Boeing, union agree on 4-year deal

SEATTLE, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Boeing Co. and the union representing its machinists Monday announced agreement in Seattle on a four-year contract that could end a 52-day strike.

Negotiators for Boeing and the International Association of Machinists met through the weekend and came to terms on a deal for the union's 27,000 Boeing workers, The Seattle Times said Monday.

The machinists are to vote on the contract this week. In a statement, the union said the deal "will provide job security" and limit how much work "outside vendors can perform in the workplace."

Boeing issued a statement saying the deal provides annual pay raises and improved pension benefits, while allowing the company to retain "the flexibility necessary to manage its business, while making changes to the contract language to address the union's issues on job security, pay and benefits."

The company said it had dropped its insistence on healthcare changes that would have had employees pay more for their coverage.

Striking union machinists at the Boeing assembly plant in Everett, Wash., said the strike was about protecting their jobs from outsourcing, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Boeing's white-collar union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, agreed Monday to postpone the opening session of its contract talks, The Seattle Times said. The talks, scheduled to begin Tuesday, will begin Wednesday instead.