Senators call on Boeing to end eight-week-long St. Louis strike

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By Dan Catchpole

(Reuters) -U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders urged Boeing in a letter sent on Wednesday to end an eight-week-long strike in the St. Louis area, where it produces fighters, munitions and other military aircraft.

“Do the right thing,” Sanders said in his letter to Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg.

“Sign a fair contract,” he said, with the roughly 3,200 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 837 who went on strike on August 4. 

Boeing management has said the company will not significantly increase its offer, which workers rejected. 

Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who often votes with Democrats, along with Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, used a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday to slam Boeing’s stance in labor talks.

The committee was reviewing President Donald Trump’s nominations to key labor positions, including Boeing’s chief labor counsel Scott Mayer to the National Labor Relations Board. 

“The concept of fairness is an elusive one,” Mayer said when asked by Hawley what would be a “fair resolution” to the strike. Mayer noted he was not speaking for the company.

Boeing declined to comment on the hearing.

Hawley and Sanders criticized Boeing for giving recent CEOs substantial compensation packages, but holding out against the IAM’s proposals.

“Fairness may be elusive, but that doesn’t look like fairness to me,” Hawley said.

Boeing’s board approved $22 million for Ortberg in 2025. The IAM estimates its proposal would cost Boeing $40 million a year on average.

(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle, Editing by Alistair Bell)