Boeing makes final 30% pay hike offer to striking workers, Reuters

(Reuters) – Boeing raised its pay proposal for thousands of striking workers on Monday, offering an across-the-board pay increase of 30 percent over four years in what it called its “best and final” offer , as the strike drags on.

The US planemaker is also offering to reinstate a performance bonus, improve retirement and double a ratification bonus to $6,000 if workers accept by Friday.

Seattle-area Boeing (NYSE: ) workers who build the planemaker’s best-selling 737 MAX jetliner and other planes assembled at its Washington state plants went on strike Sept. 13 after rejecting their first full contract in 16 years.

Boeing has frozen hiring and begun furloughs for thousands of U.S. workers to cut costs. A prolonged strike could cost several billion dollars, wrecking the planemaker’s already strained finances and threatening a downgrade to its credit rating.

The strike, Boeing’s first since 2008, is the latest event in a tumultuous year for the company, which began with an incident in January when a door panel detached mid-air from a new 737 MAX plane.

Workers at the plant rejected an earlier preliminary deal between Boeing and the union that offered a 25 percent raise over four years and a commitment that a new plane would be manufactured in the Seattle area if it was launched during the four-year deal.

A union spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aeronautical Workers was not immediately available for comment.