Take up the fight for rank-and-file control! Join the Boeing Workers Rank-and-File Committee! Text (406) 414-7648, email boeingworkersrfc@gmail.com or fill out the form at the end of this article.

Brothers and Sisters,

Once again, we are calling for a rejection of the latest tentative agreement between Boeing and District 751. This is now the third sellout deal which does not meet any of our demands. In addition to still falling below the 40 percent minimum we need to make up for a decade of wage stagnation and record inflation, they have not touched our main demand for the restoration of pensions.

It has become absolutely clear that if we are to win this strike, we have to overthrow the dead weight of the IAM union bureaucracy. They are acting as errand boys for Boeing executives and for the government. They “negotiated” this contract in defiance of the clear message we sent only two weeks ago when we voted down the last White House-sponsored deal by 64 percent.

This deal is almost the same, with an extra 3 percent in wages thrown in and money moved around between the signing bonus and the 401(k).

There is no evidence that IAM officials even raised the issue of pensions at the bargaining table. This is because they begin and end with what Boeing management is willing to accept and not what we need. These “talks” have been a sham from the start: they are really strategy sessions for how to defeat resistance from the rank and file.

Now, Boeing has threatened that if we reject this, the next contract will be even worse. Instead of denouncing this blackmail, Jon Holden and other IAM officials act as conduits for these threats.

In its strike update, Local 751 urged us to “settle this strike and move forward.” They say we won’t get anything better, but they have said this with every proposal, only to contradict themselves later by claiming the next deal was an even bigger “victory.”

The truth is they never even wanted this strike in the first place. They are repeating the role they played in 2014, when they stood by and helped Boeing steal our pensions.

There is little love lost between all of us and the IAM bureaucracy, but anger is not enough. From now on, we have to organize to assert that we the workers are the power in this strike, not the bureaucracy. We have to transfer power from the corporate stooges to the rank and file.

To accomplish this overturn, we propose the following four-point program:

1. The removal of the entire bargaining team, with a new team chosen from rank-and-file workers with no connections to the IAM apparatus. All future talks must be livestreamed, with workers having veto power over all decisions.
2. The immediate tripling of strike pay to $750 a week. The IAM is trying to help Boeing starve us out. The $300 million in union assets is our money, and we have every right to decide how it is spent.
3. Rank-and-file control over the picketing, which the IAM bureaucrats have allowed to fall apart in order to try to isolate and demoralize us.
4. Appeal to the whole working class! Send out flying pickets to Amazon, the docks and other major workplaces to build support, and use social media to establish contact with workers around the world.

We are fighting for the rights of all workers, not just ourselves. A victory here is necessary to establish the principle that good wages, pensions and other benefits are a basic non-negotiable right which must be available to all.

If we accept this deal, it will encourage all of corporate America to go on the attack. Mass layoffs are already underway everywhere, including the 17,000 announced at Boeing, tens of thousands in the auto industry, and more.

Already, management at Eaton, a Boeing supplier, is threatening to replace workers who have been on strike in Michigan and voted down numerous deals. Like the IAM, the United Auto Workers bureaucracy has left them to their fate. In addition to rejecting this deal, we must call for Eaton workers to win their just demands.

The White House has intervened in our strike because it wants to restart supply chains at a major defense contractor and US exporter as Washington barrels towards out-of-control war with Iran, Russia and China. These wars serve the profit interests of the same corporations that are waging war against us at home.

That our contract vote is the day before the presidential election shows they want this shut down before the post-election political civil war starts. With Trump ready to attempt to seize power no matter the outcome of Tuesday’s vote, both parties are terrified that this could trigger a movement in the working class against the entire pro-corporate setup.

We can’t underestimate our enemies, but we can’t be intimidated either. According to one report, our strike has cost Boeing $10 billion, more than any other strike this century. Last month’s jobs report was the weakest in four years, with our strike a major factor, and deliveries to major airlines across the world are grinding to a halt. This shows we have huge power, because we play a crucial role in the whole economy.

This also exposes the claim that pensions are “prohibitively expensive” as a total lie. Boeing and Wall Street are prepared to sacrifice tens of billions and a huge portion of US industrial output against our strike. This money could and should be used to pay for secure retirements and improve the quality of life for all!

Wall Street backs Boeing because they know that the real issue in our strike is this: Who controls the world’s wealth, the workers who create it or the capitalists who exploit us?

As we said in our statement on the last TA, “We have to appeal to workers all over the world” to “answer the corporate conspiracy against our strike with the massive power of the working class.”

There is enormous potential for this. Workers are striking or pushing for strikes all over the world, including dockworkers in British Columbia, postal workers in Canada and the US, railroaders and others.

We have support all over the world. Last week, we held an online meeting with the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees attended by nearly 200 people from six continents. Aerospace workers across the world, from Embraer in Brazil to Aerospace in Europe, are also fighting against corporate cost-cutting.

The working class is the most powerful force on earth. The problem we have is to know how to use this power independently. We urge all of you: Join the Boeing Workers Rank-and-File Committee. Text (406) 414-7648, email boeingworkersrfc@gmail.com.