"Three generations of Merwin family men have built their careers in Boeing's factories.
Tony Merwin, a 30-year Boeing veteran who groomed his three sons for jobs there, is considering something he once believed was unthinkable: "Right now, the way this company is, I would not steer my grandkids toward this company."
American factory jobs used to promise a middle-class life for blue-collar workers like Merwin and his sons, now in their 30s. But that is no longer true for many manufacturing workers -- even as presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have campaigned on reviving such jobs.
That tension is behind the strike at Boeing, where the average machinist makes around $75,000 and wages haven't kept up with the cost of living.
"I've watched my kids struggle to have what they have," said Merwin, 58 years old, a parts inspector who works at Boeing's Auburn, Wash., plant. He will receive a pension when he retires; his youngest son won't. "The opportunity for people coming into this company is not the same as what it used to be."
Some 33,000 members of Boeing's largest union have been on strike since Sept. 13. Members overwhelmingly rejected a contract that would have raised pay by 25% over four years. Boeing sweetened its offer to a 30%, which the union said still falls short.
The union says Boeing, in the past decade, has raised wages by 8% -- when inflation has measured more than 46% nationally.
The Merwin family's connection to Boeing started with Tony's father, Ray Merwin, who in the 1960s was living in South Dakota and working at a gold mine. Ray's uncle had moved to Seattle in the early 1960s for a job at Boeing.
Within the decade, Boeing would construct its sprawling Everett factory, where the company has built planes -- from the 747 to the 787 Dreamliner -- before it moved all production of the 787 to South Carolina.
When Tony was an infant, a relative called his father to join him at the factory. That move, in 1966, started nearly six decades of Merwins at Boeing. Tony's mother, Maria Merwin, took a job as a clerk at the jet maker.
For the young family, Boeing was a way out of low-income, dangerous mining work. Tony recalls growing up in a newly constructed three-bedroom rambler. As Boeing churned out jetliners in the suburbs of Seattle, subdivisions cropped up, populated by ranch and split-level homes.
Microsoft moved there in 1979 and went public seven years later, birthing a wave of young tech millionaires. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com the following decade.
Multimillion-dollar homes filled once-open land and glittering condo towers cropped up along the lake shore. By 2020, Seattle and the surrounding area had among the nation's priciest homes and least-affordable communities.
The median worker at Microsoft in 2023 made nearly $200,000. The average wage at an Amazon warehouse is $22 an hour -- no college degree required -- compared with about $21 on average to start on the line at Boeing.
At 23, Tony was hired as a wing line mechanic on a military plane. He jumped between jobs at Boeing. The work provided a middle-class life, where bonuses and overtime paychecks went toward vacations, band trips and college tuition for his daughter.
"Everybody was able to pay their bills so, when a bonus came, it was, 'I'm going to take a vacation, or I'm going to build a back deck,'" he said. "Now everybody is depending on a bonus as a stopgap for what they can't afford."
By 1999, married with four adolescents, Tony paid $155,000 for a three-bedroom on a large corner lot. His children remember him working often but also having a lot.
"We were able to survive without any problems," said his second son Andy Merwin, who has worked at Boeing for 13 years. "I remember asking my dad how he did that."
Andy, 38, initially was an electrician and later moved into a planning job, represented by a different union. He later got an engineering degree. A father of four, Andy makes $105,000 a year including overtime and lives about 30 miles away. To pay their mortgage, the family also relies on income from his wife, who teaches piano.
The young family is considering moving to Utah where the cost of living is lower and Andy said he thinks he could find another aerospace job.
Tony got divorced in 2014 and moved into an apartment with his brother. He recalls the sticker shock at the $1,300 monthly rent. Tony remarried and, a few years later, the couple moved into a two-bedroom apartment. In 2019 -- their rent closing in on $1,800 -- the couple decided to buy their own place. His wife is disabled and can't work, he said.
They bought a single-wide mobile home on a spacious tract, roughly 45 minutes from work. It cost $235,000. Tony, who made $120,510 this past year, including overtime and a bonus, said they could have swung something slightly higher-end on less land, but opted for the mobile home so they could keep a trailer and two classic Mustangs, for which storage had become too costly.
Almost as shocking to Tony as home prices was the $22 turkey leg at the state fair. He remembers paying $11 last time the couple went in 2018.
"This sounds like first-world problems," he said. "But this was never an issue before. I used to be able to take care of a family of six in a really nice house. The company is not that ticket anymore."
For Tony's sons, Boeing remains a path to homeownership and stability. But it comes with increasing trade offs. His youngest son, Patrick Merwin, 36, joined the Air Force at his father's urging, as had his older brothers. Unlike them, Patrick said, he hoped to avoid Boeing.
After his six-year military stint, newly married, Patrick took a job at an aerospace maintenance operation in North Carolina. He worked there a few years until getting laid off. His family counseled him to return home -- and join Boeing. Patrick went to work for a contractor and eventually got hired by the jet maker at its 737 factory in Renton, Wash. At $20 an hour, Boeing paid $9 an hour less than his contractor gig, but he could work up the pay scale.
Patrick said he saved money by living with his sister and working close to 500 overtime hours his first year. Now, six years after his hire, he makes $46.71 an hour, the top rate for an aircraft test technician. He pays a mortgage on a three-bedroom home, now worth more than $500,000, about an hour south of Renton.
He still works overtime, including most weekends, but he switched to a lower-paying shift so he can spend more time with his children and drive them to and from school.
"We are able to stay afloat," Patrick said. "But not necessarily to thrive."
Tony, Patrick and Tony's oldest son Josh Merwin, who also works at Boeing, recently stood together on a picket line. Tony reminisced about joining a picket line as a teenager in 1977 with his father.
"This company has zero future," Tony said, "if it cannot go back to being able to attract the best and brightest."" [1]
1. A Job at Boeing Isn't the Ticket That It Used to Be. Terlep, Sharon. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 01 Oct 2024: B.1.
