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Boeing

Boeing Should Stop Making Weapons For Genocide

September 19, 2024 Mike Pappas, Left Voice. , , , , , ,
Recently, Boeing employees, members of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM), voted overwhelmingly to not only turn down a terrible union backed tentative agreement, but go out on strike. These workers are showing they are willing to fight for more and are tired of being forced to cut corners on production, putting the public in danger to maximize profits for Boeing’s executives. If cutting corners wasn’t bad enough, Boeing’s leadership has focused on continuing to supply weapons to Israel supporting its genocidal campaign on Palestine. Boeing needs to stop making weapons for genocide and start fixing their planes. 

Boeing Machinists Strike

September 14, 2024 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. , , ,
Third-shift workers walked out of Boeing’s giant factories at Renton and Everett, Washington, as their contract expired early Friday morning, blasting music and airhorns, shooting off fireworks, and waving hand-made signs. They immediately formed picket lines and began setting up homemade burn barrels with “IAM” carved in the side. “People are really excited to strike,” said Ky Carlson, a third-shift assembler who walked out at midnight and was picketing the Everett plant at 3 am. She said they were aiming for what the union demanded at the beginning of negotiations, 40 percent raises and restoration of the pension.

‘Hard No’: Boeing Workers React To Tentative Agreement

September 11, 2024 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. , , ,
With their contract expiring at midnight on Thursday, the Machinists union at the aircraft giant Boeing announced a tentative contract agreement September 8. It was a shock to many union members. “Insulting,” “Joke of a contract,” and “Hard no” were some of the more polite reactions registered on X in response to the proposal, which would raise wages 25 percent over the four-year life of the deal, but eliminate an annual bonus of 3 to 6 percent of wages. The 32,000 members of Machinists (IAM) District 751 in Washington and District W24 in Gresham, Oregon, will vote in person September 12 on the deal. A walkout requires a majority vote to reject the agreement plus two-thirds support for a strike.

Striking Is In The Air At Boeing

August 22, 2024 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. , , ,
Mondays and Wednesdays are loud at the vast Boeing factory in Everett, Washington. As the Machinists’ contract campaign heats up, the workforce has been serenading management at lunch with air horns, train horns, and vuvuzelas—plus chants of “Out the Door in ’24.” Forty miles south, in Renton, where workers construct the moneymaking 737, second shift workers have used their meal breaks to blast Bluetooth speakers at top volume with ’90s rap, death metal, ’80s pop, and opera—all simultaneously, said Jon Voss, a 13-year mechanic in the wings building. The resulting racket “really drove management and HR nuts.”

Boeing Pleads Guilty To Criminal Fraud: The Continuing 737 Max Saga

July 14, 2024 Prabir Purkayastha, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge regarding the two crashes of 737 Max airplanes that caused the death of 346 passengers on two flights: a Lion Air flight out of Indonesia in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019. Though Boeing had tried hard to convince the world that these accidents occurred due to poorly trained pilots in the third world, there was overwhelming evidence that Boeing had made significant changes to the flight control systems while hiding them from the US Federal Aviation Administration and the concerned airlines. The Seattle Times, which has done the most work in detailing the cause of the crashes and the failure of Boeing and the federal aviation regulator, described the settlement, “The plea deal… calls for Boeing to pay an additional $243.6 million fine.

Locked-Out Firefighters Picket Boeing

May 10, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
The aerospace giant Boeing locked out 125 firefighters across multiple facilities in Washington state May 4 after contract negotiations broke down. “We want to be out there working and protecting the community of Boeing employees,” said firefighter Jon Riggsby, vice-president-elect of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local I-66. “But the company won’t allow us.” Boeing firefighters are on hand for fueling, takeoffs, and landings. They also respond to any medical emergencies at company facilities in Seattle, Everett, Renton, Auburn, and Moses Lake. They’re the first line of defense to prevent the spread of flame and toxic emissions from the combination of materials used to build aircraft such as the Boeing 737, Triple Seven, and others as part of military contracts.

Portland State University Will ‘Pause’ Donations From Boeing

May 2, 2024 Middle East Monitor. , , , , , , ,
Portland State University (PSU) will temporarily halt donations from Boeing, responding to student calls to cut ties with the giant aerospace and missile manufacturer amidst Israel’s war on Gaza. President Ann Cudd stated in an open letter released Friday that PSU plans to organise a forum in May to address student concerns regarding their affiliations with the multibillion-dollar weapons manufacturer. She wrote: “PSU will pause seeking or accepting any further gifts or grants from the Boeing Company until we have had a chance to engage in this debate and come to conclusions about a reasonable course of action.”

Rutgers Profits From Boeing Airstrikes Launched On Gaza

March 30, 2024 Endowment Justice Collective, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, must divest its endowment fund from companies and organizations that profit from, engage in, or contribute to the government of Israel’s human rights violations. An excellent example of this is that Rutgers profits off of Boeing airstrikes launched at Palestinians. Boeing is the 3rd largest military company. Likewise, it is part of Rutgers’ $100 million investment1 in the PGIM-Quantitative Solutions (US) fund2. Boeing—and by EXTENSION, Rutgers—relies on Palestinian suffering to raise its profits.

Boeing Back In Bargaining For The First Time In 16 Years

March 20, 2024 Don McIntosh, NW Labor Press. , , , , , ,
A lot of eyes will be on the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) this year as it takes part in one of the most significant labor negotiations of recent times. Boeing is one of just two major commercial aircraft makers in the world. It’s an export powerhouse and a standard-bearer for American industrial and technological achievement. It’s also a company that’s overdue for a course correction. A terrifying Jan. 5 incident in which a door plug fell out of a two-month-old Boeing 737 over Portland isn’t even the latest.

Profits And Payouts Over Passenger Safety

January 19, 2024 Lucy Dean Stockton, The Lever. , , ,
While the companies responsible for the door plug that blew out of a plane in mid-air last week were cutting corners, outsourcing manufacturing, laying off employees, and working to evade expensive safety upgrades, they paid their top executives $817 million and showered Wall Street investors with $68 billion in dividends and stock buybacks over the past decade. By some estimates, the amount spent on stock buybacks that enriched shareholders was more than the projected cost of making safety upgrades that experts say were necessary. Boeing, manufacturer of the 737 Max 9 jet that suffered the mid-flight rupture last week, laid off tens of thousands of workers in 2020, following the grounding of its entire 737 Max fleet after two catastrophic crashes that together killed 346 people.

Boeing Whistleblower Warns Against Corporation’s ‘Safety Exemptions’

January 10, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , , ,
Following another incident involving a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, a known Boeing whistleblower is sounding the alarm over the multinational corporation’s requests for “safety exemptions.” The Associated Press reported that “a fuselage panel blew out on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 seven minutes after takeoff from Portland, Oregon.” “The rapid loss of cabin pressure pulled the clothes off a child and caused oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling, but miraculously none of the 171 passengers and six members were injured. Pilots made a safe emergency landing,” AP added.

Block The Bombs: Palestine Activists Protest Boeing Facility In Missouri

November 25, 2023 St. Louis Organizers for Palestine, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
Hidden in plain sight along a particularly drab stretch of Route 94, just west of the Missouri River in St. Charles, MO, lies a large, plain white building. Almost completely nondescript apart from its size, it is distinguishable from the road only by a pair of small signs identifying it as Boeing Building 598. It is, at present, perhaps the deadliest building in the state. Amidst an ever-growing civilian death toll exacted by Israel’s relentless bombing campaign against Gaza, the displacement of the vast majority of the city’s 2 million residents, and numerous other human rights atrocities of various descriptions, the increasingly urgent calls for a ceasefire finally appear to have gained significant political momentum.

Corporate War Profiteers Finally Put On Trial

November 21, 2023 Jeremy Kuzmarov, Covert Action Magazine. , , , , , , , ,
In early January 2009, a thirteen-year-old girl named Almaza Samouni watched in horror as 30 members of her family were killed while her home in Gaza was shelled by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during Operation Cast Lead. Among the victims was her brother, who was struck by a missile while exiting the house to look for wood. The lethal missile that killed her brother was fired from an Apache AH-64 attack helicopter, which had been supplied to the IDF by Boeing, a top American defense contractor with headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. On November 12, 2023 a group of peace activists associated with World Beyond War convened a war crimes tribunal designed to hold Boeing and three other top defense contractors—Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Atomics—accountable for the kind of war crimes that led to the death of Almaza Samouni’s brother and most of the rest of her family.

Six Thousand Machinists Strike Aircraft Parts Giant In Kansas

June 28, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Six thousand Machinists at a key Boeing supplier, Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas, went on strike June 24 after voting down the company’s “best and final offer.” “We could all go somewhere else and make similar pay,” said one worker who has been at the company for 15 years and asked to be anonymous to speak freely. The average pay is around $20 hourly. “We are fighting for insurance and language involving mandatory overtime,” he said. “We really want to be able to work a reasonable amount of time and afford to pay our bills without having to work 60 to 70 hours a week. Overtime should be for a new boat or a vacation—not to pay the electric bill.” Negotiations began in May.

Antiwar Forces March On Boeing

April 9, 2023 Jim McMahan, Workers World. , , , ,
Seattle, Washington — University of Washington students, supporters and youths of oppressed nationalities targeted by U.S. imperialism marched on the Seattle Boeing plant on March 26. The march by 150 chanting demonstrators protested on the 20-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Boeing is the Pentagon’s second largest war contractor. Boeing produces the F-15, F-18, B-52 bombers, Apache and Chinook Helicopters, K-46 mid-air refuelers, cruise missiles, and Boeing is a major subcontractor on the B-1 and B-2 bombers. But that’s not all.
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