After the White House intervened, Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which represents 33,000 striking workers, reached a temporary agreement on a new contract, with Boeing promising a 35% pay raise over four years.
On the local date of the 19th, IAM issued a statement on its website stating that, in addition to the pay raise, the agreement guarantees a minimum bonus of 4% per year, and if the workers approve the contract, they will also receive an additional bonus of $7,000. The workers' approval vote is scheduled for October 23.
Both the White House and Boeing view this temporary agreement as a breakthrough: on Boeing's side, if the negotiations are successful, it can avoid the high risk of falling into a paralyzing strike; the White House, facing election pressure, will also gain some calm. However, the temporary agreement reached between Boeing and the union does not guarantee that the workers will also comply. Last month, when the first proposal supported by both sides was put to a vote, the employees overwhelmingly rejected the proposal.
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It should be noted that as the strike enters its sixth week, the pressure on Boeing and its suppliers is increasing. The strike that began on September 13 has forced Boeing to shut down the assembly lines for its "cash cow" 737 Max, 767, and 777 aircraft models.
White House Intervention
The timing of the strike chosen by Boeing workers coincides with the timing of the strike chosen by dockworkers on the East Coast of the United States, both starting during a period of stalemate for the U.S. President.
A person who has been dealing with unions in the United States for a long time said that the current period of the strike puts the White House in a difficult position, and stopping or mediating will attract criticism from different sides—if it intervenes, it will definitely cause dissatisfaction among unions; if it does nothing, it will attract attacks from the Republican Party. However, it can be seen from the current series of operations that the White House's inclination is obvious, that is, it is more inclined towards workers' unions.
Recently, the White House sent Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su to Seattle to support the collective bargaining process. She had several meetings with IAM and Boeing's new CEO Kelly Ortberg to break the deadlock.
As the strike enters its sixth week, the pressure on Boeing is increasing. When the strike entered its fifth week, Boeing directly announced layoffs, with a scale of about 10% of the current total number of employees, involving about 170,000 positions, and also postponed the launch of the new large aircraft model 777X to 2026.
On the same day the layoff news was released, Boeing said it expected a significant loss in the third quarter, with a loss of $3 billion in commercial aircraft business and a loss of $2 billion in defense, space, and security business. Over the past five years, Boeing's losses have exceeded $25 billion.Some analysts estimate that Boeing, which has already been hit hard by regulatory and legal crises, will lose up to $1 billion per week due to the strike, but later, after the company took cost-cutting measures, other analysts calculated the loss to be slightly over $1 billion per month. The strike also puts the company's credit rating at risk.

Meanwhile, Boeing has taken preliminary measures to raise funds to support its operations and maintain its investment-grade credit rating. The company has reached a $10 billion credit loan agreement with banks and has submitted an application for a plan to raise up to $25 billion in funds over the next three years.
If the strike issue can be resolved, it will provide momentum for Oetberger, who joined Boeing in August this year and is tasked with reforming operations. Currently, he is scheduled to speak to analysts and investors for the first time on October 23, when Boeing announces its third-quarter results.
Liu Zhi, an associate professor and doctoral supervisor at the Department of Organization and Strategic Management at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, said that the problems of (Boeing) are systemic issues, not accidental events. Without a systemic plan, it is difficult to eliminate them all at once. Even with a systemic plan, it takes time to take effect. "A building doesn't collapse in a day, nor can it be built in a day," Liu Zhi said.
Yves Doz, a global technology and innovation professor at INSEAD, who has been studying Boeing for many years, said that the transformation of Boeing's corporate culture requires time to permeate the company's operations. "The latest board members of Boeing's board of directors are likely only now beginning to make significant progress."
Can it escape the risk of paralysis?
The strike led by IAM this time marks the first major labor dispute at Boeing in 16 years. The last strike by IAM members occurred in 2008 and lasted for 54 days.
Boeing's hourly workers are demanding a 40% pay raise and better retirement benefits, due to their dissatisfaction with the negligible wage growth over the past decade, while senior executives have received generous returns.
The latest agreement addresses many of the workers' dissatisfaction with the company's previous proposals. However, the plan does not restore Boeing's defined benefit pension plan. Instead, Boeing will increase its contributions to the workers' retirement savings plan. Boeing will make a one-time contribution of $5,000 to the 401(k) plan of all eligible workers and fully match their contributions up to 8% of their wages.
The White House issued a statement after both parties confirmed the agreement, stating that the collective bargaining process is the best way to achieve good results for workers, and the final decision on the contract will be made by union workers.Striking workers may not necessarily approve of this temporary agreement. Last month, after employees overwhelmingly rejected an agreement, Boeing made two higher offers, proposing a 30% wage increase for workers.
In a statement, Boeing said, "We look forward to our employees voting on the negotiated plan."
Even if the current agreement is approved, it is unknown whether Boeing can appease workers' long-standing dissatisfaction with Boeing's negotiation strategies, such as threatening to move passenger aircraft production out of the Seattle area unless aircraft mechanics agree to concessions, including losing pensions.
In January of this year, a 737Max aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines exploded mid-flight, leaving a large hole in the side of the plane. This incident triggered multiple federal investigations in the United States and led the Federal Aviation Administration to limit the number of 737Max aircraft manufactured by Boeing.
Looking back, Boeing has undergone several fundamental changes, but it seems not to have realized how ambitious and difficult these changes were, Dong Si said.
Boeing established a larger global partner network, but these partners lacked sufficient cooperation experience. This alone was a significant transformation.
"As reliance on partners increased, Boeing focused on system integration and final assembly, losing some deep industrial competitiveness. In the face of increasingly fierce competition from rival Airbus, Boeing turned to composite materials, making this transformation more difficult and imposing a cost-saving culture on itself. Poor corporate governance, a backlog of orders, and an unreasonable composition of board members lacking information made it impossible for Boeing to realistically perceive and assess the various dangers it faced," he explained.