SEATTLE, January 3 — Today, 30,000 Boeing workers, members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) Lodge 751, voted to give away pensions for new hires and to let Boeing freeze their own pension plans in 2016. The contract, not due to expire until 2016, will now be extended to 2024.
This is a major step in the growth of fascism, where the bosses rule through force and terror. Boeing used politicians of both parties and the union leaders to strip away 70 years of collective bargaining and economic gains. They do this partly because they can, but mostly to meet growing challenges from competing international imperialist powers.
Historically, these challenges have always been resolved through war. By 2024, starting pay for the bottom three pay grades will be at the state minimum wage, currently $9.19/hr, half of the current starting wage. Overall, wage increases will be four percent over eight years. Also, over the life of the contract, monthly health care premiums will increase by $3,000/year. And Boeing reserves the right to unilaterally reduce health care benefits to avoid Obamacare’s so-called “Cadillac tax” on top-shelf health coverage, fought for by auto, steel and aerospace workers.
Boeing workers voted down a similar contract by a 2-1 margin last November. These fascist cutbacks follow similar attacks in auto and steel, when those industries were losing billions to their international competitors. Many were either bankrupt or on the brink. Not so with Boeing, the world’s largest commercial airline manufacturer and the second biggest military contractor. In 2013, the company enjoyed record profits, with over $400 billion in back orders.
CEO Jim McNerney, Obama’s choice to chair the President’s Export Council, received $27.5 million in total compensation, up 20 percent. (McNerney is a former top executive of 3M and General Electric, and serves on the board of directors for Proctor and Gamble and IBM. He is a trustee of Northwestern University.) In November, Washington State politicians handed Boeing $8.7 billion in tax breaks, the largest package any state has ever given a single corporation.
Union Betrayals
Still, Boeing demanded draconian concessions and threatened to move production of the 777X jet liner to a non-union factory in South Carolina, along with thousands of jobs (and $25 million/year in union dues). IAM President Buffenbarger went to bat for the company and scheduled another vote. How else could he hold onto his $300,000-plus salary, or the nine other IAM International reps who were paid more than $265,000, or the $1 million a year needed to maintain the union’s Lear jet?
The contract passed by about 600 votes, 51-49 percent.
The turnout was much lower than in November because the IAM leadership scheduled the vote while many members were away on holiday vacations. To grease the skids, Boeing offered workers a $15,000 signing bonus.
Since the financial crash of 2008, unions have given up pensions for new hires in the auto industry, General Electric, Verizon, Honeywell and now Boeing. Jim Levitt, a 35-year veteran machinist at Boeing, described the “grim mood” of the workers to Labor Notes. “I’m astonished there wasn’t an explosion. Almost everyone just put up with it…Very few signs, no chanting, no nothing…Less than 100 people were in the room for the vote-count announcement, in stark contrast to other times we’ve voted on a contract. The few hardy souls who came to the main Seattle hall of Machinists (IAM) District Lodge 751 seemed stunned when the results were read. Only one or two shouted anything, and within a minute the room was empty. It all ended with barely a whimper.”
The loss of pensions at Boeing is another painful reminder that no victory is guaranteed, no security is possible as long as the bosses hold power. We don’t need better politicians or new union leaders. We need to take power from the bosses and build a communist world that meets the needs of the workers. We need to build a mass revolutionary PLP that can lead Boeing workers and the whole working class in an armed insurrection. This is no pipe dream. For many years, Boeing workers have read and distributed CHALLENGE and supported our movement. And many more will again.