RENTON, Wash. — “Solidarity really works,” David Forsythe, a retired engineer at Boeing, told the Militant on the picket line here Sept. 27. “This is one of those rare instances in life when you have a chance to do the right thing.”
Along with other members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, Forsythe has joined picket lines set up by the 33,000 Machinists at Boeing aerospace facilities around Seattle to show support to the striking workers.
Members of the International Association of Machinists District 751 and W24, who work at Boeing facilities in Washington state, Gresham, Oregon, and Southern California, walked off the job Sept. 13, after rejecting a tentative agreement and voting in favor of a strike by 96%.
A barrage of honking, and emphatic cheers from passersby, including joggers and bicyclists, have boosted the picket line. One driver rolled down the car window to tell strikers, “You guys should get what you’re asking for.”
At the IAM Local 751 hall in Renton Sept. 27 there were rows and rows of tables full of donated food and other items. A member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers came by with a large stack of trays for making sandwiches. A pile of firewood and stumps were outside, ready to be cut for burn barrels to keep strikers warm. A couple of workers showed up with a large flatbed truck loaded with more firewood.
A picket line has been set up near the rail yard, dock and spur track into Boeing’s Everett plant. Before the strike, rail cars carrying airplane parts were brought there by train and barge. Now the picket line has stopped deliveries to the struck facility.
“We are fighting for a 40% wage increase over a four-year contract, and less time to reach full pay,” Kelsey Eagan, who has worked at Boeing for two years, told the Militant. “We are fighting for reinstitution of the pension. That one sounds like it could be a really big fight.”
Workers are determined to win back concessions made in past years under the pressure of bosses’ threats to take production out of Washington state.
Boeing fails to bypass union
At Boeing’s Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California, John, one of the striking workers, told the Militant Sept. 25 that “Boeing didn’t give any more in the latest contract offer. They took from retirement to shift an extra 5% onto the wage increase, like a pea and shell game. People are so angry they didn’t tell the union. The company leaked it to the Seattle Times first, then put it on the Boeing website trying to circumvent the union.”
The union refused to vote on the offer. The IAM points out that union members only received wage increases of 8% over the last decade, during a time of steep price rises.
Boeing’s latest offer “looks like it’s disrespectful,” Kelly Pham, a SPEEA union engineer at Boeing in Everett, said. She joined the Renton picket line to show support for her striking co-workers.
“I know people who are living in their cars. They start you at $14 or $16 an hour,” Valorey Pham, Kelly’s mother, said. She’s been working at Boeing for over a year as a mechanic.
She pointed to the company’s latest offer. “Boeing was hoping we’re not going to read it — it’s like 300 pages!” she said.
Boeing is refusing to discuss pensions. In a Sept. 27 statement, the union said, “The company remains adamant that it will not unfreeze the defined benefit plan.” The statement says that Boeing is not willing to engage in serious talks about other issues that workers have made clear are top priorities, like higher wages, quicker progression to the top wage rate and more personal time off.
Donations are coming in to the union’s fund. More help is needed! Join the picket lines! Contribute at www.iam751.org/strike2024/
Bernie Senter in Los Angeles contributed to this article.