Boeing said Monday it made a “best and final offer” to striking machinists that includes bigger raises and larger bonuses, but the workers’ union said the proposal isn’t good enough and there won’t be a ratification vote before Boeing’s deadline at the end of the week.
The union complained that Boeing publicized its latest offer to 33,000 striking workers without first bargaining with union negotiators.
“Boeing does not get to decide when or if you vote,” leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district 751 told members Monday night. “The company has refused to meet for further discussion; therefore, we will not be voting” on Friday, as Boeing insisted.
The strikers face their own financial pressure to return to work. They received their final paychecks last week and will lose company-provided health insurance at the end of the month, according to Boeing.
“Land of the free”, my ass. You can’t be free if you don’t have healthcare and a living wage.
This country is a joke.
And thus the real reason so many politicians opposed single-payer healthcare is revealed.
Until we get all human basics guaranteed to everyone (housing, food, healthcare, water, internet, sewage, trash, electricity, heating and cooling depending on location, etc.) along with a UBI and all large corporations being converted into worker-owned coops, then people will continue to have the “freedom” to live in poverty and/or be subjugated to subpar working conditions.
Or in other words, make it so having a job is optional if those people don’t mind living with the bare minimum essentials, and for those who do choose to work for extra, their jobs will have fair working conditions and fair compensation, as the company will be run democraticly. Imagine being able to elect and fire your managers.
And it’s not like the US can’t pay for it. Even ignoring Modern Monetary Theory (which absolutely applies), we could easilly stop giving tax breaks to the rich, close tax loopholes that the wealthy take advantage of, cut the extremely overinflated military budget, nationalize Big Pharma and hospitals as part of a push towards national healthcare (which would eliminate price gouging for pharmaceuticals and hospital visits for the government’s single payer insurance), and stop giving bailouts to Wall St. and corporations every time they fuck up. This would give the US enough money to pay for any damn social services it wants to.
Also ban all private money from politics, change the voting system to something that is more representative, eliminate gerrymandering and the electoral college, etc.
That’s not the definition of freedom. Freedom means you can act or speak without opposition from the state. If the state provides someone with a “free” service and money, that means they took it from someone else, which is theft. We shouldn’t encourage one megacorp like the government to increase their theft levels, rather turn to voluntary charity organizations.
That’s a lot of words to say the government should stop helping people in need and we should beg the wealth hoarders for help.
If the state provides a service, taxes paid for it. Are taxes theft?
Yes, of course its theft. Taking what doesn’t belong to you is theft. Don’t you realize the government also pays itself? Their token “altruism” allegedly “helping people” is a charade to assuage ignorant people. Most members of the US congress make 2-3× what average citizens make base, plus tons more in bribery money and insider trading. Don’t even get me started on the absurd amount of stolen money that flows into the coffers of military manufacturing contracting. It’s amazing how willing people are to just happily accept 30%-50% of their working hours go to feed those government fat cats.
Under that logic, rent would be theft as well, correct?
Paying taxes is akin to paying rent for living in a certain location, just like paying a landlord.
You enter into a rental agreement of your own free will. Taxes are taken (by force if you refuse).
My neighbor has me chained to a wall in his basement, I guess because it’s not the government doing it I’m technically free.
Man, fuck Boeing. I’m not even tangentially involved in things, but they’ve been shitty as hell during this entire process. This lousy attempt at an end run is par for the course.
Makes sense to me. The union leadership got seriously burned on the previous offer that they backed. They’re clearly not going to come back to their members with something that’s basically the same, but some numbers tweaked.
“Executive leadership” can suck it.
