SEATTLE — The machinists' strike against Boeing is now in its 21st day and there are no signs that it will end any time soon. On Thursday, Machinists missed their first paychecks and earlier in the week, healthcare benefits ran out.
“We’re just out here trying to hold our line to get what we need to get," Fred Billedo, a machinist on strike, said. “I’m prepared for this, I’ve been in a few contracts already so I already knew what to look forward to.” Billedo is one of 33,000 workers on strike not getting paid. Negotiations between the union and the company are at a standstill.
"We came ready to negotiate the items our members told us were important, the company wouldn't move on those items, talks broke down and any future scheduled talks were cancelled," said Jon Holden, the president of IAM District 751.
In a statement Boeing said, “We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our represented employees and negotiating in good faith, and want to reach an agreement as soon as possible. We remain prepared to go back to the bargaining table at any time.”
Holden said members are seeking a 40% wage increase over the life of the contract and the return of the pension. At this point, there are no scheduled talks.
“This is born out of a long ten-year extension where they had stagnated wages, they lost their pension, there was a massive cost-shift in healthcare and they had to pay for all of that across a period of the highest inflation we’ve seen in the last 40 years," Holden said.
Boeing declined to tell KING 5 how much the strike is costing the company per day. However, the National Association of Manufacturers estimates a regional economic loss of more than $1.65 billion after just 20 days.
"As far as leverage, yeah, I think we got leverage right now. The company is in bad shape right now, but they did that to themselves," Billedo said. "They're going to make people suffer a little bit before they really come back to the table."
The union said it will stay on the picket lines as long as it takes.
"The company I believe is hoping that the economic pressure of not having that paycheck or having our healthcare run out is going to make our members confidence waiver and it's not," Holden said.