Striking Boeing machinist: ‘There’s nothing attractive about the offer’

Carlos Walker has been a striking machinist with Boeing for 37 years. He spoke to “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio about why he’s none too happy with the company’s latest attempt to end the strike.

“The latest offer is just another slap in the face to us,” Walker said. “There’s nothing attractive about the offer. If you know where we came from to get to where we are now, the company’s unwillingness to even negotiate with the union about the things that we addressed just shows the company does not care or they want us out.”

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One of the sticking points in the negotiations has been the absence of a pension plan negotiated away a decade ago. Now, the union is pushing back, demanding the return of traditional pension plans their members lost.

That’s one of the reasons 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists went on strike Friday after 95% voted against the tentative labor deal that would have increased the money Boeing paid into their 401(k) but would not have restored the traditional pension plan.

“First off, we’re not making livable wages,” Walker explained. “So when you retire from Boeing, when you quit working there, when you’re older, and you can’t go somewhere else and get a job, you’re stuck with whatever you left the door with. When I was hired into the company 37 years ago, the reason I went there was because they had a pension. There were other unions and other jobs locally that I could have taken a been a part of that had pensions, but I chose the Boeing company.”

The company is against returning to a pension especially since at that time, the union accepted a deal to take it off the table.

“Our union sold us out,” Walker said. “We know that. We absolutely know that we felt heartbroken. I got a stomach ache when we voted down that contract and then they said ‘We accepted it.’ So that was really a slap in the face to everybody who is educated, everybody who had family, everybody who came from somewhere, you know, your grandpa would tell you, ‘Make sure you get a pension.’ People worked in the military to get that 20 year pension. Growing up the pension was the thing that gave you the ability to have the freedom after you put your whole heart and life into a company to live after working there.”

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Walker said Boeing needs to address the pension issue in some way. He said he knows that many people were hired knowing there wasn’t a pension, but eventually it all comes down to money.

“They shell game all this time,” Walker explained. “Now, the 30% pay raise they’re offering doesn’t address the stagnant wages we’ve had for over a decade. We’ve seen our union start off as one of the top unions in the nation. Now, local unions are making $65 to $75 an hour within three years after their apprenticeship program, which is a two year program, and we are still making the average $45. We are so far behind local unionized workers that its horrible and this is what makes me shake my head, you can’t attract the skilled labor force you need to build airplanes that fly people in the sky if you’re not going to give people a package that brings them to the company.”

The union said it is not even going to vote on the latest offer from the company, even though Boeing said it was “best and final.” The company has started rotating furloughs.

“First off, Boeing doesn’t have to furlough anyone,” Walker said. “Boeing is used to bleeding money. They can continue to do what they’ve been doing for the last four years, as far as furloughing people. Secondly, I do feel bad that I took a pay cut. Everybody who’s on strike right now ain’t getting a paycheck, so we all have taken a pay cut because we want to do what’s going to help benefit not just our union but the company.”

Listen to Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin weekday mornings from 9 a.m.- noon on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.