Associated Press, by Cathy Bussewitz
NEW YORK (AP) – Thousands of workers from the three Midwest manufacturing plants where Boeing developed military aircraft and weapons continued their strike early Monday, potentially complicating progress in recovering the aerospace company’s financial foundations.
The strike began at the Boeing facility in St. Louis. St. Charles, Missouri. Illinois Mascouta, approximately 3,200 local members of the International Association of Mechanics and Aerospace Workers voted on Sunday to reject the four-year labor agreement, the union said.
“The 837 members of the IAM District will build aircraft and defense systems that will keep our country safe,” Sam Sisinelli, general vice president of the Union Midwest Division, said in a statement. “They deserve a contract that keeps their families safe and keeps them aware of their unparalleled expertise.”
The vote continued through a week-long cooling period after rejecting previous proposal contracts that included a 20% wage increase over four years and a $5,000 ratification bonus.
Boeing warned over the weekend that workers were anticipating a strike after rejecting their latest offer, which didn’t further boost the proposed wage hike. However, the proposal removed the scheduling clause that affects workers’ ability to obtain overtime salaries.
“We’re committed to providing a great opportunity to help you,” said Dangillian, Vice President and General Manager of Boeing Air Dominance and Senior at St. Louis Sight Executive. “We are ready for strikes and we have fully implemented our contingency plan to ensure that our non-strike workforce can continue to support our customers.”
Boeing’s defense, space and security business accounts for more than a third of the company’s revenue. But Boeing CEO Kelly Autoberg told analysts last week that the impact of the strikes by mechanics who built fighter jets, weapons systems and unmanned aerial vehicles based in their first career in the US Navy was far less than the strike last year by 33,000 workers gathering the company’s commercial jet guns.
“This is much smaller in size than we saw last fall,” Autoberg said. “So we manage through this. We don’t worry too much about the meaning of a strike.”
The 2024 strike closed Boeing’s factory in Washington for over seven weeks during dark times for the company. Boeing was subjected to several federal investigations last year after door plugs were blown off the largest plane of the 737 during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
The Federal Aviation Administration has set limits on Boeing plane production. This will continue until the company is confident in manufacturing the company’s quality protection measures. The door plug incident renewed concerns about the safety of the 737 Max. Two planes crashed five months apart in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
Ortberg told analysts that the company is slowly moving slowly to the maximum production cap of its FAA set 737, which is 38 a month, and is hoping to ask regulators for permits that exceed that later this year.
Last week, Boeing reported that second quarter revenues improved, narrowing losses. The company lost $6111 million in the second quarter, comparing it to a loss of $1.44 billion in the same period last year.
Boeing Co.’s shares were less than 1% before opening bell Monday.
Original issue: August 4, 2025, 8:20am EDT
