‘Why We Need Medicare for All’: Boeing Revokes Health Benefits for Striking Workers

Yves here. Holy moley. Boeing management makes it clear it would rather fly Boeing into a mountainside than give labor a meaningful say in their terms of employment. This action is punitive and will simply (if such a thing is possible) further poison the relationship between Boeing’s top brass and the union.

I predicted early on, based on the quick decision by the rank and file to strike, and the unheard of 96% approval, that management and the workers were so far apart that the end game was likely to be a Federal bailout, with labor forced to abandon its demands. Continuing management high-handedness, and with it, rising likelihood of a government rescue, confirms how rancidly self-serving Boeing’s top brass is.

One does have to point out that past generations of labor leaders bear responsibility for Boeing being able to punish strikers by cancelling health benefits. Even though the AMA lobbied hard against proposals to implement what it called “socialized medicine,” they had unions as allies. Unions wanted to be able to claim that they were responsible for bargaining for and getting health insurance for member, so as to be able to prove that being in a union shop was a better deal for workers.

By Edward Cooper, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams

Boeing revoked the company-sponsored healthcare benefits of about 33,000 striking workers starting Tuesday, drawing condemnation from progressives, who said it showed the need for a universal healthcare system in the United States.

The workers, who are mostly in Washington state and are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), went on strike on September 13, and the corporation announced on its website that their healthcare benefits would expire at the end of the day on September 30.

“Boeing’s greed offers another perfect example of why we need Medicare for All,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on social media. “Like other wealthy countries we must guarantee healthcare to every man, woman, and child as a human right, not a job benefit. Whether you’re on strike or not, everyone is entitled to healthcare.”

Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), wrote on social media that “healthcare should not be tied to employment.”

“Also, shame on Boeing!” she added.

Unionists demonstrate in Renton, Washington on September 26, 2024. (Photo: Taylor Garland)

Many companies have been accused of cutting off healthcare benefits as a strike-breaking tactic. General Motors revoked healthcare benefits to striking workers in 2019, and Warrior Met, a coal mining company, did so in 2021; John Deere, meanwhile, threatened to follow suit during its 2021 strike.

In 2022, House Democrats moved to establish a federal law preventing the maneuver, but the proposed bill didn’t pass.

Washington state, which has a Democratic trifecta, did pass legislation this year providing a modicum of support to striking workers. The new law allows workers involved in a labor dispute open enrollment into subsidized healthcare through the state exchange system.

The striking Boeing workers said they plan to remain steadfast despite the cutoff of benefits.

“I’m 50 years old. I’ve been working since I was 16,” Robert Silverman, told a local reporter from the picket line on Monday. “I’ve been saving for a long time. From day one in my hiring process, they told us about this day, they said to be ready.”

The healthcare cutoff followed a month of frenzied negotiations. On September 8, Boeing and IAM reached a tentative deal that could have averted a strike, but the 33,000 workers voted overwhelmingly against it days later, opting to go on strike.

The strike has effectively stopped Boeing’s commercial airline production, though most of its 170,000 workforce is not on strike, and the corporation continues production in other domains.

The points of dispute in the negotiations include wages and retirement benefits. The tentative deal included a 25% wage increase by the end of a four-year contract, but employees wanted a 40% increase. On September 23, Boeing proposeda 30% increase, saying that was its “best and final” offer. IAM rejected it, angered by the wording and the fact that the offer was made via the media, rather than directly to the union.

Boeing, once a beacon of U.S. industrial prowess, was already in turmoil before the strike began after a series of scandals in recent years that have raised serious questions about its commitment to safety.

The corporation has also long been in the crosshairs of progressives and working-class advocates who say its management has been especially greedy.

“Boeing could have taken help to keep people on payroll through Covid, but they turned down billions in federal assistance because it came with strings such as banning stock buybacks and capping executive compensation,” Nelson, the AFA-CWA leader, told Common Dreams. “This company has bowed repeatedly before the alter of shareholder capitalism.”

Nelson said the union’s campaign for fair pay and benefits was in fact connected to efforts to improve safety protocols.

“Machinists are fighting… [for] good union jobs and in the process they are fighting for our safety,” she said. “We stand with them. This strike is the best chance we have of saving Boeing and making it once again a marvel of engineering and solid maintenance.”

The push for Medicare for All in the U.S., meanwhile, remains muted, despite the failures of the U.S. healthcare system. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, co-sponsored Medicare for All legislation as a senator, but hasn’t included it as part of her 2024 platform.

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18 comments

  1. doug

    House Democrats moved to establish a federal law preventing the maneuver, but the proposed bill didn’t pass. But but they were ‘fighting’ for it….

    This despicable action from the Boeing elites will backfire, I hope.

    Reply
    1. JonnyJames

      Oh yah sure, they were :”fighting” for it. It looks nice for the stage-managed political theater, but “Single Payer is off the table!” remember? They need better actors in Congress.

      Reply
  2. Es s Ce Tera

    Huh, Boeing would rather the workers die? I’m not American so I can’t imagine how it works. What happens if one of the workers gets a heart attack, stroke, gets in an accident, etc.

    Reply
    1. Charger01

      Exactly what Boeing offered before the strike- nothing. They’re in the company because of Grasham’s Law, the management is in a monopoly position and is acting like it.

      Reply
    2. David in Friday Harbor

      Lambert’s Two Rules of Neoliberalism:

      1) Because Markets.
      2) Go Die.

      In America, the cruelty is the point. What do you expect from a country founded on slave-holding, indigenous genocide, expropriation of resources for private benefit, unfettered exploitation of workers, and bankruptcy for profit?

      Yves, good point about Big Labor blocking Universal Health Care in order to hold benefits hostage. Part of why Boeing Machinists rejected the contract recommended by their union was that it created a second-tier deferred compensation plan to be managed by the union – offering union officials their own little kick-back grift as a bribe to recommend the crappy contract.

      Reply
      1. Synoia

        Hopefully they won’t have door plug issues….

        Those been reiabled Parachute exits and will be sold for a few hundred thousand each., (snark).

        Reply
  3. JonnyJames

    Yes, the plebs must be taught a lesson, even if it costs the company in the short term. How dare they try to strike, they will be faced with extortionate health care costs if something might happen – the most expensive health extortion on earth.

    Between the diminished and co-opted unions, corrupt corporate management, and corrupt Congress, they haven’t got a snowball’s chance of gaining anything significant.

    The Traumatized Worker Syndrome (see Alan Greenspan) ensures that US workers will remain compliant, docile and know their place. One paycheck away from becoming delinquent on mortgage payment, credit card payments, student loan, car payments, etc. and being exposed to potentially catastrophic medical charges means that Debt Peons (aka working class) will do as they are told. Freedom? Yeah right.

    And it will just get worse: Both factions of the Bipartisan Consensus have made it clear: US health extortion will continue, no single payer, no Medicare for all, no regulation of BigPharma. What do we think this is? A democracy or something?

    Reply
  4. Kouros

    Employment linked health insurance is a feature, not a bug of the exploitative US system.

    With universal healthcare, workers of all sorts, blue, white, and in between, could more easily quit and look for better jobs.

    Reply
    1. Jams O'Donnell

      It’s the ‘American Dream’. Of course the other face is ‘American Nightmare’ – which face you see depends on your position on the ladder of power.

      Reply
  5. Keith Newman

    Opposition to public health care (“socialised medicine”) by some unions is sadly true. Business unions, the kind of union that opposes public programs that benefit everyone because a union shop provides them for its members are real. I also read a report some time ago that Big Insurance paid off some key US union leaders to betray the working class by putting them on their Boards of Directors. Very sad.

    Fortunately that doesn’t happen everywhere. In Canada the labour movement has been key in obtaining Canadian medicare. It strongly supported the New Democratic Party (NDP) government in Saskatchewan in the early 1960s when it introduced public coverage of doctors in the province and most doctors went on strike.
    A few years later (1969) when the federal government introduced Medicare as a national program thanks to NDP pressure the labour movement was again strongly supportive defeating strong opposition from conservative elements. Having good social programs raises the conditions of the working class and makes workers less vulnerable to employer actions. Which is one important reason why employers are usually against good social programs.
    Still in Canada, over the last 10 years, the labour movement has been the most vociferous supporter of broadening public universal health coverage to include pharmaceutical drugs. It has done country-wide education with its members and relentlessly lobbied Members of Parliament. It is a no-brainer as everyone except Big Pharma and Big Insurance will benefit: it’ll cost less, be fairer, and have safe-guards to reduce over consumption of drugs. Need I add that while the Canadian public is overwhelmingly in favour, the Big Business interests that will lose out big time are stridently opposed.
    A few months ago, responding to pressure from the NDP, the federal government introduced a timid first step in the right direction by covering two major classes of treatment, diabetes and contraception, under a new Pharmacare program with access to all, no co-pays, no income tests. The legislation still needs to pass the final step in Parliament to take effect. It is expected to pass.

    Reply
  6. Glen

    Does Boeing management realize that it was the loss of skilled workers that got them into this mess to begin with?

    Does Boeing management realize that all the really good workers (aviation mechanics) now on strike can find better paying jobs in lower cost parts of the country? The longer this strike goes on, the more of their best remaining workers will leave, and they really cannot afford to lose any more of them.

    Reply
  7. Think4yrself

    Who wants “Medicare for all”? Who wants to be dependent on Medicare period? Certainly not those accustomed to Boeing level healthcare plans. Do you know anyone over 65 who paid in to Medicare all their life? They must buy a supplement so they can have REAL coverage. What fairytale world would lead anyone to believe the US government would be better at providing health care than they are at anything else? Don’t we have enough examples of how well they manage the money we entrust to them for redistribution to our needs? I don’t have a solution here but Medicare for all just sounds like asking for another badly abused tax and spend fund that will run out of money and reduce benefits till you have to buy insurance from a private provider again.

    Reply
    1. Yves Smith Post author

      I don’t know what planet you live on. The Medicare B deductible is only $240. The lowest I know of on any private plan is $500 and most are more like $2000. Unlike most employer plans, you can see any doctor and are not limited to ah HMO/PPO list. The co-pay is 20%, typical for employer plans.

      Reply
    2. Skippy

      Ugh this goes back decades Think4yrself, BTW your moniker is a tell. So you have reverse engineered decades of ideological dogma in all things Government bad, with the tell tale of taxing and spending dramas like is robbing people and Government will run out of Gold.

      Actually its the inverse, dogma you are beholden too has corrupted Government so bad that it no longer serves a public purpose. Only favors the elites and what generates profit for them.

      Enjoy you Corporate Health Care for profit extraction so abstinent investors have a full life as their potential warrants …

      PS got any kids to sell ???? in case thingy …

      Reply

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