Boeing Strike Enters Second Week at Arms Manufacturing Plants

Read our editorial on the significance of strikes here.

Boeing manufacturing workers in Missouri and Illinois have been on strike since August 4 after rejecting a second contract proposal from the company the night before. The striking workers, 3,200 strong, are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local 837. They assemble military jets and drones at factories in St. Louis and St. Charles, Missouri and Mascoutah, Illinois.

The rejection of the second contract proposal and the start of the strike—the local’s first since 1996—came after workers already voted to reject the company’s first contract proposal at the end of July. The first proposal included a new scheduling system of four consecutive 10-hour days or three consecutive 12-hour shifts, which would make overtime pay difficult to reach while increasing labor intensity amid Boeing’s widespread layoffs. While the IAM union brass recommended this proposal, workers overwhelmingly rejected it.

The second proposal eliminated the proposed scheduling system while maintaining the same provisions on wage raises and 401(k) matches. Boeing said the proposal includes 20% wage increases over 4 years and an average wage increase of 40% when other pay raises are added. According to the Consumer Price Index, the rate of inflation over the past 4 years was 21%—at this rate, Boeing’s proposed “wage increase” amounts to a real wage decrease. According to workers on social media, most workers will not qualify for these wage increases, with one worker describing the 40% increase as a “farce,” and another telling monopoly media that most workers will realistically only get a 12% increase over the 4 years.

Workers are also demanding that the company matches 100% of the worker’s contribution to 401(k) instead of the 75% that is currently proposed. During last year’s Boeing strike in Washington, the company conceded to the 100% matching, which the IAM leadership accepted despite workers demanding the restoration of pensions in place of 401(k).

Boeing stated this week that they currently have no plans to schedule negotiations with the union.

As one of the top five monopolies of the US military-industrial complex, Boeing’s military technology sector accounts for over a third of its revenue, and the St. Louis area plants are the primary producers of the company’s F-15s, as well as the new US military jet, F-47s. Boeing has multiple contracts for its F-15s—including a $5.2 billion contract with the Israeli Defense Ministry from November 2024 and a $615 million dollar contract with the US Department of Defense this January. More recently, Boeing invested $1.8 billion to expand the St. Louis plant for the production of the F-47 after receiving a $20 billion contract for its production this year.

This is the latest in a series of strikes by workers at arms manufacturing monopolies as US imperialism desperately ramps up its arms spending while rampaging across the oppressed countries. The seven-week strike of Boeing workers in Washington last fall cost the company around $100 million a day and over $6 billion in the third quarter alone.

Note: This article was updated 8/14 to clarify that the strike was initiated after the second contract proposal was rejected by the workers, not after the rejection of the first proposal in late July.

Image: IAM Local 837 workers on the picket line in Berkley MO, St Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune.

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