On November 8, a smug-looking Rodney Tom announced that Governor Inslee jumped the gun when he announced a special session on November 5. In addition to giving Boeing massive tax breaks, the governor indicated they would also attempt to hammer out a transportation package, which would provide a funding option for Metro. Smiling sheepishly in a photo on the Washington State Wire, Tom informed us that state legislators were in fact not ready to come to the bargaining table.
Rodney Tom and his cohorts are only too happy to hop over to Olympia for a special session to give Boeing, a Fortune 500 Company, “one of the biggest tax-break bills in Washington-state history” (according to the Washington State Wire)–tax money that Metro sorely needs. But to save bus service and retain a decent transportation system for King County that allows riders to get to work, school, and everywhere else they need to go—for this Rodney Tom tell us “Tough.”
Meanwhile, Boeing is attempting to dish out a terrible contract to the Machinists Union—one so bad that District 751 President tore it in half and called “a piece of crap.” Boeing is threatening to transfer production of the 777X to “right-to-work” state South Carolina, where workers are not obliged to belong to a union to work union jobs.
The fact of the matter is, Boeing is bluffing. Washington state has skilled labor that South Carolina lacks.
We support the Machinists union in their struggle against the terrible contract Boeing has put on the table, which slashes pension benefits, drives up the cost of healthcare, and reduces cost-of-living adjustment to a measly 1 percent every other year.
We say no to cuts, no to sweetheart tax breaks for Boeing, one of the richest corporations in the region, and no to the race-to-the-bottom destruction of living-wage jobs!
by Yasmin Elbaradie