EVERETT—Representatives Rick Larsen (WA-02) and Suzan DelBene (WA-01) joined striking Boeing IAM 751 workers on the picket lines outside of Boeing’s Everett factory on Friday, September 27, to hear their concerns and to show support to union members’ efforts to negotiate a fair contract with Boeing.
“They are very dedicated to each other, they are dedicated to the community, and they understand that a strong community, a strong local economy depends upon a strong union and depends upon a strong Boeing company,” Rep. Larsen said.
“I just want to be out here and meet with workers, support their right to organizer and their right to collectively bargain and strong compensation,” Rep. Delbene told reporters. “They are the backbone of the company, and the backbone of our community.”
Representative Larsen, ranking member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee, heard testimony on Tuesday, September 24, from FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker on the agency’s oversight of Boeing’s corrective action plan following Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 incident.
“Our hearing showed he is using his authority, he is taking action to hold Boeing accountable,” Larsen told reporters on Friday. “Our job in Congress is to hold the FAA accountable to these new authorities and use them so that we know safety is always going to come first when we are building airplanes.”
The strike is entering its third week. IAM Union leadership on blasted Boeing for emailing its “best and final” offer “directly to all members and the media without any prior communication” to the union’s negotiating team.
“This tactic is a blatant show of disrespect to you – our members – and the bargaining process,” wrote the Union Negotiating Committee in a statement on X released Monday evening.
“After talking with the workers [on the picket line], there’s this long simmering tensions that seem to go back beyond the last couple of years, back maybe 10 to 12 to 15 years,” Lasen said. “The company needs to recognize that.”
If approved by union members, according to Boeing, the average annual machinist pay at the end of the proposed 4-year contract would increase from $75,608 a year to $111,155. In its final offer to IAM 751 & W24 members:
- Boeing committed to building its next new airplane, in the Puget Sound region.
- A general wage increase of 30% over four years.
- A ratification bonus of $6,000.
- A reinstatement of the Aerospace Machinists Performance Program (AMPP) bonus.
- A one-to-one match on the first 8% an employee contributes to Boeing’s 401(k) plan
- A lower cost share for health care
- A new employee annual floating holiday
IAM says Boeing’s final offer doesn’t go far enough, demanding a pay increase of 40 percent and for Boeing to reinstate the company’s defined-benefit pension program, which members voted in January of 2014 to replace with Boeing’s 401(k) plan.
Talks did resume on Friday but both sides are holding firm.
“We just want to have an honest living and just enjoy life while we can,” Johnny Kheng, an IAM 751 member who works on the production line at Boeing told the Lynnwood Times on Friday. “What is so hard about that?”
Author: Mario Lotmore
