The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny announced this morn­ing that it has ten­ta­tive­ly reached a labor agree­ment with the Inter­na­tion­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Machin­ists (IAM) that will ensure the next gen­er­a­tion of its 737 nar­row-body jet (known as the MAX) will be built in Ren­ton, Wash­ing­ton, where pro­duc­tion of the cur­rent 737 is based.

A depic­tion of the new Boe­ing 737 Max, which includes a new fam­i­ly of engines. (Image cour­tesy of The Boe­ing Company). 

“The 737 MAX builds upon the lega­cy of the world’s best sin­gle-aisle air­plane and con­tin­ues to gen­er­ate over­whelm­ing response from our cus­tomers,” said Jim Albaugh, the head of Beo­ing Com­mer­cial Air­planes, in a state­ment.

“If our employ­ees rat­i­fy a new agree­ment, build­ing the 737 MAX in Ren­ton will secure a long and pros­per­ous future there, as well as at oth­er sites in the Puget Sound area and in Port­land, Ore., where 737 parts are built.”

IAM Dis­trict Lodge 751 Pres­i­dent Tom Wrob­lews­ki described the deal as an “extra­or­di­nary pro­pos­al.” “[This deal will] secure thou­sands of jobs while rais­ing Machin­ists’ pay and pen­sions,” he said. “Hope­ful­ly it also sig­nals the start of a new rela­tion­ship that can both meet our mem­bers’ expec­ta­tions for good jobs, while giv­ing Boe­ing the sta­bil­i­ty and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty it needs to succeed.”

A rat­i­fi­ca­tion vote on the agree­ment by Machin­ist mem­bers has been sched­uled for Wednes­day, Decem­ber 7th. That’s exact­ly one week from today.

The IAM says the agree­ment nego­ti­at­ed with Boe­ing includes the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions con­cern­ing fair wages and ben­e­fits for its members:

• Annu­al wage increas­es of 2 per­cent, plus cost-of-liv­ing adjustments;
• An incen­tive pro­gram intend­ed to pay bonus­es between 2 and 4 percent;
• A rat­i­fi­ca­tion bonus of $5,000 for each member;
• Increas­es to the for­mu­la for cal­cu­lat­ing pen­sions in each year of the pact; and
• Guar­an­tees that new hires would con­tin­ue to receive tra­di­tion­al pensions.

NPI con­grat­u­lates IAM and Boe­ing on reach­ing this his­toric agree­ment. This is, with­out ques­tion, great news for the eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty of not just our Machin­ist broth­ers and sis­ters, but for all Washingtonians.

Aero­space has long been one of our state’s most impor­tant indus­tries — it has jus­ti­fi­ably been called the rock on which our state’s econ­o­my is built. And no com­pa­ny is more impor­tant to our aero­space sec­tor than Boeing.

Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire was quick to praise the deal.

“I com­mend both Boe­ing man­age­ment and the Machin­ists for com­ing to the table, nego­ti­at­ing in good faith and work­ing togeth­er to reach an agree­ment. This ten­ta­tive deal rec­og­nizes the tal­ent of Boeing’s high­ly trained work­force, while pro­vid­ing the com­pa­ny the con­fi­dence it needs to assure its cus­tomers that planes will be deliv­ered on sched­ule. And as this sec­tor becomes increas­ing­ly com­pet­i­tive, this ini­tial agree­ment shows a strong com­mit­ment by both sides to secure the future of aero­space in Wash­ing­ton,” she said.

Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell agreed.

“This is a tsuna­mi-sized deal between Boe­ing and the Machin­ists union,” she said. “It is a trans­for­ma­tion of the rela­tion­ship between the com­pa­ny and work­ers to focus on qual­i­ty, per­for­mance, and incentives.”

“This deal keeps jobs in the North­west with the 737 MAX pro­duc­tion and keeps the long-term skillset of build­ing fuel effi­cient planes in the North­west. The Puget Sound area wins because it means the North­west will con­tin­ue to be the epi­cen­ter of aero­space jobs long into the future.”