Why 33,000 Boeing Workers Walked Off the Job

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The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, Business News, News

4.2 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2024

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tens of thousands of Boeing’s unionized workers are on strike after they rejected a new contract last week. WSJ’s Sharon Terlep reports on the rising tensions that have led to this breaking point and what it could mean for the only American manufacturer of both commercial and military aircraft. Further Reading: - Boeing Freezes Hiring, Delays Pay Raises as Strike Worsens Finances - Boeing Union Goes on Strike, Halting 737 Production Further Listening: - Boeing's Long Flight Delay – in Space - Boeing Agrees to Felony Plea. Now Its Future Is Up in the Air. - The Failures Inside Boeing's 737 Factory Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's been a bad year for Boeing.
0:05.0	It's been a bad year for Boeing.
0:08.0	It started in January, when a door panel blew out of one of its planes.
0:13.0	Then in July, the company pleaded guilty to criminal charges
0:18.0	related to 2 737 max crashes in 2018 and 19.
0:22.0	There have also been ongoing supply chain problems and
0:25.6	production delays costing Boeing billions of dollars. And now,
0:30.4	production on its best-selling jets has stopped altogether.
0:35.0	Because on Thursday, 33,000 unionized workers at Boeing voted to go on strike. It's a big deal. This means that Boeing right now can't build all but one of its
0:49.7	aircraft. It means that they're losing a lot of money. If it ends in a day or two, it's more of a blip, but if this is something that continues, it has ripple effects throughout the whole industry.
1:02.0	That's our colleague Sharon Turleip. She was in the room at a
1:06.0	Union Hall in Seattle, Washington as the leaders of the International
1:09.6	Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers announced the outcome of the strike vote.
1:15.0	There were, you know, reporters in the room, there were TV cameras, and everybody kind of guessing which way the vote was going to go.
1:22.0	But then the union president, John Holden, came out on stage and he talked about the vote and how many people turned out.
1:29.0	This is about respect. This is about addressing the past, and this is about fighting for our future.
1:36.0	Our members rejected the contract by 94.6.
1:40.0	Who?
1:41.0	Yeah.
1:42.0	And they voted a whoa! They voted to strike by 96% of the years.
1:50.0	And the room filled with an absolute roar.
1:52.0	There was screaming and yelling for some time
	...

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