Security Guard Draws Gun on Striking Boeing Workers

During a Boeing workers' strike early Monday morning, a contract security guard reportedly brandished his firearm towards a crowd of protesters on the union picket line. Thankfully, nobody was injured after the altercation, but this led to an investigation by Boeing that made the guard regret his rash decision.

"An Unacceptable Incident"

Machinists formed a picket line outside of a Boeing parts distribution center in Seattle, Washington. While the specifics of this incident aren't known at this time, the Seattle Times reports that an unnamed contract security guard who worked for security company Allied Universal was in his car when he was arguing with machinists who were on strike.

The guard allegedly drew his gun at the crowd of people before driving away thereafter. The gun didn't go off, and it was reported that the guard pointed it at anybody in particular. A supervisor of the strike intervened.

King County Sheriff's Office public information officer Brandyn Hall noted that deputies responded to "reports of a disturbance" involving the picket line shielding access to the Boeing facility after 6 a.m. that morning. It's not know that if the guard caused or responded to this reported disturbance.

Boeing issued a statement following the incident, mentioning that the actions of the guard were unacceptable and he is not welcome back at Boeing. The statement is followed up with the company expressing it respects employees' rights to protest peacefully and that these protests should always be done in a safe environment. The machinist union doesn't have any comments at this time.

Allied Universal spokesperson Kari Garcia told the Seattle Times that the guard has been discharged from his position at the company. The investigation from the Sheriff's Office has since come to a close.

Boeing's Strike Woes

Boeing workers have been on strike since Friday, and this incident certainly did no favors to make the two sides draw closer to a compromise. According to NPR, this union has around 33,000 members, with around 95% of these members rejecting a new tentative agreement with Boeing.
 

Boeing Chief Finance Officer Brian West claims that the strike poses a threat to the company's recovery efforts, as Boeing is very eager to get its machinists back to work and content with their positions at the company.

A series of unfortunate events, however, tarnished this relationship with Boeing and its workers. The company has been under scrutiny since 2018 and 2019, when two 737 Max 8 jets crashed, killing nearly 350 people on board between the two aircraft.

On January 5 of this year, a door plug reportedly blew out on a Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight, but thankfully, nobody was hurt.

These mishaps apparently have affected employee morale, as Boeing engineer Same Salehpour admitted that Boeing was focused on meeting production goals that the company "took shortcuts" when assembling aircraft such as the 787 Dreamliner. These shortcuts came back to bite the aircraft giant, as new Dreamliner deliveries had to be delayed with losses piling up to $4 billion as a result.

In addition to safety concerns, problems during production have affected the company fiscally. With development problems and parts being made at a snail pace, the company has been losing $1 billion per month due to aircraft waiting for these parts.

Boeing is hopeful that a new agreement can be reached with its machinist union, as the two parties are still in talks at this time.