Vol. 78/No. 3      January 27, 2014

Carole Lesnick and Eric Simpson in San Francisco, members of the Machinists Union at United Airlines, recently sent in “blood money” donations for a total of $725.28 to the Socialist Workers Party Capital Fund, which finances long-range work of the party. Blood money is a term to describe bonuses and other bribes used by bosses to press us to accept wage cuts, dangerous work conditions and speedup. Below is a note Simpson sent in with his contribution.

I just put a money order in the mail for the Capital Fund. The money represents a lump-sum payment from the recent contract settlement, a smaller signing bonus and the November productivity bribe.

The signing bonus was a straight-up bribe to sweeten approval of a take-back contract. The lump-sum payment was a far more effective bribe masquerading as retroactive pay. It was calculated as a percentage based on hours worked over a worker’s years of service since the expiration of the last contract.

Some workers got thousands of dollars; some were dissatisfied with the amount they were given, since there was a cap to the payouts.

I showed the money order around at work, along with the Militant column on the IAM fraction’s previous Capital Fund contributions. The discussions were interesting. Several people agreed that the lump sum was a bribe to win contract ratification, and were proud to have been part of the minority that voted against the contract.

To make a blood money contribution to the Socialist Workers Party Capital Fund, contact Militant distributors listed on page 8.  
 
 
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