Boeing’s Washington state factory workers will vote on Wednesday on whether to give their union a strike mandate as they seek a 40% raise in their first full negotiation with the planemaker in 16 years.
Many of the estimated 30,000 workers who build Boeing’s 737 MAX and other jets will rally in support of a mandate at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, although they cannot strike before their contract expires on Sept. 12.
While the vote is considered procedural, the union is kicking off the 12 p.m. PDT event with fanfare, including an earlier convoy of workers on 800 motorcycles.
“It does empower the negotiating committee, it does send a strong message," union local president Jon Holden said about the vote during a June interview.
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.
I’d also like to contribute the song Workers of the World, Awaken by Joe Hill
If the workers take a notion, They can stop all speeding trains;
Every ship upon the ocean They can tie with mighty chains.
Every wheel in the creation, Every mine and every mill
Fleets and armies of the nation, Will at their command stand still.
Boeing killed John Barnett
@girlfreddy hope the ceo wont lockout all the employees.
