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On the picket line

Published Sep 10, 2005 8:17 PM

Boeing machinists strike

About 18,500 machinists at Boeing, a major U.S. producer of airplanes, set up picket lines on Sept. 2 in Seattle, Wichita, Kan., and Gresham, Ore. The major issues: wages, health care and pension benefits.

During three months of negotiations leading up to the strike, the best Boeing offered was a 5.5 percent wage increase—which would be significantly reduced by a hike in health care costs—and pension payments of $66 a month for every year of a retired employee’s service. Wichita employees received a separate offer.

Members of the Machinists and Aerospace Workers want all workers to get the same package, with $80 in pension payments and no increase in health-care costs.

Noting that Boeing profits have tripled in the last three years, Mark Blondin, president of IAMAW’s District 751, said the Boeing offer represented “a corporate strategy to break the workers who have built this company.” (Sept. 3, New York Times)

Jaunice Conyers, a mechanic who has worked for Boeing for 10 years, said, “We make them a lot of money. They can give a lot of money to the CEOs and they can retire for the rest of their lives. But they don’t want to give the small people anything besides just a paycheck.”

A regulatory filing made by Boeing on Sept. 2 confirmed Conyers’ statement: Boeing gave two top interim executives $2 million in stock awards for their work this year.

The strike is expected to cost Boeing about $70 million a day. A 10-week strike in 1995 “depressed Boeing’s earnings as the company delivered fewer planes.” (New York Times, Sept. 2) The workers are in a strong position because the company’s worldwide orders have begun to pick up recently. Go, Boeing mechanics!

Boycott Gallo Sonoma!

The United Farm Workers initiated a second boycott of Gallo wine on June 14. The UFW called the boycott because Gallo pays its Sonoma County vineyard workers, many of whom are immigrants, poverty wages and denies them benefits, job projections and humane living conditions.

In recent weeks silent vigils and prayer services were held in California, including a “No Gallo!” march in San Francisco by 1,500 farm workers and supporters.

New talks between UFW and Gallo of Sonoma are scheduled for Sept. 14. Supporters can put pressure on Gallo by sending the company an e-mail asking them to bargain fairly with the UFW and expressing support for the boycott. To sign, visit www.gallounfair.com.

Immigrant workers at risk

Immigrant workers, especially Latinos, are dying on the job at a far greater rate than other workers, documents a new AFL-CIO report, “Immigrant Workers at Risk: The Urgent Need for Improved Workplace Safety and Health Policies and Programs.”

The study shows that between 1996 and 2000 foreign-born workers increased by 22 percent, but their share of fatal occupational injuries nearly doubled, to 43 percent. Between 1992 and 2002 (the latest figures available), workplace fatalities among all foreign-born workers increased by 46 percent. But Latino workers died in even higher numbers: there was a shocking 58 percent jump in on-the-job deaths for Latino workers during the same period.

The report noted that many immigrant workers “toil in high-risk occupations, work in the unregulated ‘informal’ economy and often fear reporting workplace injuries. Many are not aware of their legal rights to safety and health on the job and to workers’compensation if they are injured.” To counter that, the report profiled several successful outreach projects by unions and community groups to educate immigrant workers on worksite hazards and their legal rights on the job.

The report detailed 13 recommendations to improve safety and health protections for immigrant workers. Some of these include requiring all employers to provide safety and health training in a language understood by workers and strengthening whistle-blower and anti-retaliation provisions for all workers, regardless of their immigration status, who exercise job safety rights and raise job safety concerns.