Airlines waiting on Boeing plane deliveries can breathe a sigh of relief following news the Boeing workers’ strike is over.
Tens of thousands of striking Boeing machinists cast ballots on 04NOV that approved a contract offer and ended their work stoppage after seven weeks, ABC News reports.
Boeing machinists voted by 59% to accept the contract and end the strike.
"While the past few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team," Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a message to employees. "There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company."
Multiple news outlets report the machinists will get a 38% pay raise over four months.
With no airplane production in nearly two months, Boeing will face a backlog of work and, no doubt, eager calls from airlines waiting for new deliveries.
Forbes.com reports the 33,000 striking machinists will begin to return on O6NOV, but that it will “take months to restart deliveries of the aircraft at an appreciable level. Even then, Boeing will continue to lag its rival, Airbus, in delivery of the aircraft variants for years into the future, owing to limits imposed by regulators on production and certification in the wake of years of accidents and quality incidents.”
“It’s time we all come back together and focus on rebuilding the business and delivering the world’s best airplanes,” Ortberg wrote in a recent memo to Boeing workers. “There are a lot of people depending on us.”
Boeing and its shareholders have lost about $5.5 billion since the strike began in September, ABC News said, citing a report last month from the Anderson Economic Group.
