Boeing workers voted on the night of September 12 to strike for higher pay, halting production of the planemaker’s strongest-selling aircraft. The workers belonging to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), Boeing’s largest union, voted 94.6% to reject the agreement, and 96% in favor of striking.
In a statement released after the vote, Boeing said it was “ready to get back to the table” to negotiate a deal.
According to The Guardian, recently appointed Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg had previously pleaded with workers not to go on strike, saying the action would put the company’s “recovery in jeopardy.”
About 33,000 workers in Boeing’s U.S. Pacific north-west region voted in favor of a strike — the first since 2008 — beginning at midnight Pacific time on September 13. The two sides had earlier reached a tentative agreement on September 8 after bargaining sessions over the preceding weekend, ahead of the contract expiration on September 12. The agreement included 25% pay increases over the four-year contract, short of the 40% increase pushed by the union.