Commercial Aircraft Production Will Be Halted

Boeing's biggest union went on strike at midnight Friday, the first mass job action the Chicago-based aerospace giant has seen in a decade. Production was shutting down on the company's commercial lines even as new jet orders hit a four-year high.

Boeing's offer to union machinists was "an insulting, take-away, job-stealing offer," Mark Blondin, president of District 751 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said at a strike meeting Thursday night. He was quoted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.The rank and file agreed, 86-percent of them voting to walk off the job.

"Strike, strike, strike," they chanted, their voices ringing out in the Puget Sound union hall.

As Aero-News reported earlier in the week, Boeing made its "best and final" offer to its machinists on Tuesday, offering two $3,000 bonuses and a 50-percent match if union members banked that money in their 401K plans. But that offer was turned down by the union, setting the stage for Friday morning's walkout.

Some 16,500 machinists work for Boeing in Washington's Puget Sound. Another 900 or so went on strike in Portland, OR, and 900 more in Wichita, KS.

The last time machinists went out on strike against Boeing was 1995 -- they were off the job for 69 days.

"We are only part of the work force that builds these airplanes, but we all deserve to be rewarded," said Brad Herrick, 43, a Renton toolmaker quoted by the Post-Intelligencer.

FMI: www.boeing.com, www.iamaw.org