Boeing Employees Strike (2000)

Wed Feb 09, 2000

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On this day in 2000, 19,000 of Boeing Company engineering and technical employees walked off the job in what historian Howard Zinn called “the biggest white-collar strike in the [U.S.] history”.

The strike was the result of a breakdown in negotiations between Boeing and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEAA). Striking workers said the protest wasn’t just about asking for more money, it was also to “improve the culture of the company and chart a new course for organized labor”.

When asked if he thought the strike had a lasting impact on the legacy of labor unions, Charlie Bofferding, Executive Director of SPEAA, stated “I’d have to say certainly less than we would have liked…At that time, what SPEEA was going for was an attempt to rebrand the labor movement from the people who beat up bad management to the people who made working in America better for everyone. I don’t know that that message stuck.”

  • @[email protected]
    6•2 days ago

    Over the course of true next 25 years, Boeing would go on to become a joke in the eyes of the world, reviled by workers and consumers alike, and would ultimately strand two astronauts in space with a faulty passenger capsule.

    • sp3ctr4lEnglish
      4•2 days ago

      The MCAS debacle is literally criminal, imo.

      They installed a system on their aircraft, did not fucking let the pilots know it was there, told the airlines the pilots wouldn’t need training, when they knew that it did, but training costs money.

      This then malfunctioned and killed people.

      Then Boeing ‘fixed’ it, and issued recovery procedures and mandated training.

      Then MCAS malfunctioned again, and the recovery procedures did not fucking work, more people died.

      The people that orchestrated this should be in jail for the rest of their fucking lives.

      Find ‘Downfall: The Case Against Boeing’ on netflix or tubi or whatever if you can, or just youtube search ‘boeing downfall’, there are a good number of youtubers who’ve decently well documented the MCAS debacle and other Boeing bullshit in their own hour-ish ling videos.