Seattle
Some 33,000 workers represented by the International Association of Machinists walked out of Boeing’s Seattle and Portland plants on July 17 to demonstrate their will to strike. The workers have experienced cutbacks, layoffs, union-busting and all-around attacks on their standard of living throughout the 2000’s.
Boeing workers gather in T-Mobile Park to authorize strike by 99%.
After the walkout in Seattle, over 20,000 workers held a “stop-work meeting” at T-Mobile Park and voted for strike authorization, with 99% in favor. Speakers at the rally included IAM District 751 Secretary-Treasurer Richard Jackson and President Jon Holden, national AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and IAM International President Brian Bryant.
Workers said they have marched through the cavernous Boeing plants every Wednesday for weeks to gather support leading up to the strike vote and the contract expiration on Sept. 12.
The Machinists are demanding higher wages — starting pay is now only $23.50 an hour for new-hire mechanics. They want full, defined benefit pensions, which Boeing eliminated in 2014, converting everyone to a 401k plan. Workers want an end to mandatory overtime.
The union also wants a guarantee that future Boeing planes will continue to be built in Washington state.
The IAM was pressured by Boeing in 2009 after the company moved most of the production of the new 787 plane to a newly-built plant in North Charleston, South Carolina. IAM leaders thought if they didn’t make contract concessions, Boeing would move away from the Northwest entirely to North Charleston or elsewhere.
The Machinists made two attempts to unionize the North Charleston plant, and there was good initiative from the workers there. But the organizing attempt was defeated by tens of millions of dollars of anti-union money from both Boeing and the South Carolina establishment.
Plane crashes tied to union busting
Boeing has been exposed by both whistleblower workers and consumers after two mass casualty MAX plane crashes and a huge number of hazardous defects found in many of its planes.
The manufacturing problems can all be traced back to Boeing’s anti-labor program. The defects are caused by speedups, thousands of layoffs and forced retirements of experienced workers, outsourcing to the lowest bidders and more.
Palestinian and student movements have demanded that Boeing quit selling bombs, F-15 bombers, Apache Helicopters and more to Israel for war against Palestinians. Boeing profits from genocidal war against Palestine at the same time that it is involved in vicious union-busting attacks on its workers.
When this basic connection is made clear to Boeing workers, there will be a strong basis for unity among the multinational working class to attack the company for all its crimes.
Boeing made $23.6 billion in profit last year and is predicted to be profitable again in 2024. Following the struggles of the UAW and a recharged labor movement, the workers are showing they are ready to fight back.