ST. LOUIS — After twice rejecting contract proposals from Boeing, 3,200 members of the International Association of Machinists walked off the job here, and in St. Charles, Missouri; and Mascoutah, Illinois, Aug. 4. They are fighting to win a wage increase for all workers and to close the gap in wages between veteran workers and those most recently hired.
Every four hours shuttle buses bring fresh groups of strikers from the IAM District 837 union hall to the picket line. They’re posted at nearly two dozen gates and entrances around Boeing’s plant here. Pickets, young and old, shout and wave every time a passing truck or car honks in support.
There are a number of generations of workers at Boeing. The company has done a lot of hiring in the past few years. The tentative agreement, which was supported by union officials, would have given a wage increase to newer workers but very little to ones with top seniority. And it left in place a significant gap between new and old. It takes many years of “progression” under the expired contract to reach the top pay scale, and “zooming” the progression is a key issue in the strike.
In his late 20s, Clyde Miller is on strike for the first time. After nine years on the job, Miller says he still makes $11 an hour less than top pay. “If it takes more than 10 years to top out, then that contract is not for me,” he told the Militant. “That’s why I rejected the offer.”
Zac Boeger agreed. “We know what we are worth,” he said. “We want a quicker time to top out.”
Other issues include increased vacation and sick time, as well as stronger cost-of-living adjustments to automatically raise wages when prices go up.
Boeger and Miller were not surprised that the proposed contracts got voted down. The first contract proposal July 27 included a new work schedule of four consecutive 10-hour weekdays or three consecutive 12-hour shifts over Friday to Monday.
Even after bosses removed that unpopular demand, workers voted down the second proposal as well. Then the union went into a contractually mandated one-week cooling-off period before they could walk off the job.
“Things were getting pretty rowdy at breaks during that week,” Boeger reported. He said that workers would make all kinds of noise with rivet guns, fog horns, banging and shouting.
Other Boeing unionists are supporting the striking Machinists. SPEEA, the union that organizes thousands of aerospace engineers, issued a letter of solidarity, saying, “We stand with the 3,200 IAM 837 members demanding a contract that reflects their worth.”
Concrete drivers have refused to cross the picket line, pickets told us, and workers building a new $2 billion production building there have slowed down their work in solidarity.
Strike supporters have stopped by both the union hall and picket lines to drop off sweet corn, fruit, beverages, donuts and other donations.
The three area Boeing facilities make planes, missiles and drones for the military. Workers there had closely followed the seven-week IAM strike at Boeing in Seattle last year, where Boeing’s commercial fleet is built.
To visit the picket line or drop off donations, go to the IAM District 837 union hall, 212 Utz Lane, Hazelwood, MO 63042.
Lisa Rottach contributed to this article.