch on for another two to four weeks.

“But I don’t have a crystal ball,” Stygar said.

ABC information’ Jack Moore and Ayesha Ali contributed to this update.