How Many 747s Have You Built?

While cruising the wet, wet streets of Renton, Washington, a city located just south of Seattle, I come across an area filled with protesters on every block. For the past few weeks, the machinists union has been on strike against Boeing, the airplane giant.

As I pass a group of spirited picketers, I lean on my horn in support, only to discover that my 1992 Vandura no longer has a working horn. The various surprises that come with owning a sixteen-year-old vehicle keep coming, but the lack of a horn shouldn't be too big an issue as long as I have two healthy middle fingers.

Every other horn in Renton seems to be working however, as driver after driver expresses support for the workers. As I begin talking to the protesters about their concerns, a few themes emerge.

+ Boeing has been incredibly successful financially due in large part to the work of the machinists, many of whom are highly trained and skilled workers, but that success has not translated properly from the company to its employees.

+ The most recently proposed contract includes a small raise and bonus that looks good on paper, but most of the workers I talk to feel it would cost them in the long run due to the built-in scaling back of health insurance, particularly a reduction on most employees' coverage for prescription pills.

+ Job security is a major area of concern. The American machinists want the ability to bid for jobs before work is outsourced to countries with cheap labor, but are not being given that opportunity. Boeing has shown a trend of outsourcing much of its labor, and the shoddy work done on machinery has caused a headache for many of the domestic workers once the poorly built parts reach the plant.

I leave my card with the protesters and soon get a call from Matt Moeller, a higher level employee with some issues on his mind. Matt is happy to speak to me because, like many of his coworkers, he feels the media has presented the union's views unfairly.

This opposition manifests itself early in my interview with Matt, as a driver speeding by honks his horn and yells at Matt and his fellow picketers in disgust.

"The country is in a financial crisis as it is. Shut the fuck up and get back to work!"

Matt seems unfazed by this. He is cool and even-keeled, careful to protect his image as a thinking working man.

"It seems the media always gravitates to the striker who looks like he just woke up in the dumpster out back. You know, the big guy with the ZZ Top beard. It's nice to have the opportunity to speak; guys like me don't always get that chance."

Matt is dismayed that a company that has shown so much disrespect to its employees and such an affinity for outsourcing is able to get so much funding and defense contracts from the American government. He says that Boeing lost more money in the first two-and-a-half days than it would have cost them to agree to the union's requests in the first place.

He's not that upset to be on strike, because it gives him a chance to spend more time with his family, but he is bitter that corporate greed in America has made it so hard for the average family to prosper.

Back at the local union headquarters, I talk to a few machinists who are veterans of strikes. It appears this is not the first time Boeing's employees have felt they have been treated unfairly. Nobody seems worried that talks have been stalled, citing that previous strikes all ended when it seemed there was no end in sight.

Hernandez, a self-proclaimed "thirty-year-guy" stops by in a van to deliver snacks and drinks to his fellow strikers. Hernandez works in the tool division. He is set to retire soon, and the strike has put that into question, but he remains steadfast in his commitment to the cause.

"Obviously, it's affected me financially, but we were ready for this."

We'll find out in the coming days if the corporate giant has the same resolve.