The company said it was taking steps to conserve cash while its CEO looks for ways to come up with a contract that the unionized factory workers will accept. The strike started soon after a regional branch of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers reported that in a Thursday vote, Many of the workers who spoke to reporters said they considered the wage offer inadequate given how much the cost of living has increase in the Pacific Northwest.
Boeing also met a key union demand by promising to build its next new plane in Washington state. The head of the union local, IAM District President Jon Holden, said the union would survey members to find out which issues they want to stress when negotiations resume.
Boeing Chief Financial Officer Brian West, speaking Friday at an investor conference in California, said the company was disappointed that it had a deal with union leadership, only to see it rejected by rank-and-file workers. During the strike, Boeing will lose an important source of cash: Airlines pay most of the purchase price when they take delivery of a new plane.
He declined to estimate the financial impact of the strike, saying it would depend on how long the walkout lasts. Very little has gone right for Boeing this year, from a panel blowing out and leaving a gaping hole in one of its passenger jets in January to NASA leaving two astronauts in space rather sending them home on a problem-plagued Boeing spacecraft.
The walkout likely will not stop production of Boeing Dreamliners, which are built by nonunion workers in South Carolina. Ortberg faced a difficult position, according to union leader Holden, because machinists were bitter about stagnant wages and concessions they have made since on pensions and health care to prevent the company from moving jobs elsewhere.
