Socialism is not working for me anymore.  How about the American Cyber-Luddites Union (ACLU)? That was John's idea. Clever. But I really want a group not welded to a nineteenth century ism that works for a system that is not controlled by corporations, banks and very rich people. That's a lot of negatives.  So maybe the ACLU is not so bad after all.

Boeing and the IAM 751

Boeing has really irritated me recently as they attempt to blackmail and break the local machinists union, the IAM District 751 by threatening to move the 777X
plant to one of 22 other states they have conned into offering Boeing massive tax give-aways.

It’s just another drive to the bottom. North Carolina is just a step toward Mexico. No different from Walmart or COSCO.

You might think machinists enjoy a high union wage scale but take a look at it at the current wage scale. The average union wage turns out to be about $16 per hour. Meanwhile the Boeing Corp is racking up record profits and CEO, Jim McNerney, just got a nice multi-million dollar bonus.

It’s unfortunate that the national union is not backing the local. The national is parroting the Boeing threat in what appears to be a hopeless and short sighted appeasement effort. In fact all the politicians (except one) also back Boeing. Save the jobs - we don’t care if they are minimum wage jobs. This is just a way to drive union workers out of the middle class which is exacerbating the polarization of income in America.

Boeing’s competition, Airbus, is owned by EADS, a mostly government-owned European consortium.

Hey, there’s an idea. Why not nationalize Boeing?

“Boeing's attacks on its workforce, together with the company's demand for $8.7 billion in concessions from the State - to be paid  for out of increased taxes on all workers and small businesses - can only be described as corporate blackmail.” and …

“The only viable response to such a situation is to say the needs of the people of Washington – the same ones who have subsidized Boeing with tens of billions of tax payer handouts – come first.  While Boeing CEO’s are free to leave, Boeing's assets - including the intellectual property developed by generations of dedicated engineers and machinists – would need to be taken into democratic public ownership.”*

That’s where I stand and I can’t say it any better than the one elected official who sides with the local and understands the stakes  - * Kshama Sawant who was just elected to Seattle City Council.