Boeing Workers Return to Work After Ending Strike

Boeing Machinists union member Michael Olebar of Shoreline, Wash., dumps ballots on the table of...

Boeing Machinists union member Michael Olebar of Shoreline, Wash., dumps ballots on the table of fellow union members Karla, left, and Patrick Kingsella of Kirkland, Wash., after union members voted on a new contract offered by the company at the International Association of Machinists union hall in Seattle, Saturday Nov. 1, 2008. By 74% union members voted to accept the offer ending a 57-day strike. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

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Boeing Co. production workers began returning Sunday night to the factories where they build jetliners, one day after they voted to end a costly eight-week strike that clipped profits and stalled deliveries by the world's No. 2 commercial airplane maker.

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers went on strike Sept. 6, costing Boeing an estimated $100 million a day in deferred revenue and production delays on the company's highly anticipated next-generation passenger jet.

The workers ended the walkout on Saturday by ratifying a new contract with Boeing. Members of the union, which represents about 27,000 workers at plants in Washington state, Oregon and Kansas, voted about 74 percent in favor of the proposal five days after the two sides tentatively agreed to the deal and union leaders recommended its approval.

Third-shift workers began returning to work late Sunday night.

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"This contract gives the workers at Boeing an opportunity to share in the extraordinary success this company has achieved over the past several years," Mark Blondin, the union's aerospace coordinator and chief negotiator, said in a union news release.

"It also recognizes the need to act with foresight to protect the next generation of aerospace jobs. These members helped make Boeing the company it is today, and they have every right to be a part of its future," he said.

The union has said the contract protects more than 5,000 factory jobs, prevents the outsourcing of certain positions and preserves health care benefits. It also promises pay increases over four years rather than three, as outlined in earlier offers.

The union members, including electricians, painters, mechanics and other production workers, lost an average of about $7,000 in base pay during the strike. They had rejected earlier proposals by the company, headquartered in Chicago.

It was the union's fourth strike against Boeing in two decades and its longest since 1995. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers staged strikes against Boeing for 24 days in 2005, 69 days in 1995 and 48 days in 1989.