On November 23, MexicoNow organizers announced they were cancelling their Mexico Aerospace Outsourcing conference scheduled for December 2 at the Seattle Airport Hilton because of planned protests being coordinated by IAM District 751.
The cancellation marks the third time the threat of IAM protests forced the cancellation of the outsourcing conference, which encourages U.S. aerospace companies to relocate to Mexico.
“Clearly, this is the exact wrong time in America to sit back and allow more jobs to be exported,” said District 751 President Tom Wroblewski. “The goal of next week’s planned protests was to hold the companies taking part in the conference accountable for their actions. At a time when 358,000 Washington state residents are unemployed, untold thousands more have given up on ever finding a job – and one in seven are on food stamps – we felt it was essential that someone ask the conference participants a very pointed question: Why are you working so hard to undermine this state’s economy, and send these vital aerospace jobs out of the country?”
Previous MexicoNow outsourcing events planned for Wichita, KS, and Houston, TX and Montreal, CA were greeted with widespread negative publicity following IAM protests.
“These examples of determination and solidarity are the exact path that will bring the U.S. back to prosperity,” said Western Territory GVP Gary Allen. “Only when we stand together and demand that US corporations include the impact on U.S. families in their decision process, will we turn this recession around. I applaud the leadership of President Wroblewski, and thank everyone who stood on the side of justice in these battles.”
