By Dan Catchpole
(Reuters) -Boeing Defense has put contract negotiations with the striking machinists union on hold and has no plans to return to the table until at least after the Labor Day holiday, union officials said on Tuesday.
Talks between the two had only just resumed the day before for the first time since the strike began onĀ August 4.
“There are no negotiations currently scheduled,” a BoeingĀ spokesperson said.
She declined to comment further.Ā
Roughly 3,200 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ (IAM) District 837 went on strike at Boeing Defense’s St. Louis-area facilities after rejecting the company’s four-year contract offer. They assemble Boeing’s F-15 and F/A-18 fighters, the T-7 trainer jet, munitions, and wing sections for the company’s commercial 777X jet.
In a post on X, theĀ congressional Labor Caucus urged Boeing to resume talks, adding that “Boeing workers are the backbone of the company, and it’s time for them to receive the strong contract that they deserve.”
The company has managed to maintain production, flight testing and other work so far using non-union workers, Boeing Defense spokesperson Didi VanNierop said.
Last week, Boeing’s top executive in St. Louis, Dan Gillian, defendedĀ the offer rejected by IAM District 837 members, saying, “Our offer was strong then and is strong now with an average of 40% wage growth.”
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told Wall Street analysts in July that a strike by St. Louis workers would affect the company much less than the one Boeing endured last fall, when 33,000 machinists at Boeing’s commercial plane division walked out for seven weeks.
“We’ll manage through this,” Ortberg said.
That strike ended after IAM District 751 members accepted a four-year contract with a 38% general wage increase, higher retirement plan contributions, an annual bonus and a $12,000 signing bonus.
The offer rejected by St. Louis-area workers included a 20% general wage increase, a $5,000 ratification bonus and more vacation time and sick leave. At the time, Boeing said the bonus would not be offered again if that offer was rejected.
(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Christopher Cushing)
