To those who think Boeing machinists are greedy: I implore you to do your research and get your facts straight before you bad mouth Boeing machinists. Granted, the media didn’t help in this matter. The average worker does not make $90,000 a year. That may belong to the managers, who are not union. The average worker that starts out at a grade 4 will make $15 an hour. Less than grade four is much less pay. Can you support your family on that, without another income?

The contract provides a 1 percent pay raise — every other year. The medical costs out of paycheck increase 10 percent every year. Plus co pays gradually increase to $40 a visit. Could you live with that if it were you? Could you live with making less and less every year than you were before? Plus, the annual deduction goes up to $400 a year. It was $250.

How would you like it if your boss told you, “Your cost for insurance is going up 10 percent a year, and the insurance is going down a grade lower. Plus, we will no longer give you the set pay raise we agreed upon. We decided you will only get a 1 percent pay raise every two years.”

As far as retirement goes, do you remember the 401k and Enron? Do you know how many people lost thousands out of their retirement fund? My dad lost over $350,000. Just like that. All the machinists want to do is retire without welfare. They want to make it on what they earned. The pension a lot of them have now, won’t sustain them. Social security is on its way out. Now what? You can’t rely on the stock market (401k).

McNerny is going to retire on a Boeing pension. It soared by $6.3 million just last year. His compensation in 2012 was $21.1 million. That was a 15 percent increase over the previous year. Last year’s Boeing profit was $3.9 billion. Boeing held Washington state and its employees hostage. Who do you think is going to make up for the $8.4 billion tax break that Boeing gets? The money has to come from somewhere. Guess what folks, taxes and tolls, etc., are going up.

By the way, Boeing did a $10 billion buy-back on stocks this year from its employees. Employees had no say. They got a letter and a check last spring/ summer. If you look at how Boeing stock did the last half of the year, it soared. Just wait and see what happens, and how much work will be here. There is wording in contract about outsourcing work, in whole or in part. Our economy is back in corporate hands. Boeing rules Washington state. Or they leave. So, do you still think the machinists are greedy?

Lynae Davis

Everett