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Workers Tap & Cafe Statement on Boeing Strike
10/15/2024
Tens of thousands of Boeing machinists have been on strike for over a month now, many of them located in the Portland metro area. The unionized machinists are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). These striking workers are demanding higher wages and to restore the company’s pension system.
We announced last week that we would be organizing a strike support field trip to show solidarity with the striking machinists. We plan to gather a group to go visit them on the line and use $100 from our Local Strike Fund to provide snacks to the picketing workers. The Strike Fund, which we launched on May Day of this year, is made up of our own contributions (On the first Saturday of every month, “Strike Fund Saturday,” we contribute 10% of our sales for the entire day), as well as donations from our patrons and community. This is not our first use of the Local Strike Fund— when New Seasons Labor Union went on a one-day strike on September 1st we sent $500 to support the workers. And while Thursday’s event at Boeing does happen to be the first of many such “field trips” we plan to lead now that the fund is gaining steam, it will not be the last! We look forward to providing more material and moral support to the unionization efforts of restaurant workers, baristas, healthcare professionals and social workers (to name a few) in and around Portland. Some have criticized this action and asked questions, and we’d like to address them here, as we believe that connecting with striking workers builds solidarity that brings us a step closer to collective liberation.
According to the information we have available to us, the striking machinists assemble airliners for the commercial division of the company (Boeing Commercial Airplanes, headquartered in Renton, WA), which is separate from the defense wing (Boeing Defense, Space & Security, headquartered in Arlington, VA). The Boeing facilities in the Portland Metro area operate under BCA, the commercial, civilian wing. We also know, however, that Boeing as a whole is a critical part of the US Military Industrial Complex and complicit in Israel’s genocide taking place in Palestine.
In an ideal world, the IAM would be striking to end any manufacturing that supplies the state of Israel, as well as for better wages with a return of the pension system. However, the union has not mentioned that first demand. The fact that the union movement in the US has not taken more action to impede the US government’s support of Israel is a failure of the US Left at large. There are numerous examples of unions in other countries taking radical action, such as Indian port workers who refused to handle Israeli weapons shipments, or Belgian unions refusing to handle military equipment being shipped through the country that are destined for Israel.
We need a more radical labor movement in this country that will take such action. Decades of attacks on the union movement in the US have left it much weaker and more timid to take radical action in fear of their own security. So how can we build a more radical labor movement?
Strikes are the most effective way for workers to understand their own power and identify the enemy: their bosses and capitalism in general. Strikes create more radical labor unions, ones who are more willing to take action against their bosses or even disregard union leadership when they are not acting in the best interest of their workers.
This strike is currently doing significant damage to Boeing at large. Striking workers withhold their labor, refusing to build things, and bleed the company of money and resources as a result. This is what makes it such an effective negotiating tactic. So far, the strike has cost the company $5 billion. This loss of resources has a significant knock-on effect: Pro-defense contracting websites are reporting that the strike has resulted in disruption of aircraft deliveries to the Pentagon. It has also caused Boeing to halt the majority of its DC lobbying and political contributions, money that undoubtedly encourages US involvement in and funding of Israel’s genocide in Palestine. The longer this strike lasts, the greater the damage to Boeing, and thus the military industrial complex.
Whether or not these were the stated intentions of the IAM workers, this strike is a blow against the US government’s backing of Israel’s genocide. Whether you hope that solidarity with striking workers creates a more radical union movement or you simply support any action that damages US backing of Israel’s genocide, we hope to see you on the picket line. We understand that support of this specific strike crosses a line for some people and we don’t dispute the validity of that stance. We do not claim to have all the answers and are doing our best with the information that we have. We can only hope that our actions can be seen as a good-faith attempt to act locally in the global fight against the ruling class.
In solidarity,
Workers Tap & Cafe
Workers Tap Statement on Palestine
10/20/23
In this house we believe in standing in solidarity with oppressed people, not just in our city, but all around the world. Many Portland businesses showed their support for the Black Lives Matter movement during the George Floyd Uprising of 2020, and we commend them for that. Right now Palestinians are facing a genocidal onslaught from the Israeli state in which thousands of people have been killed and around one million have been displaced in Gaza.
This ethnic cleansing is fueled by our government’s financial and military backing, and funded with our tax dollars. The struggle against racist police violence and imperialism abroad are inextricably linked. Look no further than the joint training exercises in Israel between the Israeli military and many US police forces, including the Portland Police, dubbed the “deadly exchange” by Jewish Voice for Peace.
Americans in particular cannot remain silent as our government funds genocide abroad and trains our police forces with the tactics of an occupying army. We call on other Portland businesses to show the same solidarity they did for Black Lives Matter in 2020 with Palestine today.
We wish to express our solidarity with Palestinians not just in words, but as a business with our money. Every night for the next week we will be donating 10% of all our sales to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, an organization that provides humanitarian aid and emergency medical care on the ground in Palestine. Our bartenders will be joining the bar in donating 10% of our tips as well.
Free Palestine.
– Workers Tap co-owners
Workers Tap 