Nothing Was A Gift

January 17th 2018 - Strike of 1989

This was a 48 day strike - Members in the Puget Sound area were at 43,000 and if you added Wichita (who were also included in the Corporate wide agreement) that number was 57,800 IAM members going on strike. Major issue was forced overtime. The Company could work you to death and they did. 12 hour days, 7 days a week for weeks. No family time and really not much of a life outside of work. The strike was successful and resulted in limits to the amount of overtime you could be forced to work. 

Additional gains after this very successful strike - 3 year contract

• Limited to two weekends in a row and limited the number of hours in a budget quarter to 144 hours. (later would be improved again in 2002 to 128 hours and in 2018 to 112 hours in a budget quarter)
• All overtime over 160 hours in a quarter is double time
• Can't be forced to work more than 16 hours on a weekend
• 44 job classifications became "in-line" which gave 6,000 members promotional rights
• Medical Plan paid in full by the Company
• GWI 4, 3, 3
• Lump Sum Payment 10%, 5%, 4%
• 45 cent prepaid COLA before the 4% GWI calculated
• Joint Programs was established

Not all the gains but the most significant ones.

Here is just one news clipping from that time. Very interesting reading. Click on a picture for a higher resolution picuture you can read.

Ed