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5 The 1995 Strike and the Rejection of the Second Contract During 1995, Boeing had eliminated nearly 35,000 union jobs, 26,000 of these in the Puget Sound area. Job security thus was central to the workers’ demands as they entered contract negotiations, along with shorter contracts, wage increases, and improvements in safety, health, and benefits, even for laid-off workers.1 The largest concerns for the workers were subcontracting and outsourcing . International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) President George Kourpias gave voice to fighting words, accusing Boeing of “punching holes in America’s future.” The union members approved a strike authorization vote in September after the union brought the company’s “last, best, and final offer” to them. The first time, the union recommended rejection of the offer, and it was voted down. The workers went on strike on September 13. In November, the company came forward with a second offer. Michael Cimini summarizes, “On November 19, a tentative agreement was reached between Boeing and the IAMAW. Although the IAMAW bargaining committee unanimously recommended acceptance of the pact, the rank and file soundly rejected it. Union members said that they were dissatisfied with the contract offer because it still called for increases in employee contributions towards health care and contained weak job security language.”2 The key point here is that the IAMAW bargaining committee attempted to sell the contract to the members. Many members felt that this recommendation was a sign of betrayal; the union had taken conservatism and compliance with company objectives too far. It was at the moment of the union endorsement of the second contract that the conditions for challenging a stale bureaucracy were born. In an unprecedented wave, the workers of the union slapped down the cautious recommendation of the leaders and voted to The 1995 Strike and the Rejection of the Second Contract · 101 remain on strike. Worker accounts of this event are moving revelations of their sudden recognition of their own power. This chapter explores three dimensions of the 1995 strike from the rank-andfile perspective: the lived experience of preparation for and enacting of the strike; the sense of ownership and pride at the rejection of a contract that, despite union endorsement of it, was unacceptable to the majority of Boeing workers; and the outcomes of the strike in terms of both the resulting contract and the significant place of this event in the long-term memory of union activists. I argue that the 1995 strike, and especially the rejection of not only the first but also the second contract offered by the company and supported by the union, filled rank-and-file workers with a sense of control over their destinies in a ruthless corporate climate. This victory over the neoliberal regime provides a lesson in what is necessary to the reinvigoration of unions today. The first necessary element is readiness to strike. “We Must Be Prepared at All Times” Sherri Hood, district delegate from Local 834 to District 70, described getting ready for a strike as preparing for battle: “My dad’s a Teamster, so I grew up with the union. So I look at it as, when you go to battle, in the olden days, you always had your armor and your big old shield. And the best way I could say is that your armor is what you prepare yourself for as in to prepare for contracts, to get ready for a possible strike. Don’t listen to what the company tells you. If you have an opinion, make sure you stand up and make your voice heard. And if you’ve got a question, ask until you get an answer. The union is your shield. They’re your first defense.” Nearly everyone I spoke with emphasized that workers can take advantage of this power only if they have prepared for a strike by having a side business or being ahead on house payments or having some savings set aside should a strike happen. Denise Harris, also a delegate to District 70 from Local 834 in Wichita, told me: Start a business, start doing something that you know is going to directly make you be able to do the one most important thing that you have to do as a member which is not for Boeing. Come to the machinists’ union, come to your other members, have better communication going on between the stewards and the people who are under their stewardship, and gang...

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