BY SCOTT BREEN AND BOB BRUNEAU
SEATTLE, Washington - "This `World Class Employer' is offering...its workers a `Second Class Proposal," read a statement put out by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) summarizing Boeing Company's recent contract offer. In response to the company's proposal, which included health care cuts, paltry wage increases, and lack of guarantees on jobs, IAM members went on strike October 6.
Boeing is the world's dominant aerospace manufacturer with factories in Washington, Oregon, and Kansas. An overwhelming 76 percent of the IAM's 32,000 members who work at Boeing voted against the company's "final offer." Today, thousands of machinists are walking the picketlines.
As the vote totals from around the country came into the Seattle IAM headquarters on the evening of October 5, cheers erupted from the counting room. The 150 machinists there began to chant: "Strike! Strike! Strike!" and "No takeaways! No takeaways!"
IAM members received a summary of the contract proposal two days before the vote. As workers made clear their dissatisfaction, union officials recommended that workers begin "working-to-rule" to slow down production and show Boeing management the workers' opposition to the offer.
Union members began hourly "make noise" demonstrations where they used their pneumatic rivet guns to beat on metal tabletops, floors, and toolboxes. Overhead crane operators blew their horns. Lunchtime demonstrations by shouting workers marched through several buildings in the Renton, Everett, and Fredrickson facilities.
The largest demonstration occurred in Everett at the giant final assembly factory for the Boeing 747, 767, and 777 airplanes. TV stations showed between 2,000 and 3,000 workers marching out of the factory over to the flight line at Paine Field, where finished airplanes are delivered to Boeing customers.
The demonstration spilled onto the runway and forced the control tower to close the field for a period. The day of the voting many members marched together out of the factories to nearby union halls to vote.
"I will have to pay $1,000 a year just for prescription pills for my high blood pressure, for the rest of my life, if Boeing's medical plan goes through," striker Phil Truell, a Boeing worker for 9 years, told the Militant. "Once you open that door" to making premium payments, he said, "you can't stop it."
Boeing claims that rising health care costs require employees to bear more of the burden. "But we're not the reason health-care costs have gone up," said June Moen, another striker on the line.
Many workers called Boeing's proposals "insulting." For the first two years of the three-year contract, there would be no wage increases, and only a 3-percent wage increase in the third year. The company proposed instead a lump-sum payment the first year of 5 percent of annual wages and 3 percent the second year.
In a letter from Boeing chairman Frank Shrontz and President Phil Condit sent to each IAM member October 2 the company executives argued that workers had to accept less because the European aerospace consortium Airbus was "a formidable competitor" and "our customers - airlines and governments alike - tell us our products simply cost too much."
One Everett worker, quoted in the Seattle Post- Intelligencer newspaper, responded to the letter saying, "Oh, it's a real tear-jerker. I cried a little, then burned it."
Many workers challenged the company's propaganda. "I don't buy the company's need for a competitive edge," said John, a 31-year Boeing worker at the Everett plant. "If that's the reason, why did they give executives million- dollar bonuses?"
"Without workers getting the product out," he said, "the guys at the top won't make anything."
"Boeing is crying poor mouth and demanding cuts in health insurance benefits," said Bill Johnson, directing business representative of IAM District 751. He said that Boeing has made $6.6 billion in after-tax profits since 1990, and worker productivity has been up 30 percent.
IAM officials have declared job security to be the "number one" issue in the negotiations. Union leaders have focused their fire on job losses due to subcontracting work overseas. Large IAM billboards in Seattle urge Boeing to "Export Planes, Not Our Jobs."
Boeing has laid off over 60,000 workers since 1993. This past spring, 9,000 workers took advantage of Boeing's first-ever offer of early retirement, more than expected.
Boeing management has stated that its goals are to reduce the cost of their airplanes by 25 percent; to reduce the time to design and build a new airplane from 18 months to 9; to increase the amount of work on a Boeing plane that is subcontracted out by another 4 percent. "Boeing officials," the Times article says, "say they have to continue slashing manufacturing costs to compete in a global marketplace. By 1998, Boeing hopes its cost cutting efforts will save $600 million."
The Boeing contract talks are being watched closely by bosses and workers alike at other aerospace manufacturers such as McDonnell-Douglas, Lockheed-Martin, United Technologies, and Hughes. Boeing is also the largest private employer in Washington state, with 71,000 on the payroll. The company pays higher wages and benefits than most employers in the state.
The 20,500 engineers and support personnel at Boeing represented by the Seattle Professional Engineering Employees Association (SPEEA) have declared that they will not perform any IAM work during the strike. Their contract is up December 1.
Many strikers expect that this will be a long walkout, and say they are ready. The last strike, in 1989, was over the issue of forced overtime and lasted 48 days. The contract they got at that time put limits on how much overtime the company could force workers to perform.
While some industry analysts speculate that Boeing management may benefit from a strike at this time, Boeing stock has fallen from a high of nearly $72 on September 20 to just below $65 since the contract negotiations broke down October 1. When the Militant asked Moen why she thought Boeing made such a bad offer, she replied, "Boeing didn't think the solidarity would be there."
Bob Bruneau is a member of IAM Local 751-A at Boeing's Renton plant and is on strike. Scott Breen is a member of IAM Local 289.