In the midst of all the blather from politicians and pundits of all persuasions about jobs, more jobs, and jobs at all costs, the people who actually do those jobs, the brothers and sisters who could actually lose those jobs, responded with a simple and eloquent NO.

large_basic_logo_metalWith the plutocracy and all of their minions holding guns to their heads, the Machinists who have created record profits for Boeing said No.  They said No to Boeing’s attempt to eviscerate their collective bargaining rights.  They said No to the governor, who tried to hold them responsible for the long-term future of Washington’s economy.  They said No to a legislature that spent a romantic bi-partisan weekend creating for Boeing the biggest state taxpayer subsidy in American history.  They even said No to their own leadership, who probably never should have called a vote on Boeing’s extortionate “offer” in the first place.

Usually, when workers are pushed to make massive concessions, it is in the context of a perceived crisis—a company about to go bankrupt or an industry on the ropes from foreign competition.  But with the Everett machinists having bailed Boeing out of the 787 debacle, robust profits, and soaring stock prices, not even Billy Graham could have sold the idea of a Boeing crisis.  So the governor, flanked by Boeing executives, union bosses, and legislative leaders, created a completely false sense of urgency by calling a special legislative session to expedite more corporate welfare for Boeing.  But unlike the politicians, who were only giving away tax dollars, the machinists were being pressured to cut into their own hides.  And with two years remaining on their current contract and a company in the pink of health, they rightly saw no reason to do that.       

And in the long run, Washington will be better off because the Machinists had the courage to say No to all the people trying to tell them that it would be better to live on their knees than die on their feet.  Boeing will either wise up and build the 777X here without screwing their most important workers or they will go build crappier airplanes somewhere else where workers are more easily exploited.  Either way, the possibility of a resurgent middle class will remain alive in Washington. 

Because the most important thing the Machinists said No to is the continued evisceration of the middle class.  All of the propaganda (including two full blaring pages in the middle of the front section of the Seattle Times) urging the Machinists to swallow the Boeing “offer” depended on the ever-shrinking working and living conditions of the working classes.  This is a great offer because your retirement benefits will still be better than most other workers.  You should take this offer because your health care benefits will still beat most other workers.  You may be falling, but you will still be on top of those who have already fallen further. 

In saying No, the Machinists not only stood up for themselves, but for working people everywhere.

And, ironically enough, they have also offered Boeing the chance to join them on the right side of history.  Boeing bosses get paid tens of millions of dollars to keep an eye on the big picture, and now is when they should earn that money.  They should pull their heads out of the marginal calculations and quarterly earnings reports and feel which way the larger wind is blowing.  The decimation of the middle classes and the greatest income inequality in history have brought us to a breaking point.  The Occupy movement has moved slowly but surely into the corridors of power.  An out socialist will soon be sitting on the Seattle City Council and Hillary Clinton is looking over her shoulder at Elizabeth Warren.  Citing a manufactured “competition” among the flows of global capital as the reason why workers should agree to lose real wages, go without health care, live in uncertain poverty in retirement, and bequeath shittier lives to their children while a few at the top live like Jay Gatsby is becoming less and less convincing.  Taking a genuinely longer view would lead Boeing not to San Antonio or Charleston, but rather back to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair contract with their most valuable workers.  That might shave a point or two off the stock price, but it will make Boeing a much stronger company in the long run.

Many years from now, when historians chronicle the resuscitation of the American middle class in the early twenty first century, the brothers and sisters of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 will be remembered as heroes.