Boeing defense workers reject latest offer, extending strike

More than 3,000 Boeing defense workers on strike in the US Midwest since August voted to reject the company's latest contract offer, their union said

Boeing Co. factory workers in St. Louis rejected a new five-year contract that would boost wages by an average of 24%, extending a three-month strike that has disrupted the company’s main military manufacturing hub.

“Boeing claimed they listened to their employees – the result of today’s vote proves they have not,” International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union International President Brian Bryant said in a statement announcing the outcome.

The 3,200 members of the IAM District 837 began their strike in the early hours of Aug. 4. The strife has drawn rebukes from Senators Josh Hawley and Bernie Sanders and disrupted production of Boeing military aircraft such as the F-15EX fighter jet.

Investors will be looking for more detail on the financial ramifications when Boeing Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg hosts an earnings call on Oct. 29. The dispute is also being monitored by the union representing Boeing’s 19,000 engineers and technical workers, whose contract expires next October.

The strike has affected F-15 deliveries to the US Air Force’s Portland National Guard base and will delay international deliveries next year, Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said in a report to clients on Sunday.

The first labor strife in about three decades has been acrimonious at times, with the union filing an unfair labor complaint against Boeing, and the Arlington, Virginia-based manufacturer holding job fairs and hiring replacement workers.

Boeing is staffing up as it prepares to build the F-47 stealth fighter in the St. Louis area. The defense and space division generates almost a third of the company’s revenue.