Boeing Workers in St. Louis to Go on Strike on Monday

Boeing workers in the St. Louis area will strike on Monday after rejecting the company's latest contract offer. IAM District 837 members, who assemble Boeing's fighter jets, have implemented their contingency plan. Boeing's Air Dominance vice president and general manager Dan Gillian said the company is prepared for the strike. The strike is related to contract negotiations between Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union.

Boeing workers in the St. Louis area will strike on Monday after rejecting the company's latest contract offer. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 837 members, who assemble Boeing's fighter jets, have implemented their contingency plan. Boeing's Air Dominance vice president and general manager Dan Gillian stated that the company is prepared for the strike.

The strike is related to contract negotiations between Boeing and the IAM union. The workers rejected a deal that would have raised wages by 20% and boosted retirement contributions. The union last went on strike in 1996, with the stoppage lasting 99 days [1].

Boeing's latest offer included a 40% average wage increase over four years and resolved alternative work schedule issues. However, the union members rejected the proposal after a weeklong cooling-off period. "We're disappointed our employees rejected an offer that featured 40% average wage growth and resolved their primary issue on alternative work schedules," said Dan Gillian [2].

The strike will amplify financial pressure on Boeing's defense and space division, which generates almost a third of the company's revenue. The operation that's now gone on strike is far smaller than the civil aircraft business that was severely affected last year by a walkout, which brought manufacturing in the Seattle area to a standstill for weeks and contributed to Boeing selling equity worth almost $24 billion [1].

Boeing's defense business was profitable for a second consecutive quarter, the company said last month. The company managed to improve the performance of fixed-price development programs responsible for previous overruns [1].

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg downplayed the potential fallout from the strike during the company's July 29 earnings call. "The order of magnitude of this is much, much less than what we saw last fall," Ortberg said, noting that the St. Louis union is about 1/10 the size of the Seattle-based union that struck last fall. "I wouldn't worry too much about the implications of the strike. We'll manage our way through that" [2].

Boeing has been struggling after two of its 737 Max airplanes crashed, one in Indonesia in 2018 and the other in Ethiopia in 2019, killing 346 people. In June, one of Boeing's Dreamliner planes, operated by Air India, crashed, killing at least 260 people. Last week, Boeing reported that its second-quarter revenue had improved and losses had narrowed [3].

References:
[1] https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/boeing-defense-union-strikes-for-first-time-in-almost-30-years-101754334880910.html
[2] https://www.businessinsider.com/thousands-boeing-workers-make-f-16-fa-18-fighters-strike-2025-8
[3] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/boeing-strike-build-fighter-jets/