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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Afl-Cio President Cheers Boeing Strikers Sweeny Pledges To Fight Back Against Job Cuts To Boost Profits

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The newly elected leadership of the AFL-CIO came to town Sunday to buck up the spirits of striking Boeing workers and spread the word that unions are alive and ready to grow.

The labor federation’s new leaders addressed about 7,000 Boeing machinists, who as of Sunday had been on strike for 38 days, and supporters from more than a dozen other unions at a unity rally at the Everett Memorial Stadium.

Nearly 500 unionists marched about a mile with a police escort from the Everett Labor Temple to the stadium prior to the rally.

They chanted: “Cut profits, not people,” “Workers united, we’ll never be defeated.”

More than a dozen elected officials also attended the rally.

John J. Sweeney, who was elected AFL-CIO president three weeks ago, told the strikers that the labor federation “will stand beside you” in the fight to gain a new contract with the giant aircraft manufacturer.

Sweeney said that “you are not alone,” and that “every corporation across the country” is keeping workers’ wages down while their profits are up.

“That’s why we decided to take over the AFL-CIO,” Sweeney said. “America’s workers and Boeing’s workers deserve a better deal.”

The answer is a stronger labor movement that fights back, he added.

Sweeney, president of the 1.1 million member Service Employees International Union, and a new slate of officers were elected in the first contested election in the history of the 13 million member AFL-CIO.

Rich Trumka, president of the United Mine Workers, was elected secretary-treasurer, and Linda Chavez-Thompson, international vice president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, was elected executive vice president of the labor federation.

Trumka and Chavez-Thompson also brought the crowd to its feet with fiery speeches in support of Boeing strikers.

George Kourpias, president of the International Association of Machinists, told the crowd that the union wants Boeing to “come back to the table so we can negotiate” and get the strike settled.

“Boeing seems more interested in selling airplanes than building them,” Kourpias said. “Of course, we want Boeing to sell airplanes, but we want to be the ones to build them.”

About 33,000 machinists in Washington state, Kansas, Oregon and California went on strike over wages, medical benefits and job security.

The labor leaders charged that Boeing wants to cut medical benefits while sending workers’ jobs overseas.

Following his talk, Sweeney said settling the Boeing strike - the first major labor strike since he took office - is “most important” in getting the new leadership’s program under way.

But he said he hoped that in the future labor problems could be solved before they become strikes.

At a press conference before the rally, Sweeney said “there is a lot of anger about what Boeing is doing. This (strike) is a symbol of what is going on around the country. American workers are in a crisis and job security is a major issue.”

Boeing has begun to “outsource” more work to subcontractors out of the country, which the union fears will erode more jobs at the company’s American plants.

But Boeing has said that if it hopes to sell more to foreign customers and make greater inroads into the potentially lucrative Chinese market, it has to be willing to allow those countries to make parts of the airplanes.

Machinists union members are also upset at Boeing plans to require that employees share in the costs of their health care, which until now has been fully paid by the company.