Boeing Says It Has Made Its ‘Best and Final’ Offer to Striking Workers

The proposal includes raises of 30 percent over the four-year contract, up from a 25 percent offer, but it’s unclear whether it will satisfy workers.

Boeing on Monday made what it described as its “best and final” contract offer to more than 33,000 striking union employees.

The proposal offers benefits beyond those in a tentative contract that the employees, who are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, resoundingly rejected less than two weeks earlier. Boeing gave the workers, most of whom work in commercial aircraft production in the Seattle area, until the end of Friday to accept the offer.

Boeing and the union restarted negotiations last week with the help of a federal mediator. The talks ended on Wednesday with no further negotiation dates scheduled, the union said at the time.

Brian Bryant, the international president of the union, said in a statement on Monday that the organization was reviewing the offer.

“Employees knew Boeing executives could do better, and this shows the workers were right all along,” he said. “The proposal will be analyzed to see if it’s up to the task of helping workers gain adequate ground on prior sacrifices.”

The new proposal includes raises of 30 percent over the four-year term of the contract, up from the previous 25 percent offer. Boeing said it would give each worker $6,000 for approving the deal, double a previous offer. It would also reinstate performance bonuses that were set to be cut and increase a company match for employee 401(k) contributions. The rest is the same as the previous offer.

It isn’t clear whether the offer will satisfy the demands of workers, who were widely frustrated over raises, retirement benefits and other parts of the previous proposal. That deal was rejected by more than 95 percent of the union members who voted on it on Sept. 12, although union leaders had recommended approval. A slightly larger share voted to walk out.

The strike has virtually halted Boeing’s commercial aircraft production. The company makes the 737 Max, its most popular jet, and other planes in the Seattle region, though it also makes the 787 Dreamliner at a nonunion factory in South Carolina. The company had already fallen behind on deliveries of the Max because federal regulators capped production after a panel blew out of one of the planes during a flight in January.

That incident set off a crisis of confidence at Boeing, forcing it to make several changes aimed at improving quality and safety. It also led to a management shake-up, which culminated in the appointment of a new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, last month.

The strike cost the company at least $571 million in its first week, according to an estimate by Anderson Economic Group, a research and consulting firm in Michigan. Within days of the walkout, Boeing enacted a series of cost-cutting measures, including furloughs of white-collar employees.

Leaders of a different union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, rejected the furloughs, saying its contract with Boeing prohibited the company from imposing them on its members, which include engineers and technical workers.

“We don’t see any compelling reason to change the provisions of our collective bargaining agreement,” John Dimas, the union’s president, said in a statement last week. “We rejected the request.”