Boeing, union at strike impasse as company halts talks, withdraws pay offer

The nearly four-week-old strike between Boeing and its key manufacturing union showed no signs of a breakthrough after talks broke down on Tuesday, with no new negotiations planned.The planemaker withdrew its pay offer to around 33,000 US factory workers, saying the union did not consider its proposals seriously after two days of talks.The breakdown compounds financial and production problems at Boeing, one of the two primary global commercial planemakers, and adds to a years-long backlog of deliveries to air carriers reliant on Boeing.The strike would cost Boeing more than $1 billion a month, S&P Global Ratings estimated, while warning of a downgrade of its debt to junk territory.It is carrying a $60 billion debt load.

“The strike puts Boeing’s recovery at risk,” S&P wrote late Tuesday.The stalemate shows no signs of resolution, a person briefed on the talks said.“Unfortunately, the union did not seriously consider our proposals,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes head Stephanie Pope said in a note to the employees, calling the union’s demands “non-negotiable.”“Further negotiations do not make sense at this point,” she said.Boeing has been burning cash in 2024 as it struggles to recover from a January mid-air panel blowout on a new plane that exposed weak safety protocols and spurred US regulators to curb its production.Earlier this year, Boeing replaced its CEO Dave Calhoun with Kelly Ortberg, who started in August with the hope to pull together a labor deal and shore up the company’s reputation with customers and regulators.So far, none of that has happened.Boeing is now examining options to raise billions of dollars to shore up its balance sheet.

Reuters reported that it was looking to sell stock and equity-like securities, with its prized investment grade credit rating at risk.The company has also introduced temporary furloughs for thousands of salaried employees, while the factories producing its best-selling 737...