boeing is one of the major industries in the NW, so i figure a lot of you are on strike. just wondering how many RX-7 drivers are on strike with me?

 

what are you guys striking about this time? I know people up there & Gresham. Is Portland on strike as well?

 

they just proposed us with a shitty contract. Basically if you have been working there for around a year or so like me, your getting screwed on your wage. There are a lot of different reasons for this strike since there is such a wide variety of employees, some single, some with families, some old, some young. you know, i havent heard anything of portland, im not real sure if they are in the same union as us?

 

The only thing worse than working, is not working.

 

very true! I still remember when I got laid off from Hawaiian Airlines.

 

Yeah I have to picket tomorrow at the renton plant from 8pm-12am ha but I can say im going to philadelphia next week so that should be fun. Anyone else taking a little vacation or going anywhere?

 

I am thinking that we will be on strike during Sevenstock, so hopefully im not completely broke by then, Gonna take a little california adventure! other than that, just more time to work on the cars =)

 

STRIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to the Philippines hahaha

 

Solidarity brothers and sisters!!

Good luck and I hope you win, it's your time.

 

yeah, my picket duties are like 12AM and 4AM. But I heard you don't have to go by that just go when your buddies go. IAM will be happy enough that you showed up.

 

yeah it actually wasnt to bad, bunch of buddies from work came to picket with me, we brought a football some beer ha and were just messing around hangin out

 

I am in SPEEA and I support 100% STICK IT TO THEM!!!

 

strike is eating into my car modding money Hoping it's over before the end of the month!

 

I'm not on strike (I'm not union, there are union people at my shop), but I'm about to picket the picketers. Your 27,000 members of ths district 751 is about to put about 50% of a different district if the IAM out of work. Since its a different district they get no say in what you guys get on contract. You guys are leaving a lot of your brothers are sisters behind. They aren't part of your "immediate" family, but by you definition of brothers and sisters, I really think they shouldn't be left out. They do the same kind of work and they deliver parts to the assembly line. They're an integral part of what you group does.

These people had NO notion that this was going to happen since they aren't internal to IAM751's workings. I am surprised you guys don't have 100,000 boeing supplier employees marching down to Boeing to lock the negotiators from both sides into a room.

I've seen the big chunks of the contract you guys got, I didn't dig into the actual document, but I looked at all the fliers on the 751 site. Tried to see it both ways, but those fliers all bend information in a way where they kind of lose the original intent.

A couple of them in my opinion are total BS. Especially the one about Boeing's 13 billion in earnings in the last 5 years. Do you guys even realize that millions upon millions of people make Boeing airplanes happen? We should just take that 13 billion dollars and divide it out evenly to everyone. Oh not to mention the share holders that lent Boeing capital to start new projects. We should all just get an equal cut. It's preposterous. They're offering you performance based bonuses, that's pretty much as much as you can ever hope for in terms of "company does well, we do well."

13 billion for a company like Boeing is squat. What they do is high risk and high overhead. Anyone know the numbers for what Microsoft earns each year and the number of people involved?

And why is everyone scared of being out-sourced. I don't know about you guys, I think Boeing has enough trouble working with local suppliers. They aren't really going to down the line of trying to work with far away suppliers unless they can't find the labor. Are you guys just sitting there at work doing nothing? I know you guys are swamped and always looking for more people. If you're swamped and there's a 7 year back log, always looking to hire more people, but can't find them... then what is Boeing supposed to do if they need to get more done sooner? There's labor elsewhere. Granted there a lot of people they could pay to train here, but I know that at my shop we've had a HELL of a time finding good people and we already lost a ton of good people to Boeing.

I'm sure no one else is interested in more of my ramblings though so I'll leave it at that. And for everyone's sake I hope this thing doesn't last long. Obviously both sides still need to give a little when they get back to the table to talk.

 

thanks for striking you guys got me a new job =) i just wish i could get on with boeing tho

 

for every 1 striker, there is 12 other companies people affected. lets hope boeing realizes that,

 

Whos on FIRST...&..I don't knows on second......hahaha

 

[QUOTE=mrjohnnnys;8551197]for every 1 striker, there is 12 other companies people affected. lets hope boeing realizes that,[/QUOTE

Stop and do the math. Figure out how long it will take you to make up the money that you are losing in salary for whatever pittance of an increase that you make above what they last offered.
The only reason to ever go out is for job security issues, otherwise, stay and work and negotiate. (oops, too late to do the smart thing).
No one wins in a strike, not the company, not the worker, not the subcontractors, not anyone.
You don't even know why you are out. I had friends that worked for alcoa out of portland years ago, they would go out on strike pretty much every time their contract was up cause they wanted another few weeks of vacation. Alcoa finally decided it wasnt worth it and closed up shop, those jobs just went away.
Boeing is big enough to move that work out of state if they deem it in their best financial interest. With the tanking economy, there are a lot of folk out there who would love to take your job and leave you in the unemployment line.
We'll see how this works out. The best to you!

 

i know exactly why i am on strike, and i have done the math, being a relatively new hire, at my 15$ an hour, a strike to get 4$ raise for everyone is well worth waiting it out. How could I accept a contract that would give brand new hires the same wage as me, even though I have been there a year. Best case scenario, they increase everyones wage, and leave our medical plan the way it was. This is my opinion though, I understand for a company to appeal to both young single people like me and older people with more need for medical and that have families, is pretty tough, but I'm convinced this billion dollar company can afford it

 

I'm not working either, but that's cuz I took a vacation to Arizona. Picketers are out all day long in Everett. I think it's kinda dumb that it always comes to this. Damn unions always going on strike. There are better options than this. But people don't learn and you continue to see the idiocracy of our society continuing to expand. It's sad. By the time you young guys are 60 you'll be lucky if anyone has any brain cells left other than the ones that cause their bodies to function. If you don't believe me go rent the movie Idiocracy, it's pretty damn accurate Not tryin to be an ***, but I'm 100% with jenkin on this.

 

hey bro im just out to get a raise, haha, i dont see anything dumb about that. this is like an extended vacation for me too. besides the 1 day a week that i gotta go picket, i think that i have enjoyed every single day bbq'ing, drinking beer, chilling, playing volleyball at the beach, since it just so happens that 80% of my friends are on strike too. Everybody has their cause.

 

i been driving by the frederickson plant, and seeing alot of picketers! sometimes i rev my engine and blow off as i go next to them

 

I see the purpose in picketting but I don't support it. I think on one hand it is up to the people to "stand for themselves" and demand better wages, working conditions, health care, etc. But at the expense of picketting? I think that your union needs a better negotiator. This whole ordeal could have totally been avoided. But enjoy the break you have now and I hope you get what you are looking for.

 

MrJohnnys, I was going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you had a righteous cause for going on strike. You previous two comments show that you're pretty much a person without work ethic and/or pride in your work. Ever heard of the term tact?

You think one year entitles you to anything more than a new hire? Go work at least 5 years and then come back and cry about it.

So while the other 12 people you've affected are struggling to figure out how they're going to pay their bills and feed their families you're going to just party it up and chill with your other Boeing cronies. Then get online to announce that you're striking and loudly and proudly declare that you don't have some righteous cause. You have got some nerve and outright disrespect for the hardworking people of America.

I hope you get squat out of this strike.

I apologize to the forum for the personal attack, but this guy really deserves it.

 

Leon, you have some really good points. I just wanted to comment on this particular issue regarding performance pay. Actual studies have shown that companies with a performance pay basis, increases productivity, longevity of the company and decreases employee turnover by as much as 25%. I'm actually really surprised that Boeing has not moved to this process earlier.

When you think about it, you're losing at least $600 gross (assuming you work full time at an entry level position of $15 an hour, not including overtime and benefits) for each week you guys are on strike. Yikes!