Seattle
The strike by International Association of Machinists District 751 and District W24 has won a victory over Boeing, the military contractor and airplane behemoth. IAM members in Seattle and Portland voted on Nov 4 for a new contract with a 43% wage raise over four years, along with other gains.
Machinists picket during strike in Portland, Oregon, area. WW photo: Lyn Neeley
While being denied their demand for a full guaranteed pension, workers won a $12,000 bonus and improvements to their 401k individual retirement funds. Nevertheless roughly 40% of the striking union members voted against the latest contract, with pensions likely being a major issue for them.
This Tyrannosaurus rex-style company produces a vast array of military and related technological equipment, including F-15 and F-18 jet bombers and the bombs they drop. These terror weapons are used in Palestine, elsewhere in West Asia, North Africa and the rest of the world to maintain U.S. imperialist rule.
Boeing is the number one military contractor involved in the U.S. genocide against Palestine. The company has used layoffs, outsourcing, threats and a partnership with the government to keep the union in a subservient position and deny workers needed compensation for the last 16 years.
Boeing’s war on its workers
A domestic component of Boeing and the Pentagon’s terror-war on Palestine and Lebanon is the company’s war on its own workers, especially the 33,000 IAM members.
The machinists were cheated out of their pensions in 2014. They had gained only small 1% average yearly increases since then, despite roaring inflation. Most of the workers live in the Seattle area, which is among the cities in the country where the cost of living is highest. As home costs and rents are increased, workers are priced out of their homes and neighborhoods.
The strike caused a $6.4 billion loss for Boeing in the third quarter, but Boeing was bailed out by Wall Street when the company was allowed to gain $20 billion with a huge sale of stock in November. This put Boeing in a position to hold out longer against the IAM strike and to refuse the workers’ demand for their full pension.
The strike was an uprising against the vicious attacks that monopoly capitalists imposed on the working class. The IAM was able to respond with a high level of organization and strength on the picket lines for over seven weeks. For weeks before the strike began on Sept. 12, workers marched through their plants daily to raise their demands and build support.
Strikers were encouraged by the growing upsurge of labor in recent years, such as the UAW strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis in 2023 and the Starbucks Workers United organizing drive.
The machinists gained strong support from the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), whose members refused to do the Machinists’ jobs during the strike. Striking members from UNITE HERE! (hotel workers) joined the strikers on the picket lines. Running parallel with the lies and false promises of the presidential election, the strike showed that fighting unions can win against the top capitalist monopolies like Boeing.