Boeing Unionists Win Big Victory for White-Collar Workers

by Charles Walker

Wise guys said they wouldn’t strike. And after they walked off the job, informed opinion was that they’d be back in a hurry with their tails between their legs, just like in 1993. The experts, including Boeing bosses, were wrong.

After 40 days of picketing, 18,000 engineering and technical workers won a clear-cut victory over Boeing, the world’s largest airplane builder. What is being billed as the largest white-collar strike in U.S. history forced Boeing to drop its take-away demands, and then give the strikers pay raises, bonuses, and medical coverage for domestic partners. The strikers, members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), also won a new understanding of the power that comes from standing together. When Boeing unilaterally declared an impasse and offered raises for those who would cross the lines, the strikers hung tough.

They now know that they can be just as tough as the 44,000 unionized machinists who work at Boeing. The strikers also learned some blue-collar traditions. “I’m getting used to this brother and sister thing,” an SPEEA leader told thousands of “raucous union members” at a strike rally, according to the March 9 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The AFL-CIO and affiliated unions donated thousands of dollars to the fight and AFL-CIO Vice President Richard Trumka joined the end-game phase of negotiations in Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO hopes the SPEEA victory will spur other white-collar workers to organize.

Part of the ratified contract provides that Boeing and SPEEA will establish a labor-management group called the “Leadership Council.” Traditionally, labor-management committees are used by bosses to separate union leaders from the ranks, as well as to get shop-floor ideas on how to do the same work with fewer workers. Although the agreement states, “Employees shall be protected from layoffs as a result of decisions made by the Council,” the SPEEA members have every reason to be suspicious of Boeing’s motives. Partly, that’s because Boeing is looking to reduce the workforce, again. Since June 1998, the firm has shed over 40,000 jobs, and recently told Wall Street it expects to drop 5,000 more.

Wichita Workers Held Back

In Wichita, Kansas, the local SPEEA affiliate of the striking Seattle engineers told Boeing that it would not strike for the duration of the Seattle strike. In return, Boeing said it would give the 1,300 Wichita workers the same terms that the Seattle strikers would finally accept. If the Wichita workers didn’t like the “me too” terms, then they would be free to strike. The March 14 Wichita Eagle quoted Doug Ritter, head negotiator for SPEEA in Wichita, as saying that the deal was a “great thing. We were unsure of the company’s plans for Wichita because they refused to commit. Now, we’ve got them to commit.”

Normally, strikers want as much clout as they can muster. That’s why many union locals with the same employer try (usually without success) to negotiate common contract expiration dates, so they can threaten more of the boss’s profits. That’s why it’s hard to see from afar how the Wichita “me too” agreement helped the Seattle strikers. Puzzling too, is why the Wichita SPEEA officials thought they could strike successfully with the nearly 20,000 Seattle strikers back on the job. Wouldn’t their position have been stronger with the Seattle strikers’ power behind the Wichita workers’ demands?

Nevertheless, the Seattle strike was inspiring and should give other workers the confidence to fight back. “Today is the day that the relationship between the Boeing Co. and SPEEA has changed forever,” said Charles Bofferding, executive director of the SPEEA,who helped engineer the agreement. “Today they understand what we mean by respect” (Associated Press, March 18).

March 25, 2000