Boeing strike looms over conclave:
Machinists OK Dues Hike, Back Obama At Clinton’s Urging
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
ORLANDO, Fla. (PAI)--Girding themselves for struggles ahead--and for one with
Boeing that occurred even as they met--the Machinists’ Grand Lodge approved a $4
dues increase. And at the urging of their favored one-time presidential hopeful,
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), they endorsed Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack
Obama’s bid for the White House.
“In the world as it is today, we confront across the bargaining table the
cold-blooded, single-minded true believers in a ruthless business ideology,”
union President Thomas Buffenbarger told the 1,500 convention delegates in their
early-September conclave in Orlando, Fla.
“To them, workers are the enemy. In dealing with us, their objective is simple:
To give nothing and to take everything. That’s why everybody needs a strong
union. It’s a fact of life. Either you get union, a strong, a tough union or you
get the shaft,” he said.
Buffenbarger’s point was aptly illustrated by the fact that Boeing forced his
union’s 27,000 members at the firm to strike--just before the convention
opened--at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 6.
Key issues were Boeing’s demand for continued power to outsource jobs to China
and its demand to cut pensions, despite record profits and record orders for its
newest plane, the 787. IAM members work at Boeing plants in the Seattle area,
near Portland, Ore., in Wichita, Kansas and near Edwards Air Force Base in
California.
The strike came after the IAM members rejected Boeing’s “last and best offer” by
an 80%-20% vote, then authorized a strike by an 87%-13% margin.
To battle Boeing, and the other employers Buffenbarger blasted, delegates
approved a one-time $4-per-capita increase in Grand Lodge dues. That’s in
addition to the normal average weighted increase of 3.02%, or 78 cents. The
total hike next year will be $4.78, or an average of 2.76 cents per hour per
member.
Secretary-Treasurer Warren Mart said the union--due to membership losses--had run in the red for the last four years, despite economies.
Mart said the pension fund, strike fund, organizing fund and scholarship fund
are financially healthy--but the general fund isn’t. “We need to prepare for
even darker days ahead,” he cautioned. “We have to face the fact that our union
has paid a high price to outlast our adversaries.”
The 2009 dues hike will be followed by an estimated 80-cent increase in 2010, a
$2 hike the year after and then annual increases tied to the rise in the
Consumer Price Index. Local lodges can set their own dues rates and collection
methods based on their own needs, delegates decided.
The Obama endorsement came after the delegates roared a welcome for Clinton, and
also welcomed the other primary candidate their political activists backed last
year. Reflecting the fact that IAM is at least 30% GOP, its political conference
had endorsed former GOP Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. He lost the party
nomination to Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Huckabee thanked IAM, and then added: “The worst thing that has happened to this country in a
generation is that we are losing our capacity to manufacture our own weapons of
self-defense. The day that we outsource the last manufacturing job is the day
that we've outsourced our freedom.”
For her part, Clinton made it clear Obama is vastly superior to McCain, and the
delegates, by unanimous voice vote, agreed. The endorsement means the union can
use its publications and volunteers for the Illinoisan.
“I don’t think there’s ever been higher stakes in an election than what we’re
facing this November. Barack and I may have started on different paths, but we
are on one journey now, and it’s a journey to take back our country because
Americans do better when we have a Democratic president,” Clinton told the Grand
Lodge.
“I know Senator Obama. I’ve seen his passion and determination. He understands
both the economic stresses here at home and strategic challenges around the
world. We’ve got to start with a president who actually understands the changes we have to make. And no one has more at stake in this
election than the American labor Movement,” she declared.
Clinton wasn’t the only speaker urging unionists to back Obama, the first
African-American presidential nominee of a major political party. AFSCME
Secretary-Treasurer Bill Lucy, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists president,
added: “There are folks who say, ‘I just can’t bring myself to vote for him. I
just--I just can’t do it.’ Well, we’ve got the incredible opportunity of
choosing a black friend or a white enemy, one of the two.”
Buffenbarger responded the Machinists would “not (be) half-hearted with its
endorsements,” including Obama. “We will have boots on the ground in every state
to make sure our members understand Obama is the best chance in a generation to
reclaim the American Dream for working families.”
The Boeing strike paralleled the convention. The Chicago-based aircraft giant
forced its Machinists out after last-ditch mediation broke down. AFSCME
President Gerald McEntee, addressing the convention, drew loud applause when he said his
union would send $100,000 to IAM to help strikers. Strike benefits are $150 a
week.
The Machinists wanted better job security, and improvements in medical costs and
pensions and equitable wage increases for both newer and longer-term members.
And IAM District 751, based in Seattle, filed a labor lawbreaking complaint
against Boeing with the National Labor Relations Board. IAM said Boeing tried to
circumvent the union’s bargainers through “direct dealing” one-on-one
negotiations with workers--which are illegal under labor law when the two sides
discuss contracts.
"Boeing came to the table with take-aways, just like they did in 2005," said
Machinists Western Territory Vice President Lee Pearson, the union’s lead
negotiator. The same Boeing tactics forced a two-week strike that year.
"That move (this year) was both unnecessary and arrogant in lieu of their record
profits and remarkable backlog” of orders for the 787 Dreamliner, Pearson added.
“The company tried to circumvent our negotiators and bargained themselves into a
strike instead of what could have been an industry-leading agreement that would
have propelled both Boeing and our members forward for the next three years,” he
said. IAM said Boeing’s backlog, as of July, was more than 3,600 orders, valued
at $346 billion.