Fighting for their jobs

Date: Monday, March 31, 2003 1:03 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

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http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/local/5515930.htm

Posted on Sun, Mar. 30, 2003

Fighting for their jobs

500 gather to protest planemakers' plans to outsource more of their
work.
BY DION LEFLER
The Wichita Eagle

Raytheon Aircraft worker Cherelle Reed went from welfare to work and
doesn't ever want to go back.

"We got to do something to make the company realize we want our jobs,"
said Reed, a single mother with seven children and a grandchild, all 18
or younger.

She and a handful of co-workers helped organize a demonstration of
worker solidarity just south of Raytheon's east Wichita plant Saturday,
to protest Raytheon, Boeing and other aircraft companies' outsourcing
of work out of Wichita.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wichita's aircraft plants have
announced about 12,000 layoffs. Some of the aircraft companies have
studied moving some work to other countries when the industry rebounds.

"It used to be if you got laid off you'd have a job to come back to,"
Reed said. "If the job is outsourced, there's just no job."

She has worked in the plant 4 = years since completing a program at
Diversified Education Training and Manufacturing Co., which prepares
welfare recipients for jobs so they can become self-sufficient.

The rally that Reed and her co-workers devised drew about 500 people to
the parking lot behind the Premiere Palace theater.

Chants of "USA! USA! USA!" rang in the air as workers carried signs
with slogans such as "Friends don't let friends lose their jobs" and
"Save my job, 2 old 2 be a hooker."

The workers opened their rally with the Pledge of Allegiance -- in
fact, they pledged twice so a TV crew could reshoot.

After that, Steve Rooney, a Machinists union lodge president and
business representative, drew a round of wild cheers when he said: "We
don't need the greedy CEOs.... They pledge allegiance to no one other
than a few greedy corporate stockholders."

He also blasted lawmakers who have made it increasingly convenient and
profitable for companies to export jobs to countries such as Mexico.

"Since they passed NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement),
they've bled this country of every job we had," he said.

The aircraft companies have said they are doing what they need to do to
compete and to survive at a time when the demand for new planes has
dropped because of terrorist attacks and a poor economy. Raytheon, for
example, has eliminated almost 3,000 jobs since mid-2001.

The company announced earlier this months that it is studying the
capabilities of at least two companies in Mexico to make wire harnesses
and panels, saying that the outsourcing is necessary to ensure
long-term growth.

The Rev. Carey Anderson of St. Paul AME Church told the workers that
the outsourcing is wrong.

"It's wrong because they are turning their backs on the people who put
the money in their corporate accounts," he said.

"My brothers and sisters, our troops are already out of the country.
Leave our jobs in the country," he added.

That same sense of economic betrayal was expressed by state Rep. Donald
Betts, D-Wichita.

"How do you backstab the people who have bled and sweated to build your
corporations?" he said, to another round of cheering.

Wichita Democratic Reps. Judith Loganbill and Jim Ward also joined the
rally.

Loganbill, a teacher and union member, said, "Raytheon does not need to
be outsourcing.

"It needs to stay here where we know the work is quality work and done
by union workers."

Two mayoral candidates addressed the crowd as well. Theater owner Bill
Warren, who loaned his parking lot for the rally, talked about his
father, a career Boeing worker, and his own brief foray into the
aircraft industry.

"Before they laid me off, I was one of the world's worst tool-and-die
makers," he joked, adding that it was a good thing he was better at
developing and managing theaters.

He reiterated his campaign pledge to create at least 2,000 new
manufacturing jobs his first year in office and said layoffs at the
aircraft plants would affect everyone in Wichita. "The type of problems
I want to have in Wichita are labor shortages," he said.

Jane Knight, a former gubernatorial aide who announced herself as a
write-in candidate for mayor Wednesday, vowed to fight for "$1 million
to help those of you who have needs today."

Her husband, seven-term Mayor Bob Knight, proposed such a relief
package for laid-off workers four months ago but couldn't corral enough
City Council votes to make it happen.

Jane Knight told the workers it is high time the city did more to help
its struggling aircraft workers.

"You put our city on the map," she said.

Reach Dion Lefler at 268-6527.

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