Boeing Co. has reached a tentative pact with workers at its commercial plan division that could end a three-week strike that threatened to impact scores of local suppliers.
Machinists are set to vote Thursday on whether to approve a proposed three-year deal.
Approval would let Boeing immediately make airplanes again for the first time since Boeing workers at plants in Seattle, Wichita, Kan., and Gresham, Ore., walked off after failing to agree with Boeing on terms for a three-year pact.
The two sides had been about $1 billion apart in wages and pension and health benefits. Company watchers expected the strike to last at least a month.
“The total cost to Boeing is similar to the previous contract offer and meets our definition of a reasonable settlement,” Alan Mulally, the head of Boeing’s commercial airplanes division, said in a statement.
The union’s leadership urged its 18,400 members to accept the agreement, saying it will address key issues including healthcare premiums and pension payouts.
Boeing said the deal makes no changes to its current healthcare plan,despite huge increases in healthcare costs nationwide.
The proposal also:
,Ups pension payouts for union members to $70 per month for every year served, up from $60 currently. The previous offer was $66.
,Continues offering retiree medical benefits for new hires. The previous offer called for taking that perk away from future employees.
,Provides an 8% signing bonus, or about $5,000. New hires also get $3,000 payouts in the second and third years of the contract. There is no general wage increase.
Some Orange County suppliers to Boeing said the strike hadn’t impacted them yet. Boeing asked them to continue production and delivery so it could resume making plans upon striking a deal with workers, they said.
“Boeing is telling us to manufacture and deliver to them as per normal procedures, and to continue to ramp up as rapidly as possible to meet their growth requirements,” said Anne Brown, spokeswoman for Alcoa Inc.’s fastening systems operations, which employ nearly 1,000 people in Fullerton.
The strike hasn’t impacted Boeing’s operations in OC, which focus on defense contracts, satellites and other areas. The company employs 12,200 people in Anaheim, Irvine, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach. Others from OC work at the company’s Long Beach operations.
