Boeing’s machinists ratified a new contract on November 4, 2024. The company’s 737 assembly operation resumed production in early December. Between those milestones sat the work of restarting an aircraft factory: preparing employees, lining up tools and parts, and bringing production back under the company’s safety and quality procedures.
The interval matters when assessing what the settlement achieved. It ended a work stoppage that began on September 13 and established new compensation terms for approximately 33,000 members of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers districts 751 and W24. It also allowed Boeing to begin recovering an industrial operation already struggling with quality problems before the strike.
The contract’s most prominent figures—38% and 43.65%—described the same scheduled wage increases in different ways. The four annual increases were 13%, 9%, 9% and 7%. Adding them produces 38%; applying each increase to the wage established by the preceding increase produces approximately 43.65%. The latter captures the compounded change in the wage base over the agreement’s four years, rather than a raise paid entirely at ratification.
Other provisions addressed different parts of household compensation. Members received a $12,000 ratification bonus, with a choice of cash, a 401(k) contribution or a combination. The agreement reinstated an annual incentive plan with a minimum 4% payout and provided a full employer match on employee retirement contributions up to 8%, alongside a separate 4% company contribution. These amounts served different purposes: an immediate payment, recurring incentive income and retirement savings. Treating them as one headline wage percentage would obscure the settlement’s structure.
Returning employees did not immediately produce a normal flow of completed jets. Bloomberg reported on December 10 that Boeing had spent the weeks after the strike arranging parts and tools and recertifying hourly workers. The company’s November aircraft deliveries came from inventory built before the stoppage. That distinction separates aircraft handed to customers from new aircraft moving through assembly.
Boeing’s subsequent annual report placed the 737 restart in early December and described plans for a gradual production increase. It also documented why a return to the pre-strike routine was insufficient. Following the January 2024 Alaska Airlines accident, Boeing had slowed production and delayed increases to improve quality and reduce work carried forward unfinished. Its measures included inspecting fuselages at supplier Spirit AeroSystems before shipment to Boeing.
The strike therefore interrupted a factory system undergoing repair; settling it did not complete that repair. The labor agreement restored the ability to staff production under an accepted contract. Quality controls, supplier readiness and the pace of assembly still determined how many aircraft could move reliably toward delivery.
In its January 28, 2025 results covering the final quarter of 2024, Boeing confirmed production had resumed across the 737, 767 and 777/777X programs. It reported 57 commercial aircraft deliveries for the quarter, compared with 157 a year earlier. Those figures show the scale of the disrupted quarter, but they do not isolate the strike’s effect from the company’s other production problems.
For the workforce, November delivered a substantially different compensation agreement. For Boeing and its suppliers, December marked the beginning of rebuilding output. The two dates describe connected achievements, measured by different evidence: a ratified contract and aircraft moving through production again.
Sources
- IAM Union Workers At Boeing Achieve Contract Victory to Set New Standards For Aerospace Industry — International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers · 2024-11-04.
- 2024 Annual Report / Form 10-K — Boeing. Link repaired to the SEC filing of the same annual report.
- Boeing Resumes 737 Output After Deliveries Hit Four-Year Low — Bloomberg via BNN Bloomberg · 2024-12-10.
- Boeing Reports Fourth Quarter Results — Boeing · 2025-01-28.