Boeing faces possible strike on Friday over labor contract

Boeing faces a possible strike as early as Friday if most of the U.S. planemaker's factory workers in the Pacific Northwest vote on Thursday to back a work stoppage and reject a tentative deal that has enraged many of them. Roughly 30,000 workers who produce Boeing's 737 MAX, 767 and 777 jets in the Seattle area and Portland, Oregon, will vote on their first full contract in 16 years. A key union negotiator has acknowledged that many of the workers are angry because they wanted bigger wage hikes and other improvements. A strike will take place if the majority of workers vote to reject the preliminary deal and at least two-thirds vote to strike, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). Workers' discontent with the preliminary agreement reached on Sunday has been on display in some of Boeing's Seattle-area factories, with employees holding marches, banging pots and pans and blowing horns this week, one worker said. According to a note from TD Cowen, a 50-day strike could cost Boeing an estimated $3b to $3.5b of cash flow. The Boeing workers' last strike in 2008 shuttered plants for 52 days and hit revenue by an estimated $100m per day. "What I'm seeing is that there are a lot of angry people over many of the issues that they care deeply about," said Jon Holden, who headed the negotiations for IAM, Boeing's largest union. "We might see them vote this down and vote to go on strike,” Holden, president of the IAM's district 751, told Reuters.<br/>