Friday, October 30, 2020
IAM Officers, Staff and Members — This email newsletter is an effort to better communicate with our membership on how the IAM is fully engaged on important legislative matters that affect our day-to-day lives. Our goal is to get this information out to our membership on the shop floors. Please make it a top priority to consistently share this important new initiative with our membership.
In solidarity,
Robert Martinez Jr.
International President
HELLO AND WELCOME TO MACHINISTS ON THE HILL, a twice-monthly roundup of legislative advocacy on behalf of IAM members.
Produced by: IAM Legislative and Communications Departments
OUR FUTURE IS ON THE BALLOT: There are just four days until Election Day and we want to make sure every Machinists Union member has a plan to vote. There is too much at stake to sit this election out.
Visit iam2020.org today to find your polling place, see early voting locations, locate a voting drop box and see what’s on your ballot. It is too late to mail your ballot–please use a drop box or vote in person to ensure your vote is counted.
IAM members are volunteering from coast to coast to get out the vote for IAM-endorsed candidates, especially in critical battleground states.
Follow the IAM on Twitter for continuous updates through Election Day and beyond as we work to ensure that every ballot is counted and we preserve the sacred right to vote.
As a reminder, the IAM, in a first-of-its-kind membership vote, chose to endorse Joe Biden for president. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will fight for affordable healthcare, retirement security and stronger unions, while fighting against the outsourcing of our jobs.
WATCH: IAM members explain why they’re engaged in the election
Make sure you have a plan to vote. Visit iam2020.org today.
IAM’S VIRTUAL ‘BROKEN PROMISE’ TOUR HIGHLIGHTS JOB LOSS UNDER TRUMP: The IAM’s video series exposing the human cost of President Trump’s broken promises that U.S. workers “won’t lose one plant” and declarations that “[plants] are all coming back” is making waves in and outside the labor movement.
Dozens of IAM-represented facilities from coast to coast have closed since Trump took office, affecting thousands of families and their communities. Many of the jobs have been offshored to Mexico, China or other countries with low wages and little to no rights for working people. An IAM policy paper finds that the hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers who have lost their jobs due to outsourcing are still waiting for their jobs to come home, despite the administration’s promises.
“President Trump told our members and the nation that he would not only stop our jobs from going overseas, but that he would bring jobs back that we’ve lost,” said IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. “These promises have been broken time and time again. This administration has turned their backs on tens of thousands of our members and their communities. We need a White House that walks the walk and will defend critical U.S. manufacturing jobs.”
Watch each video in the IAM’s “Broken Promise” virtual tour:
TIME IS UP, MITCH: The American people are still waiting for Mitch McConnell and the Republican-majority Senate to get serious about much-needed relief for working families, especially for tens of thousands of airline workers who were laid off and furloughed when Payroll Support Program (PSP) funding expired on October 1.
“We are done waiting and we are outraged,” write IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. and Transportation General Vice President Sito Pantoja in a message to the IAM’s membership. “Instead of helping Americans who need it most, Mitch McConnell and his cohorts would rather spend the Senate’s time rushing through the unprecedented confirmation of a right-wing Supreme Court Justice—just days before the election. We join millions of Americans in telling Mitch McConnell to stop this madness and do the right thing for working families.”
The HEROES Act, passed by Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats, has sat on McConnell’s desk for five months without action.
BIG MONEY BUYS ANOTHER ANTI-WORKER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: When it comes to who is chosen to fill an open seat on the highest court in the United States, the process isn’t just a matter of picking a well-known judge from the lower courts. It’s a multi-million-dollar industry funded by hard-to-trace origins.
Former U.S. Attorney and current U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) explains the dark money trail fueling Supreme Court cases and nominations during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for Amy Coney Barrett.
Most notable for workers and unions is his discussion of the anti-worker Janus case and the amount of money being used to fight unions in the High Court.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett has an troubling anti-labor past, as highlighted in this IAM video.
The Senate confirmed Barrett in a 52-48 vote on Monday, October 26.
NFFE-IAM ALARMED AT NEW TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER TO CORRUPT FEDERAL WORKFORCE: NFFE-IAM Federal District 1 expressed its deep concern at the latest attempt by President Trump to corrupt the federal workforce.
The Trump Administration released a new Executive Order (EO) on October 21 that allows political appointees to remain in their positions past the end of a presidential term. The same EO also grants agencies authority to remove career employees involuntarily from career civil service into an unprotected, vulnerable status.
“If there was ever a case to strengthen civil service laws, President Trump just made it,” said NFFE-IAM Federal District 1 National President Randy Erwin. “NFFE-IAM is working with House and Senate Democrats and to combat any implementation of the EO.”
TCU/IAM RAISES ALARM FOR MTA EMERGENCY RELIEF: TCU/IAM National President Artie Maratea and National Vice President/National Legislative Director William DeCarlo wrote to the New York Congressional Delegation about the urgent need to meet the MTA’s request for $12 billion in a COVID relief package.
This funding would ensure that the MTA system and its commuter railroads would continue to function, despite heavy revenue losses, so our members can keep working to move New York City’s heroes across the city. Without additional funding, the MTA could be forced to furlough as many as 8,000 employees, while cascading economic effects could wipe out 350,000 jobs across the region, according to the MTA.
