BIW to Build First Zumwalt DDG-1000 Destroyer

October 19, 2007 - IAM members of Local S6, District 4 at Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Portland, ME welcomed news recently that their shipyard has been selected to build the Navy’s new Zumwalt-class of advanced destroyers. The flagship DDG-1000 is scheduled to begin fabrication sometime in 2008 with delivery expected in 2013.

“This is wonderful news for the skilled men and women of Bath Iron Works,” said Maine Sen. Susan Collins. It is a tribute to the dedication and skill of the BIW workers that the Navy has reversed its previous decision and is now providing the materials for the first DDG-1000 to BIW.”
The news comes just as BIW approaches the end of a shipbuilding era with construction of the Arleigh Burke destroyers winding down. Union members at BIW began work on the 62nd and final ship in that class earlier this year. Arleigh-Burke class destroyers have been the shipyard's mainstay since the early 1990s.

Clinton Vows To Restore Manufacturing

July 9, 2007 - Senator Hillary Clinton promised cheering steelworkers Friday that she would offer a labor-friendly White House and would promote manufacturing if elected president. "We are going to revitalize our manufacturing base," said Clinton. 

"I don't think we can be a great nation without a manufacturing base," she said. "If we don't keep making things, we're not going to sustain our economic standard of living or our quality of life."

Read the Forbes article here or more at the AFL-CIO Blog here.

Video: Bringing Back the Jobs

July 5, 2007 - For most, having a good job is the way to achieve the American dream.  It's how families gain not just wages, but also security.  Unfortunately, today's climate of depressed wages and outsourcing is leading many to give up on what was once in their grasp.

Watch the video here.

Video: Senate Takes Up Manufacturing

June 11, 2007 - Union leaders, small business owners, corporate CEO's...this is just a partial list of those who gathered to talk about America's Manufacturing Sector and try to come up with ways to bring back this industry that once ruled the world.

Watch the video here.

Machinists Seek U.S. Manufacturing Policy

June 07, 2007  – The president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today urged Senate Democratic leaders to treat the nation’s manufacturing crisis like an economic epidemic.

“We cannot afford to be anesthetized by incremental improvements in one index or another,” said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. “Since 1999, we have lost over 43,000 manufacturing plants and more than 3.2 million good paying American jobs. No economy can continue to absorb that kind of damage and hope to survive.”

Buffenbarger spoke at the “Open Discussion on American Manufacturing,” a daylong policy summit hosted by the Senate Democratic Steering Committee.

“I urge the Committee to lay the foundation for a national industrial policy that will put the brakes on this epidemic of job losses. We need tax incentives for renovating and retooling older factories. We need an alternative to college for high school graduates that provides the skills needed to compete in the global economy and we desperately need to put a tourniquet on trade deals and tax breaks that are killing jobs and hope for so many Americans families.”

Buffenbarger cited polling by the IAM in core manufacturing states where more than four-fifths of respondents supported the establishment of an industrial policy. Seven out of ten respondents in the same poll said they would forgo a future tax cut if they could see real investment in job creation programs.

“There have already been far too many casualties to ignore this problem any longer,” said Buffenbarger. “The last election was an urgent wake up call for action on a number of fronts. Hitting the snooze button on the creation of a manufacturing policy should not be an option.”

Clinton Outlines Manufacturing Policy

June 2, 2007 - In an important policy speech delivered to students at the Manchester School for Technology in Manchester, NH, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (D-NY) provided an in-depth look at the principles that would guide her administration if she succeeds in her bid to win the White House. Sen. Clinton also referenced auto mechanics, aerospace workers and specifically mentioned the Machinists Union in her speech.

Echoing populist themes previously discussed, but in far greater detail, the Democratic front runner acknowledged the lopsided evolution of globalization and how middle class workers in the U.S. are being penalized while CEO’s and foreign workers reap handsome dividends.

Clinton proposed what she described as a progressive plan to combat the assault on the middle class by global economic policies and wrongheaded economic policies. Her plan would cut back on corporate welfare and require oil companies to invest in alternative energy; eliminate incentives for American companies to ship jobs overseas; reform corporate governance rules that allow CEO’s to escape with golden parachutes while their companies abandon workers’ pension and restore financial responsibility to our own government. “It’s simply not fair that as corporate profits have skyrocketed, the percentage of taxes paid by corporations have fallen,” said Clinton.

Additional points included promoting alternatives to traditional education so jobs that require precision skills and training would not go unfilled.

“Unfortunately, for the past six years it’s as though we’ve gone back to the era of the robber barons,” said Clinton. “Year after year, this president has handed massive tax breaks to oil companies, no-bid contracts to Halliburton, tax incentives to corporations shipping jobs overseas, tax cut after tax cut to millionaires, while ignoring the needs and aspirations of tens of millions of working families.”

Video: American Manufacturing: Flourishing or Floundering?

April 18, 2007 - Many analysts point to manufacturing as a cornerstone of the American middle class.  But in recent years, that's started to change and many in the field warn this could be devastating for the nation's future.

Watch Video: American Manufacturing: Flourishing or Floundering?

Job Training Not a Labor Dept. Priority

March 29, 2007 - At a time when top labor, business and economic leaders are calling for more investment in education and training to close a “skills gap” among American workers, the Bush administration’s Department of Labor is proposing to cut $1.1 billion from training programs in its fiscal 2008 budget.

The proposal baffled Congress members at recent hearings of both the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. House Chairman Tom Udall (D-NM) observed that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke each recently made “impassioned statements” that absent improved education and training, the U.S. risks its competitive position in the global economy.

Udall went on to ask why “our business and economic leaders understand the importance of education and training” while the Bush administration apparently does not. At the Senate hearing, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) told Labor Secretary Chao that U.S. competitiveness “depends on the investments we make in the workforce of the future” and that “success requires a genuine commitment of resources, not rhetoric.”

“Last May, leaders from the labor movement, the military and the corporate world gathered at the IAM for a SURGE Roundtable and we discussed the loss of skilled jobs,” said IP Tom Buffenbarger. “One issue on which we all agreed is the need – the urgent need - for highly-trained workers. The fact that this administration has consistently pushed to eliminate funding to train our workers, especially at this critical juncture in American history, is an absolute disgrace to those who built this great country.”

Lou Dobbs Examines China’s Aircraft Ambitions

March 22, 2007 - IP Tom Buffenbarger is scheduled to appear Thursday, March 22, on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight as part of a news segment about China’s entry into the global commercial aircraft market.

“The recent announcement that China will be entering the large commercial aircraft market comes as no surprise to the IAM,” said Buffenbarger. “ China developed its capacity in large part due to U.S. policy that allowed the transfer of U.S. technology and production—technology that was often developed by U.S. aerospace workers and paid for by U.S. taxpayers.”

The Emmy-award winning Lou Dobbs Tonight airs from 6 to 7 p.m. Eastern Time, 7 days a week. Check your local listings to confirm time and channel.

Industrial Policy Needed Now, says Buffenbarger

March 7, 2007 - Machinists Union International President Tom Buffenbarger told a group of fellow union leaders and top presidential campaign staffers that blue collar workers in the U.S. cannot afford to wait for election-year platitudes and campaign promises to rebuild the nation’s devastated manufacturing base.

“America’s industrial resurgence cannot wait for ’08,” declared Buffenbarger at an event held during the AFL-CIO’s Executive Council meeting in Las Vegas, NV. “In addition to over 3 million manufacturing jobs lost since January 2002, we’ve lost a total of 43,000 manufacturing plants since 1999. It’s political and economic suicide to ignore this trend one day longer.”

Buffenbarger called for a U.S. industrial policy that includes legislation to stimulate the U.S. manufacturing sector - old and new - and cuts the massive U.S. trade deficit in half in four years. The U.S. trade deficit hit a record high $764 billion in 2007, up 6.5 percent from 2005. The merchandise trade deficit was even higher, ballooning from $783 billion in 2005 to $836 billion in 2006.

“Without a determined effort to rebuild and protect U.S. manufacturing capability, this nation’s economy will become a permanent hostage to foreign nations and a global economy that cares little for our history, our heritage or our values,” said Buffenbarger.

In addition to an industrial policy that creates jobs and provides tax incentives for businesses to renovate existing plants, Buffenbarger called for the establishment of a nationwide system of high tech institutes to train current and future workers in skills needed to develop and sustain U.S. manufacturing prowess.

Support Group For U.S. Army Organizes

Capitol Hill wasn’t the only place for victory celebrations last week. Just ask the 579 workers at Ft. Stewart, Georgia, who won IAM representation in one of the Machinists’ biggest organizing victories in recent months.

The new IAM members, who will join District 96 in Savannah, GA are employed by Eagle Group and provide maintenance and logistics support for the U.S. Army at Ft. Stewart.

“Congratulations to GLRs Al Granado and Ray Moffatt, Apprentice Organizer Mike Cooke and all who assisted on this campaign,” said Southern Territory GVP Bob Martinez, Jr. “This team worked long and hard to get the job done, and made sure the workers at Ft. Stewart understood their rights and the benefits that an IAM contract could bring.”

“This campaign lasted three months,” said Organizing Director Larry Washam, “Al, Ray, and Mike worked tirelessly to bring about this win. They and all the workers at Ft. Stewart deserve a warm welcome and a big thank you.”

Surge: F-22 Procurement

With critical support from the IAM, the Senate recently approved an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill that provided a three-year procurement for the F-22. The multi-year procurement reinstates the Air Force’s plan to buy 60 F-22A Raptor fighter jets and ensures the jobs of thousands of manufacturing workers.

Machinists in Marietta, GA and Ft. Worth, TX build the F-22 Raptor. The Raptor’s unique combination of stealth, speed, agility, situational awareness, air-to-ground and air-to-air combat capabilities make it unlike any other military aircraft in the world.

The continued procurement of the F-22 is imperative to maintain production of the only operational advanced 5th generation tactical aircraft to meet national defense requirements in an uncertain world. The multi-year procurement strategy:

• Extends F-22 production through 2010 (keeping assembly lines open through 2011).
• Mitigates the cost impacts associated with an annual buy.
• Retains 5th generation tactical aircraft procurement options to counter growing proliferation of advanced 4th generation fighter threats and advanced SAMs.
• Benefits the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program by helping reduce supplier overhead rates and retaining technical expertise across the tactical stealth aircraft industrial base.

Apprentice Program Returns to Honeywell

After a hiatus of nearly ten years, the Tool and Die Apprentice Program at Honeywell FM&T in Kansas City, MO is turning out graduates once again.

District 778 Business Representative Mike Roepke, who negotiated reinstatement of the program, recently attended the graduation of Jeff Cetto and John Vincent, the first two IAM members to complete the 8,800 hours of hands-on and classroom training.

Apprentices rotate working alongside Journeyman Tool & Die Machinist, learning from their decades of experience. Honeywell officials realized that skilled Tool & Die Journeyman had been retiring at a high rate and the few still working were fast approaching retirement age.

 By working closely with District 778, Honeywell is assuring the presence of a highly-skilled workforce far into the future.

Winchester Workers Protest Unfair Imports

Cheap imports from China carried a high price for 186 members at the iconic Winchester rifle facility after parent company US Repeating arms closed the New Haven plant on March 31, 2006.

Former Winchester workers spoke out at a Connecticut AFL-CIO rally in support of an unfair trade practices petition filed by the AFL-CIO to force the Bush Administration to take action against China’s violation of workers’ rights. Those violations, including slave-labor conditions and extensive use of child labor, give China an unfair competitive advantage and cost millions of North American jobs. Under the Trade Act of 1974, the U.S. has the ability to take action against China, but the Bush Administration has refused to do so.

“March 31 was a very sad day; 186 jobs, that’s 186 families,” Local 609 President and 40-year Winchester employee John Reynolds told the New Haven Register. “We are looking for our representatives in Washington D.C. to do something.”
U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) has introduced legislation to stem the tide of manufacturing jobs going overseas and has urged the Bush Administration to take tougher action.

"The closure of the Winchester plant was a blow to both the generations of workers who were the backbone of the plant as well as the surrounding community," DeLauro said. "Yet, the closure of this New Haven institution represents something much bigger — it is a symbol of the Bush Administration’s failed trade policies and its impact on families right here at home."

“All these jobs going overseas, what is going on here?” asked 10-year Winchester employee Donald Harris. “Somewhere it has to stop.”