Boeing (NYSE: BA) settled its seven-week old strike with machinists agreeing to a four-year contract. In the meantime, the company has lost precious time building planes including its Dreamliner, which is already over a year late for its first delivery. World airlines that have ordered the new aircraft are already in a snit.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "During the standoff, both sides dug in over issues such as job security and who had ultimate authority to run the factories, even as the national economy was undergoing a major upheaval." In other words, Boeing undercut the value of its shares when it could have settled on a similar deal a month ago. During most negotiations management knows how far it is willing to go, but holds out hoping labor will back down. In this case, that did not happen.

While Boeing management has been fiddling around, the company's stock has dropped to $42, near a 52-week low, and down from a period high of almost $99. Boeing faces angry customers, many of whom are asking for compensation for planes that will be late.

Boeing let labor shut it down while the economy went to hell in a hand-basket and its rival Airbus took whatever advantage of that it could. Boeing has a huge back-order of planes. Giving into the union would not have cost it much in profits. It has too many sales to fulfill.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

With its stock down 53% since it announced the first delay in the 787 Dreamliner, it would be an understatement to say that Boeing (NYSE: BA) is going through a rough patch. It has been a month since its 27,000 machinists went on strike and both sides are hurting. Now they are resuming negotiations.

How much pain is this strike creating? Boeing could lose $1.75 billion worth of revenue and take a 13% earnings hit if the strike ends up lasting seven weeks. Meanwhile, machinists -- who average $26 an hour -- are making $3.75 an hour worth of strike pay (assuming a 40 hour week for their $150 a week strike pay packet).

The dispute between Boeing and its machinists appears to be about several issues. But the most important one seems to be that Boeing wants to have the flexibility to outsource work and machinists want to limit that flexibility. I think they should agree to a compromise which would give the machinists a chance to make a proposal to keep work with them if they can do the work well at a competitive price.