Well for Boeing, three thousand and one workers walked off the job overnight, which could cause serious problems for an already troubled company. There’s talk in the press that key workers were planning a wash and steak this morning. Alex Hague was going to picket here at midnight. It’s not yet clear how long the strike will last, but tens of thousands of workers voted and 96 percent said they support the strike. Thirty-three thousand union members protested by walking off the job this morning. The company is now set to shut down production. Because union members have overwhelmingly rejected the latest contract offered by the troubled aviation company. This is about respect. It’s about addressing the past and fighting for our future. Aircraft assembly workers, mainly in Seattle, are rejecting Boeing’s latest strike.
In which they offered a twenty-five percent pay increase over four years, but the workers are demanding more. They claim they haven’t received a pay raise in sixteen years. Been here for thirty-seven years and this is one of the historically worst contracts the unions initially demanded. Boeing’s new CEO said in a statement that I know we can get back on track, but a strike would put our shared recovery at risk, as would losing your pension and Luxor last time, at least me personally, because they have a lot of trust with the union.
Boeing has a lot to lose, company officials have warned that a strike would be a blow to the already struggling airline company. They have suffered a spate of deadly plane crashes in recent years. The plane’s door panel blew off in the middle of the flight and the spacecraft had problems, I had to leave the astronauts behind on the International Space Station, this could have an impact of millions of dollars. Maybe tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, if it’s a long-lasting strike. So certainly the value of that plane that Boeing may not be able to deliver.