BY SCOTT BREEN
SEATTLE, Washington - "This strike is over and the victory is ours!" Bill Johnson, president of International Association of Machinists (IAM) District 751, told a packed press conference. Machinists in Washington, Oregon, and Kansas ratified a new contract with Boeing by an 87 percent margin after a 69-day strike.
"You did it, you stood out on the picket lines," Bob Gregory, chief union negotiator, told the crowd of 200 clapping and shouting workers. "When you go into work tomorrow, go in with your head held up high. Don't let anybody take it away from you."
Jerry Little, Renton stores clerk, told the Militant, "The strike was a big step forward. The union was getting too weak and this proves unionism works."
Other workers echoed this sentiment. "You've got to stand your ground," said Ernest Hopson, who has worked for Boeing for eight and a half years. "If we had laid down and took what they originally offered, they'd have taken more."
Provisions of the new four-year contract include lump sum wage bonuses of 5 percent of annual earnings for 1995 and 4.5 percent for 1996. Boeing will also pay out an additional 5 percent "signing bonus" on acceptance of the contract. General wages will increase 3 percent in both the third and fourth year.
Union members will not have to make payments for the company medical plan, but only until July 1998. At that time, if the increase in costs of the plan exceeds the rise in the national average of health-care plans, Boeing can start charging workers a monthly premium of no more than $10 for single coverage and $30 for family coverage.
Boeing will continue to offer optional health plans and health maintenance organizations for no charge. In addition, it will offer workers cash incentives to switch out of Boeing's plan or stay in the optional ones: $600 during the first year, $400 in the second, and $200 the third year. The contract provids for a $5 increase in the pension plan, to $40 per year of service.
Included in the contract is a "letter of understanding" that says, "Bargaining unit employees should not be laid off as a result of subcontracting." It states that "any bargaining unit employee whose work is subcontracted will be reassigned, or retrained, for available work." An article on subcontracting guarantees the company the right to outsource work. A new article entitled "layoff benefits" grants laid-off workers a week's pay for each year of service, up to 26 weeks.
Most workers interviewed explained why they voted for the contract. "Everything is significantly better," said Steve Lassiter, a 17-year Boeing veteran. "There are significant gains to show that we were out for something."
"For the first time in 18 years, I voted `yes' on a contract," said William Brown.
Some voted against the contract because they wanted to maintain free medical benefits. Many who voted for the contract, despite the health takeback, felt like Lassiter, who said, "Eventually, we are going to have to give something on medical. At least we delayed it over two years."
Others, like Hector Palacios, voted against it "to protest the company's slap in the face." Even though there are lots of gains in this contract, Palacios said, "Boeing should have presented it to us at the beginning, in October."
Hopson, who voted for the pact this time, said, "The contract is not 100 percent what we wanted, but it's the best we can do right now."
Strikers were overwhelmingly proud of their fight with Boeing. "I think the membership thinks of this as a victory. We're proud of ourselves," Jackie Boschok told the Militant in Everett.
Daisy Charles had been laid off and then recalled just five weeks before the strike. "This is the most unique strike I've seen," she said. "All of the people just came together. Times are really hard. We had no choice but to stand together."
"The bottom line," Hopson said after the contract vote was announced, "is that Boeing needed to put out airplanes, and they weren't, so they made us an offer we could take."
Scott Breen is a member of IAM Local 289. Bob Bruneau, a member of IAM Local 751-A at Boeing, and Marc Kinzel, a member of IAM Local 79, contributed to this article.