Key Points and Summary – Despite what appears to be an imminent strike vote by 3,200 machinists at its St. Louis defense plants, Boeing’s leadership is expressing confidence that major programs, such as the F-47 fighter, will not be significantly affected.
-On a recent earnings call, CEO Robert Kelly Ortberg stated the company would “manage through” a potential strike, noting it is much smaller than previous walkouts.
-This confidence is also rooted in a new contracting strategy where high-risk development programs like the F-47 are “cost plus,” not fixed-price, protecting the company from the financial risks that made past strikes so damaging.
Boeing Optimistic that Strike Will Not Affect F-47 Program
There’s a strike brewing on the horizon at one of America’s biggest aerospace companies.
Machinists at Boeing, represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, will vote on a modified offer from the company on Sunday.
If they reject the offer, they could strike as early as Monday. The modified offer comes after Boeing machinists rejected an earlier offer from the company late last month, saying that the offer “fell short of addressing the priorities and sacrifices” made by Boeing machinists.
The offer from Boeing would have provided machinists with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ District 837 with a 20% pay increase, staggered over the next four years, a $5,000 ratification bonus, as well as an expanded sick and vacation leave policy.
But despite the headwinds, Boeing is projecting, outwardly at least, confidence that the strike can be resolved and will not result in a significant loss of revenue or serious delay to the company’s aerospace projects.
Earnings Call
During Boeing’s second-quarter earnings call, Robert Kelly Ortberg, the President, Chief Executive Officer & Director of Boeing, addressed the issue of the strike. To put the strike “in context, it’s about 3,200 employees. They build the fighters, mechanics, they build the fighters and our munitions business in St. Louis and St. Charles,” Ortberg said.
“So the order of magnitude of this is much, much less than what we saw last fall. That was roughly 30,000 machinists,” he added. “So we’ll manage through this. I wouldn’t worry too much about the implications of the strike. We’ll manage our way through that.”
Speaking to Reuters, Dan Gillian, Boeing’s Air Dominance vice president, said the offer was “the richest contract offer we’ve ever presented to IAM 837, which addressed all their stated priorities.” He added that Boeing has “activated our contingency plan and are focused on preparing for a strike. No talks are scheduled with the union.”
Previous Strike
That larger strike Ortberg referenced occurred last fall and included about 33,000 machinists, who walked out and stopped production at two Boeing facilities, in Everett and Renton, both in Washington. That 53-day strike was particularly punishing for Boeing. During the 53-day production pause, the company incurred an estimated $5.5 billion in losses. The timing was also unhelpful for Boeing.
At the time, the company was still dealing with the fallout after a panel section came loose and separated from a Boeing 737 MAX 9, which grounded the fleet and brought a spotlight from lawmakers, media, and the public on Boeing’s manufacturing quality and safety.
That event and strike were particularly damaging for Boeing’s non-military, commercial products. Boeing’s defense section, however, accounts for less revenue than the commercial side.
New Contracting Strategy
Confidence despite the specter of strikes also stems from how Boeing agrees to contracts now. Ortberg took over Boeing last year, a year that saw the company hemorrhaging cash after several high-profile accidents and project cost overruns. However, the company has adopted a new strategy, particularly for contracts with the Pentagon: it will no longer offer fixed-price development contracts.
“A couple of points is we are, as we’re entering into these new contracts, we’re following our process to make sure that we only enter into the appropriate contracting type,” Ortberg explained.
“So these recent big wins we have, the development parts of those programs have all been cost plus. So we’re not making the errors of the past and signing up for fixed price development, high risk programs.”
F-47 and the F/A-XX
Boeing won several high-profile contracts from the U.S. government, including the KC-46 Pegasus tanker airplane, the T-7 trainer jet, the F-15EX Eagle II, and, of course, the F-47.
That last aircraft is the United States Air Force’s upcoming sixth-generation manned fighter jet, and what could end up being the last manned fighter built for the United States Air Force.
Although it has not entered mass production, the program is still in the prototyping phase ahead of flight tests—funding for that Air Force program appears to be at loggerheads with funding for multiple other Department of Defense projects.
Notable among the big-ticket items clamoring for defense dollars is the U.S. Navy’s upcoming F/A-XX fighter. Although the Navy would like to move ahead with that project, it is unclear what the F/A-XX’s future is.
What Happens Next?
In any event, Boeing seems to be signaling a preparedness for this smaller strike. And, combined with the company’s more strategic contracting approach, along with other projects already on the books, it stands a good chance of weathering this storm. And that is all good news for the F-47 project.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
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Thomas Schoon
August 2, 2025 at 6:10 am
You know what!? f**k Boeing, after the Starliner space ship debacle I wouldn’t give them a contract to make a kite…….. Cost plus😠😡🤬😮👎