But the IAM strike happened after the airplane was already delayed. You can maybe blame them for a day for day slide so 50 days out of 3 years.
I hate unions as much as anybody but you just can't blame them for everything.
There is much Boeing could do to avoid strikes and to shorten them. There are two sides to a negotiating table.
I don’t know about the engineering union (if there is one), but the Machinists went on strike for 57 days. And the number of days they were on strike is just a small measure of the difficulty they’ve caused. Of course, it might have already been delayed, but there is no question they made it worse. And I would not absolve them from responsibility for the pre-strike delay, either.
Of course, you are right that not every problem the company has is attributable to the union. But like the auto industry, I would place most of the blame on the union.