Boeing Contract Deal

I guess Boeing decided that planes falling apart in the sky due to its grotesque profit-taking and unionbusting was maybe a time not to double down on that ideology.

Boeing reached a tentative agreement early Sunday with its machinists union, a deal that could help it avoid a costly and damaging strike as it seeks to recover from a series of crises.

The deal with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 is unprecedented, with a 25 percent general wage increase for all employees over four years along with a reduction in workers’ health-care costs and an increase in the amount Boeing contributes to workers’ retirement plans. But perhaps more significantly, the deal includes a commitment by Boeing that it will build its next new aircraft in Washington state.

Both sides hailed the agreement — the firstentirelynew one since 2008.

“After 16 years, we finally got back to the bargaining table to fight for what you deserve and bargain the full agreement,” the bargaining team wrote in a message to members, recommending that they ratify the deal. “In that time, the world has changed, and so have we.”

This is actually, to quote Biden as VP, a Big Fucking Deal.

Boeing has been a leader in destroying its unions through moving plants to nonunion states for a long time now. It’s former CEO was one of the leaders in the “workers shouldn’t be eligible for Social Security until their 70s” guys all while moving everything possible out of Washington to South Carolina. So committing to actually building in Washington means a lot of jobs and a lot of good union jobs. Might even mean safe planes! Imagine!