Boeing Machinists' Complaints About 777X Vote Rejected

Boeing machinists who opposed January's 777X contract vote have suffered another loss. The National Labor Relations Board has told them it is rejecting their complaints about how the vote was held. The decision: The vote didn't matter because parent union had the authority to accept Boeing's offer without a ratification vote.

The decision is discouraging to machinists who were counting on the national labor board to bring Boeing back to the negotiating table. The vote, which accepted Boeing’s offer by a slim margin, sacrificed the company pension plan and took away Machinists’ right to strike for a decade.

One class of Machinists’ complaints remains. The labor board says it is still considering complaints about Boeing's threat to take the 777X out of state if workers voted against the contract. Some Machinists said that would have been retaliation for labor activity, which has been illegal since the 1930s.