On Wednesday, Boeing workers met to found the new Boeing Workers Rank-and-File Committee. Their founding statement is below.

To contact the committee, text (406) 414-7648 or email boeingworkersrfc@gmail.com. Alternatively, fill out the form at the bottom of this article to be put in touch.

We, the Boeing Workers Rank-and-File Committee, urge workers to vote down this sellout contract by the widest possible margin today.

The deal meets none of our demands, from the insulting 25 percent pay raise, to the elimination of the AMPP bonus, no restoration of pensions, loopholes allowing “emergency” overtime, the addition of a probation period where new workers can be fired at will, and a worthless pledge to build a new jet that won’t even exist during the life of the contract.

Boeing used to be considered a dream job before our pensions were taken away, and it must be returned to that status. Boeing workers hold certifications and we are legally liable for work we perform. This new contract does not come close to reflecting that. At a minimum, we should be able to afford homes in the communities where the live, without having to work overtime.

That the IAM officials had the nerve to send this contract to us is a declaration that they, including District 751 President Jon Holden, don’t speak for us but for Boeing. They have made us suffer through a 16-year contract with no raises for a decade. They have violated our 99.9 percent strike vote.

They are helping Boeing to force the cost of their crisis onto us. But we aren’t responsible for the reckless cost-cutting which has killed hundreds. We take pride in our work and take safety seriously. We refuse to be made to pay for the criminality of Boeing’s executives and shareholders!

The first step is to send this contract into the garbage. But we must take matters into our own hands. We can’t waste any time on wishful thinking that a “no” vote will “force” the IAM bureaucrats to hear us. They won’t be won over because their bread is buttered on the other side.

There is no shortage of dirty tricks that they may pull. They may refuse or delay calling a strike. If they do call a strike, they may try to starve us out on the picket line before making us vote again on the same deal. We must also be prepared for White House intervention, like on the railroads in 2022.

Holden is now saying that they are endorsing the contract because “we can’t guarantee that we can achieve more in a strike.” They are trying to scare us. But what is true is that, if Holden and the other bureaucrats hold the reins, the only result will be a sellout as in 2008, 2014 and countless other times.

This is why we have founded the Boeing Workers Rank-and-File Committee. The mass protests over the past few days have shown our collective power. But this power must be organized so that Boeing workers can take control and countermand decisions that violate our will.

We urge our coworkers to turn the next rallies into mass meetings, where we collectively and democratically decide what we are going to do next. We propose the following:

A strike must take place midnight on Friday. If one is not called, we call on our coworkers to organize to enforce their decision. The strategy of the strike itself must also be under rank-and-file control. In particular, we must demand full strike pay from day one, paid out of the IAM’s $300 million assets.

We must fan out to workplaces everywhere, in all industries, to build support and joint actions. Workers everywhere will be inspired by the stand we make. We must turn our struggle into a movement of the whole working class, who are fighting the same issues we are.

In particular, we must reach out to the 50,000 Washington state public workers, who walked out Tuesday against inadequate pay increases. We must also reach out to the whole Boeing workforce, including nonunion workers at the plant in South Carolina.

We must reach out to railroad workers, who are also fighting new sellout contracts. And to East Coast dockworkers, who are pushing to strike by October 1, and where union officials are making the same bluster the IAM did over the summer. And we must appeal to UPS workers and autoworkers, who are fighting mass layoffs after contracts that their unions falsely claimed to be huge victories.

We must also appeal for worldwide support, especially Airbus workers in Europe who are also facing huge cuts. We must reject the divide-and-conquer nationalism that pits us against workers in other countries who have the same interests as we do.

Our committee is affiliated with others like it around the world through the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC). This will give Boeing workers the ability to establish lines of contact and coordinate with workers internationally who are also fighting sellout contracts.

Next, there must be rank-and-file oversight over all future talks. Last Friday the IAM said they were “far apart,” then announced a deal two days later. This shows they were lying all along.

A new bargaining committee must be elected, chosen solely from rank-and-file workers, not union officials. Once a deal is reached, the full contract must be made available for a week to give us adequate time to review and discuss it.

There must be full transparency over the voting itself through rank-and-file oversight, and independent monitoring and vote-counting in public. We can’t have a situation like the disorganized second vote in 2014, which was also timed to coincide with a holiday to drive down turnout.

And finally, we must discuss our own demands, establishing our own “red lines” for any future contract.

We propose these demands include:

• A 50 percent pay increase, plus COLA retroactive to 2014, tied to prices in the Seattle area.

• The hiring back of all safety positions cut by management.

• Rank-and-file control over safety. No plane can be delivered without the approval of workers who built it. Workers must have the right to override any attempt to rush through inspections or cut corners.

• Complete restoration of the pensions we were forced to give up.

• Maintenance of the AMPP but based solely on safety, not production.

• No probationary employee clause.

• The elimination of mandatory overtime.

• Better health insurance.

• Additional floating vacation days.

If you agree with this, then join us! Contact us to begin the fight for rank-and-file control by texting (406) 414-7648.