From the Stand: 

In America, hard work and success should be rewarded. But this week an American company experiencing soaring profits, stock prices at an all-time high, and decades worth of back orders for its high-quality union-made products did exactly the opposite. Boeing gave its workforce a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum: sacrifice your pensions and accept wage and benefit cuts, or we’ll build our next jet in some other state.

chinists (IAM) union members at Boeing rightly rejected that attempt at extortion ­ despite enormous public pressure from Boeing executives in Chicago and politicians here in Washington ­ and now those of us in the community must stand beside them and demonstrate our support for their decision. Please make plans to attend a Community & Labor Rally on Monday, Nov. 18 at 4 p.m. at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle to show our support for the IAM District 751 members who rejected Boeing’s ultimatum to eliminate their pensions and cut their wages and benefits.

Boeing Machinists showed great courage and now they are being attacked by anti-union extremists for their decision. The Seattle Times believes local families should have accepted Chicago’s punishment rather than maintain their existing union contract that allows them to share in some of the success they created. Meanwhile, no one is demanding that Boeing executives sacrifice their obscene salaries or their multimillion dollar pensions.

What Boeing executives have done is wrong. We need to stand beside the skilled and productive Boeing employees who make this company great and show our support for them. Please make plans to attend the Nov. 18 rally and bring your family and friends.

For more information, call the Washington State Labor Council at 206-281-8901.