SEATTLE — Tens of thousands of Boeing machinists voted overwhelmingly to walk off the job early Friday morning after rejecting an offer that would have significantly boosted pay and benefits even as it fell short of other union demands.
A shockingly large number of members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 (IAM) voted in favor of the strike, some 96 percent — far more than the two-thirds needed to launch the work stoppage.
“We strike at midnight,” IAM President Jon Holden told a room of machinists at the Seattle union hall. He was met with loud cheers and a chant of “STRIKE, STRIKE, STRIKE,” from the workers, many of whom carried strike signs.
