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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Get ready to strike, Boeing workers told 8/30/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Saturday, August 30, 2008 Boeing strike welcome to many Machinists Solidarity and desire for more pay have union workers in favor of protesting Boeing's offer. By Eric Fetters Herald Writer EVERETT -- Tim Brewer has his mind made up, as does Mike Gillings. They're ready to strike. Standing outside the Machinists union hall in Everett on Friday, Brewer said it seems like "100 percent" of the union members are in favor of walking off the Boeing Co.'s factory floors next week. "Boeing may be saying we're getting an 11 percent raise, but what they're not telling us is we're paying more for our medical," said Brewer, who works on 767 structures. "They're just not being forthright." "I'm ready to go on strike," chimed in Gillings, a 767 structures worker who's been with Boeing just a year. He said he takes home about $450 a week. "No question at all." The great majority of Boeing workers milling around the union hall, just down the street from the aerospace company's sprawling plant, expressed similar feelings. Nearly everyone seemed to have a different issue at the top of their list: pay levels, benefits, outsourcing. "What I'm really upset about is that fact the company doesn't want to talk about offloading our jobs," said Garth Luark of Edmonds, who works on the 777 assembly line at the Everett plant. "They could hand me $10,000 as a signing bonus, but if I don't have a job in eight months, that money won't go very far." Phil Westberg, who joined Boeing just five weeks ago and is training for the 787 line, said the new contract would give him a nice boost in pay, as he's near the bottom rung right now. But the Everett man said he also would back a strike, to help his more tenured co-workers. "I need to stand behind all our union brothers and sisters here because they'll be standing behind me one day." Seattle resident Chris Mingo, who's worked a year and a half at Boeing, said he wants to see improvements in how much workers make as they move up the company's job scale. Only one Machinist, John Lowrance, expressed support for the new contract offer. The 30-year veteran of Boeing sat in the union hall's lobby and carefully read the offer. "I don't see anything wrong with this contract," he said, inviting some rebuttal from others. "This is the best contract they've ever offered us. ... This needs to be ratified." But Dave Brueher, a representative for the Machinists Local 751, said that's the minority opinion. Buy his estimation, at least 90 percent of union members support striking. Dale Flinn of Everett, a door rigger on the 767 line, is solidly in that camp. "They've been taking away since 1995," he said of Boeing. "This year, they have record sales and record profits, and they still want to take away. No, no, no." Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.

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