BY SCOTT BREEN
SEATTLE - Five hundred Boeing workers, their families, and
supporters marched down Pacific Highway here August 22
chanting "Union power!" and "No way, seven day!" The march
was organized by the International Association of Machinists
(IAM) District 751.
The machinists oppose Boeing's proposal to institute "alternative work schedules" which would allow it to run its plants seven days a week, without paying premium pay on Saturdays and Sundays. José Martínez, who has worked two and a half years on the 767 airplane assembly line in Everett, said, "This is the biggest issue to me. It would take away the only time I have to spend with my wife, the weekends. I'll strike over it."
At a pre-march rally IAM international president Thomas Buffenbarger, AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard Trumka, and other union officials pledged their support.
The contract between the largest aerospace company in the world and the IAM, which represents 49,000 Boeing production workers, expires September 2. Machinists are to vote on a contract offer September 1.
The contract covers IAM-represented production workers in the Puget Sound region and Spokane in Washington State; Portland, Oregon; and in Wichita, Kansas.
Union officials have assured Boeing that they want to avoid a repeat of 1995, when the IAM successfully struck for 69 days, twice rejecting contract offers backed by the union negotiators. Dick Schneider, lead negotiator for the IAM, told a joint news conference, "We are here to negotiate the best contract we can and not negotiate a strike."
Aside from the workweek schedule, the major issues in the negotiations are job security, wages, benefits, and retirement. Boeing also wants its workforce to pay more of the medical benefits. It unilaterally forced this on its nonunion salaried employees at the first of this year. This was a major issue in the 1995 walkout.
The union wants a substantial increase in retirement benefits - much more than the $7-per-year raise Boeing is reportedly offering - or to allow Boeing workers to join the IAM National Pension Fund. The IAM also wants cost-of-living adjustments for retirees, to keep up with inflation. Currently, Boeing's monthly retirement benefits are only $40 per year of service.
The union is demanding a 5 percent general wage increase for each of the three years of the new contract, plus a 14 percent signing bonus. In addition, it wants to shorten the time of progression from starting pay to full pay to four years from the current seven and a half years. The machinists also want to end subcontracting and to set a guaranteed employment level.
Many workers think they are in a good position to win some big gains in this contract, arguing that Boeing can't afford to take a strike right now. Boeing is just emerging from production and financial problems that have beset it since 1997, when it suffered its first loss in 50 years. In the first six months of this year, Boeing tripled its profits over last year, earning $1.17 billion on delivery of 313 new commercial airplanes. Its goal is a record of 620 plane deliveries this year.
Boeing's owners have been demanding increased profitability from the aerospace giant, and management has begun severe cost-cutting measures and a drive to increase productivity. Phil Condit, Boeing Chairman and CEO, explained in a letter to employees prior to the negotiations that he will run the business "in order to take action that maximizes value" - profits, that is.
Boeing has also been hit hard by the Asian economic crisis, which caused Asian airlines to cancel or postpone orders on Boeing's largest and most profitable jets, the 747, 777, and 767.
Boeing is in a bitter dogfight with Airbus, the European consortium that is Boeing's only major competitor today. Their competition for orders has driven down prices 20 percent in the last two years, squeezing both companies' profit margins. It recently sold its 777 model to Singapore Airlines in exchange for buying back that company's Airbus planes, which it must now resell. Airbus has captured 66 percent of the commercial airplane orders this year.
Boeing is attempting to use this rivalry to convince workers to accept their proposals. Boeing's chief negotiator Jerry Calhoun recently told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that if there is a strike, "We will severely destroy our competitive posture. I am not sure we will ever recover if we lose it."
The increased production rates of Boeing jets are being achieved at the same time that the company is cutting thousands of jobs. Its goal is to reduce employment by 53,000. Since February 1998, employment levels have fallen from 238,600 to 210,700 by July 1 of this year. This has been the secret of Boeing's profit turnaround. This speedup in work will accelerate in the next few months as thousands more workers are laid off.
A glimpse of some of the anger workers have towards Boeing occurred July 21. Thousands of workers at Boeing's factories in Everett, Renton, Seattle, and Auburn downed tools to attend a meeting at Seattle's Kingdome stadium that Tuesday morning. The 15,000 who attended voted 98 percent to authorize the negotiating committee to call a strike if necessary. "It's time to put Boeing's feet to the fire, " said Dave Young, an inspector from the Renton factory.
While Boeing has professed a collaborative attitude, many workers would agree with Rick Beldon, a lead mechanic in Renton, who said, "We're being cut to the bone and they don't want to listen."
Scott Breen is a member of IAM District 751A.