Boeing Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer

Boeing Co. production workers on Tuesday rejected the company’s latest contract offer over the advice of union leaders, extending a 47-day strike against the world’s largest commercial jet manufacturer.

Members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers voted by 60.9% to reject a three-year contract negotiated last weekend with the help of a federal mediator, union leaders said.

“We still have a labor dispute going on,” said local President Bill Johnson. A Boeing official said, “We are extremely disappointed the company’s proposal for a new contract was rejected.”

Union negotiators had recommended acceptance, saying the pact would boost pensions, offer some protection against potential job losses through subcontracting, avoid any increase in health care costs for retirees and scale down health care cost increases. The deal was significantly better than the offer rejected by more than 3-to-1 in the strike vote Oct. 5.

The sticking point, however, was a requirement that workers begin paying part of their health care insurance premiums to remain in the most popular health plan.

Strikers also were angered by word Tuesday that five top executives, including Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frank Shrontz, had become eligible for $2.5 million in bonuses due to rising stock prices.

Boeing posted profits of $856 million last year, and the strike was prompted in part by a feeling that more of those profits should be shared with the workers.

From a public-relations standpoint, “The timing couldn’t be worse,” said aerospace industry analyst Bill Whitlow at Pacific Crest Securities.

Boeing executives are paid less than their counterparts at similar corporations, so the bonuses were not considered excessive when they were approved, company spokesman Paul Binder said.

The union represents about 32,000 riveters, painters, crane operators and other workers.