If organizers of a conference to encourage aerospace companies to relocate to Mexico don’t cancel their plans, IAM District 751 stands ready to protest outside the event.
“Our union is committed to growing Washington aerospace, not standing back and watching as it gets picked apart by foreign interests,” said District 751 President and Directing Business Representative TomWroblewski. “We’re not going to let anyone come into our backyard and poach some of our state’s best-paying, high-skill manufacturing jobs.”
The Mexico Aerospace Industry Conference, scheduled for December 2 at the Hilton Hotel at SeaTac, is being organized by MexicoNow, the same group the IAM has been chasing across North America. Earlier this year, IAM m embers in Dallas, TX, and Vancouver, BC, showed up in force to protest MexicoNow events held in their cities; and in Wichita, KS, two conferences were cancelled after IAM members rallied public support against the outsourcing event.
District 751 is also calling on Boeing to cancel their participation in the conference. Boeing’s regional director for business development and global strategy in the Americas is among the scheduled speakers for the Seattle conference.
In a letter to Boeing Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney, Wroblewski writes: “ America needs jobs, and not just any jobs,” he continued. “Good-paying aerospace manufacturing jobs are vital if this nation is ever to recover from this economic crisis. That’s why we’ve fought so hard on your behalf to ensure Boeing wins the tanker deal, and that’s why we’re just saying ‘no’ to Mexico. I’m asking you to join us, to work together in making both our industry and our nation stronger.”
