27,000 machinists strike at Boeing

The “Fighting Machinists” struck Boeing at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 6 and immediately set up picket lines. Production on Boeing’s backlog of $275 billion of plane orders ceased. On Sept. 3, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers had rejected Boeing’s “best and final” contract ultimatum by an 80 percent vote and then 87 percent voted to strike.

As a result, 27,000 machinists are on strike at facilities in Kansas, Oregon and Washington state, 25,000 of whom work in Seattle/Tacoma plants.

Strike momentum built up to a fever pitch after the vote tally. At that point, head union negotiator Mark Blondin announced that he had just been contacted by a federal mediator and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoir, who told him Boeing wanted to return to the bargaining table. The union leaders put off the strike for 48 hours and gave Boeing another chance. But Boeing didn’t really want to negotiate. It wanted to break the momentum of the strike and create disunity.

The machinists in the hall were outraged by this disruption. They had been organizing for a strike for six weeks. They loudly denounced union leaders Blondin and district President Tom Wroblewski.

Since Boeing and the mediator wanted to meet with International President Tom Buffenbarger, negotiations were moved to Orlando, Fla., far away from the workers, who in a show of strength had been marching through the plants and holding rallies outside. At the Everett plant 7,000 marched during the day, and workers on the night shift did the same. Workers also marched on the union hall.

Boeing’s effort to derail their efforts failed. Union negotiators left the talks early with no agreement and the strike was on.

The machinists’ strike comes after a deluge of layoffs and takeaways by Boeing, even though Boeing recently has been hiring to meet a backlog of 3,600 plane orders.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, over 50,000 Boeing workers were laid off in Seattle alone. These weren’t “recession” layoffs. They were intended to be permanent outsourcing layoffs. Parts making jobs for Boeing planes have been outsourced to many places around the globe, including nonunion shops in Seattle. Meanwhile Boeing has garnered a fortune of $13 billion in profits in the last five years!

Machinists want to stop the flow of outsourcing. They want to end the use of contractors to deliver private vendor parts directly into the plants, work that was previously done by machinists. The workers frequently say, “The money doesn’t matter if you don’t have a job.” The machinists’ strike mobilization has already stopped Boeing from outsourcing maintenance jobs. Halting outsourcing and gaining more good paying union jobs is something all workers are fighting for.

The strikers want better pay too. The big media always proclaim that machinists make over $20 per hour but more than 5,000 make less than this. Seattle’s King5 TV interviewed a protesting woman machinist with two kids who is making $13.59 per hour after one year on the job. While the machinists so far have won a $2.28 per hour increase in basic minimum pay, all those recently hired received little or no increase. Because of inequalities like these, young workers are uniting with older union-experienced workers and becoming militant.

The machinists are very united and many say they’re prepared to stay out three months. They got over a serious speed bump with the 48-hour strike delay. Now they want to make real gains for labor in this country. They say, “It’s our time! This time!”