Machinists Ratify Boeing Contract, End Strike

by James Parks, Nov 2, 2008

Striking members of the Machinists (IAM) will begin returning to work as early as today after members ratified a new four-year contract with the Boeing Co. by an almost 3-1 margin. The new agreement covers 27,000 IAM members at Boeing facilities in Washington, Oregon, Kansas and California, and ends a strike that began on Sept. 6.

In a message to the strikers, IAM District 751 President Tom Wroblewski says:

Our union has delivered what few Americans have–economic certainty and quality benefits for the next four years. Your solidarity brought Boeing back to the table and made this company address your issues.

IAM Aerospace Coordinator Mark Blondin adds:

This contract gives the workers at Boeing an opportunity to share in the extraordinary success this company has achieved over the past several years. It also recognizes the need to act with foresight to protect the next generation of aerospace jobs. These members helped make Boeing the company it is today, and they have every right to be a part of its future.

According to the union, the contract:

• Provides a 15 percent pay raise over four years and “significant lump sum payments” in the first three years.
• Limits outside vendors to delivering products to designated areas only, where bargaining unit members would perform a number of tasks concerning parts, materials, tools and other items.
• Expands the union’s right to review subcontracting and allowing the union to compete for work moved from one Boeing facility to another.
• Avoids shifting costs of health care to the workers.
• Increases monthly benefits under the company’s defined-benefit plan.

While they were out on strike, the workers received help from the Puget Sound Labor Agency, a part of the AFL-CIO Community Services network. The agency assisted 492 Machinists and their families with hardship payments with hundreds more hardship requests yet to be processed.  These payments were made to cover past due rent, mortgages, utilities, medical bills or other miscellaneous expenses. Boeing IAM workers in the Puget Sound area who need help should make their requests at one of the four Machinist halls (Seattle, Everett, Auburn, Renton). 

The Labor Agency also is distributing purchased gift cards and Safeway gift cards donated by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace/IFPTE Local 2001 (SPEEA).

Meanwhile, negotiations between SPEEA and Boeing began Oct. 29, after eight months of disappointing preliminary talks.

The SPEEA-Boeing talks involve two contracts, one for engineers and a second for technical workers. The contracts, which expire Dec. 1, cover workers in the Puget Sound region, Oregon, Utah and California. Negotiations for engineers at Boeing’s Wichita facility start Nov. 13. The Wichita contract expires Dec. 5. Together, the three contracts cover 20,300 employees.

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