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or a couple days ago you're talking about how when companies buy back their
stock
it increases the dividend that they pay out of their executives are paid
in addition to regular paycheck well to only two million of which
is tax-deductible the corporation I if they're paid by being given stock which
they can then later
convert to cash the only pay 20 percent maximum 20 percent income tax on that
capital gains plus they get dividends
while they're holding the stock so well boeing is doing this there that $10
billion dollar buy-out raising their dividend making their stockholders and
and in particular there's
executives richer really doing for their workers
workers get richer let's check in with Connie Kelliher
the communications director the International Association of Machinists
i am. 751 .org
we've been hi welcome to the program good morning
damn I pronounce your last name right yes great
arm a we've been talking on the show over the last couple days about what's
going on with the
Boeing in in in Washington State
with the what is the triple seven 2007 tax their new airplane derivative yeah
that that they've been shopping around is was
was a brass Clermont as some some state came up with one point seven billion
dollars and said we'll give you that if you come here and
stuff like that right twenty states have actually
put in a bid for the work and including Washington State to
gave the biggest tax incentives and history
they've there we're offering a point seven billion 10
and to keep the work here this is crazy you know bernie sanders propose that any
state that competes
with tax dollars against another state within the United States
should lose all our federal highway funds II it this this this race to the
bottom is not
burning Alexis what it what is the what is the current state of where the
machinists are with regard to the
to the company in all I kinda like well the first thing we actually have a legal
contract in place for telling
at 3 September 2016 which people can all decide in the conversation
but because boeing has this carrot to dangle love the new airplane derivative
and they were hoping to get as much out as
everybody is say could so they were plain states against each other and
decided they wanted to do you try to wring more at their workforce here at
that
you know generates as huge profits that they currently get
and so they came to the Union to negotiate
what they say negotiate we say less more less an ultimatum
and and never in our history have we ever had
so much on the line in the one vote that we test and
mid-november that it was one of the most destructive divisive proposals we've
ever seen and if we accepted it
we would have given up wages benefits and pensions that
first tablished long before any of us got here term
with people before s2 struck on the line
so basically we were faced with the decision a choice
to destroy everything that we built up in order to save dying from making it
decision that puts the future of the company and all its employees union and
non-union like
and the stockholders at risk and you know I remember said if the company
chooses that path of destruction
they're responsible for that that's on them it's not an asset
the price they were asking for from mass was just simply too high
the number one thing they said they needed from the machinists union
was labor stability and we were willing to explore that with them but not at the
price
state had we accepted what they were trying to force manassas
our ability to negotiate anything positive unreasonable
would have been lost forever in and I mean I'm very proud of our membership
they stay together and
they were vilified in the media we had politicians weighing and
and a member selected everything and said now and
is interested the company may move that work together threats are very real
and but we know that the very best place to build those airplanes is right here
and where the reason you know Boeing Commercial Airplanes
made $14 billion in revenue in the last quarter
flow it I mean it's just a only the federal government
has more 0 stacked and anything that parking s
that's amazing II you know it's it's it's really amazing
and yet ever since the the beginning in the reagan presidency when reagan
install the first
openly hostile to labor a.m.
Secretary of Labor and the history the Department labor and
and and began the you know this this aggressive or onions are you could you
could date the beginning the warning it's back to 1947
the passage taft-hartley in the creation of so-called right to work for less
States
but armed to ever really ever since the Reagan administration it's been a tough
one for unions a
you know when when GM went through their through their mismanaged bankruptcy
during the Obama administration all things
the UAW ended up saying that okay new hires are gonna come into 14 bucks an
hour instead of the 20 some odd dollars that
that our current workers are making at that with that goes way beyond a
giveback
and that's like you know okay we're gonna we're gonna go to a while
mcdonnell's economy here
Armin and that's exactly where Boeing's trying
to procrastinate are actually are higher in rates
have moved want since 1992
an the proposal that Boeing at our members voted down
what a pair members and progression for twenty years or more they be chasing a
maximum
pay rate their entire career yeah for right now it's
you know sixty years when you get to the maximum but the the
told your job by the time you've done it for six years sure
but the flip side that is that that Boeing can
can move that to South Carolina or you know any these are the right to work for
less States
and and then you've got nothing how do you deal with that hot weather
what's what and what's happe how's this playing out back on it we have a bad but
two minutes left here
okay well I'm you know this skills inefficiencies that our members bring
is the value propelling threatened their customers spoke
the airline customers spoke really loud and clear they don't want another
debacle like
787 disaster where it was delivered three years away
so the place that has the least amount of risk is right here
in Washington State because its existing lines got generations of workers
and so we want them to put it here because it makes the most business sense
and actually South Carolina for about a back an hour difference
in the hiring rate in and but if skills and knowledge that are here
and when we were fighting to get the Air Force tanker
program the skills & expertise forever
factory were able to shave 25 percent of
at the cost of that airplane file now are
labor and benefits are less than five percent at the airplane crashed
the only way you could get those kind of efficiencies is a skilled workforce
I mean if we work for free have only shave 5 percent off but
skills & expertise were able to save 25 percent of signing will
just encourage buying why don't you harnessed skills and knowledge to have
on your payroll so how's this play now right now
right now I'm Boeing continues to try to pressure us
and except last and they came back
to the table and made minimal changes
and tried to force Center voters
and they actually said there's only an offer on the table
if the union would not only recommend acceptance but go out and sell it
and they just made minor tweaks they had another five thousand dollar bonus
six years from now when would normally be bargaining
two years from now and
a five hundred dollars more on can talk see you guys aren't that now one of the
criticisms is that the
quote union bosses Anquan are leading the membership vote on that
is a true that is true that and
you know our members the majority on the vast majority of them are telling us
that no means no that we have a contract in place through 2016
and we're not gonna vote every offer that Boeing takes a little bit until
they get fifty percent plus one
I guess it destroy everything that we've worked seventy-eight years to build to
give us a good
middle-class jobs for the workers here
and the people that are calling for a vote a lot of them are very scared
there's a new hires that haven't been through a traditional marketing
camp where they he's a solidarity and spring they have won the members of the
band together and
frankly I think following never want to go through a traditional marketing
that if I call again because they know that where we build the holiday ready
and educate the people there
yeah everything you have today is don't wanna sacrifice somebody
before you made remarkable Connie Kelliher thank you connie
and sharing this is the Thom Hartmann program
and the a website i am. 751 .org
more information thanks honey thank you but I