SEATTLE — Boeing Machinists have rejected a contract offer meant to end the five-week strike, with 64% voting against the proposal.

Boeing’s unionized Machinists walked out on Sept. 13, with 96% of members voting to authorize a strike. The work stoppage has taken a toll on the company and on workers, who are living without paychecks or company-provided health care benefits.

Wednesday’s vote means 33,000 union members will not go back to work in Boeing’s factories in Everett, Renton and elsewhere. Instead, they’ll remain on the picket line in hopes of securing a deal that meets more of their demands.

“We have made tremendous gains in this agreement, in many of the areas our members said are important to them,” Machinists District 751 President Jon Holden said immediately after the Wednesday night vote. “However we have not achieved enough to meet our members demands. ...

“We remain on strike.”

Nine polling locations across the Pacific Northwest — stretching from Auburn to Moses Lake to Portland — and California closed at 5 p.m. PDT, though those in line could still cast their vote after the deadline.

For Boeing, the strike, as well as a year of slow production following a January incident when a panel blew off a 737 MAX 9, has contributed to the company’s dire financial situation.

Boeing lost $6.2 billion in the third quarter of this year — its largest loss in the past five years, with one exception during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2020.

Boeing will reduce its workforce by 10%, cutting 17,000 jobs in the coming months, though CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday morning that the layoffs were due to overstaffing rather than the impact of the strike.

Ortberg told analysts on a call before the evening’s vote that his team has a “detailed return-to-work plan in place” for when the strike ends. But, he noted that restarting production is harder than turning it off.

Echoing sentiments he has expressed in the past, Ortberg said he was committed to resetting the company’s relationship with the unionized workforce responsible for putting the planes together.

“When they’re back on the floor, I’ll be back on the floor helping improve that relationship,” Ortberg said before Wednesday’s votes were tallied.

The past few weeks of negotiations turned tense, with both parties accusing the other of failing to bargain in good faith. The Machinists walked out on an unfair labor practice strike in September. Boeing later filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the Machinists union leadership in October.

The latest offer came Saturday after Boeing and union leadership met with acting Labor Secretary Julie Su for several days in Seattle. Union leadership did not endorse the offer but told members when scheduling the vote that the latest proposal is “worthy of your consideration.”

That’s a different approach than the union leadership took last time. Early in September, days before the strike vote, union leadership and Boeing reached a tentative contract agreement and the union’s top brass endorsed the deal, calling it “the best contract we’ve negotiated in our history.”

Union members roundly dismissed the proposal, with 94% voting against it and 96% voting to strike.

Boeing made a second offer in September, but the Machinists union did not bring it to a vote. The union said the proposal did not meet its members’ demands and it did not like that Boeing presented the offer to the media shortly after it was sent to the union’s negotiating committee, away from the bargaining table.

The latest proposal included a 35% general wage increase over the span of the four-year contract, an increase from Boeing’s previous offers but still shy of the raise some Machinists wanted to see. It also increased the company’s contribution to a 401(k) retirement plan, guaranteed a 4% annual bonus and tacked on a one-time $7,000 bonus if ratified.

Workers who opposed the latest contract offer were vocal about their decision to vote no, while those who supported it often asked to remain anonymous.

“I voted to accept it but probably wouldn’t be honest about that with all my co-workers,” said one Machinist, as he read the ‘vote no’ leaflet he had been handed when he walked toward the Everett arena where voting was taking place.

Speaking before the votes were tallied, he described himself as “totally stuck in the middle,” when it came to deciding how to vote. He supported those who wanted to stay out on strike in hopes of restoring the pension, but with four kids under 4 years old, his financial situation trumped everything else.

That worker and two others who voted in favor of the contract both said they were concerned about Boeing’s financial future, and worried that at some point they might not have jobs to come back to.

Diana Truong, a 25-year Boeing veteran, cited similar reasons for her decision to vote yes. “Look at the economy,” she said at the Renton Union Hall on Wednesday. “It’s really bad right now. You’re lucky you have a job.”

Kevin Flynn, Thomas Gilbraith and Pat Flint, who all work on the flight line in Everett, stood together Wednesday afternoon holding their picket signs stamped with black block letters that read “vote no.” All said they believed Boeing could offer a higher wage increase, particularly in the first year of the contract.

“In light of the fact that we didn’t get a whole lot the last 10-plus years ... this newer one is just barely going to cover the inflation we’ve experienced,” Flynn said.

“They need to front-load it ... to try to bring us back from the past,” Gilbraith said.

Flynn had hoped that new Boeing CEO Ortberg would have done more to resolve the strike, before it started and now that’s it dragged on for so long.

“I was expecting the new CEO to say ‘hey we’re not going to cheap out on these guys,’ ” Flynn said. “In the big picture, we’re not asking for an impossible number.”

Those who voted to approve the contract said they worried about newer hires struggling financially during the strike, while those who voted to reject it said they wanted better pay for those same employees.

“I hope the kids don’t fall for it again,” said Kelly Day, who was hired in 1996 and assembles planes, referring to past contract votes.

Day brought up previous Boeing leaders and their earnings, like former CEO Dave Calhoun, who stepped down earlier this year and in 2023 received compensation worth $23.6 million.

“Where is the justice for us?” she said.

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