This edition of the IAM Journal Online Edition focuses on the November 2, 2004 election. Find out which politicians really care about protecting your family, your community, and your job.


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Barely making it on retirement: The Yungkans family, from left, spouse Nancy Yungkans; Spanky Yungkans; their daughter Nancy Jane, standing, and grandson Adam in the living room of their Goodyear, Arizona home.

James 'Spanky’ Yungkans, Retired
James “Spanky” Yungkans has been a Machinist for almost 40 years. He was working at Double A Production in Manchester, MI for seven years before the IAM organized the plant in 1965.

“What a difference it made being a Machinist. Only then did it become a great place to work,” said Spanky.

In the mid-70’s production declined at the hydraulics company. After a snow-bound winter Spanky and his family packed up and moved to Arizona in 1978. He owned a pizza parlor but the economy soured so he had to sell it.

In 1980, Spanky went to work at Goodyear Aerospace in Goodyear, AZ working with plastics and making safety glass for presidential
events and windows for airplanes. Over time he moved into the electronic supply division and that helped his health tremendously. “Some of my breathing problems came from all those plastics I worked around,” he said.
Even in a right-to-work state like Arizona, the IAM still flourished. Local Lodge 763 had more than 700 members until Loral purchased Goodyear Aerospace for the name alone.

“They came in and divided the workforce with a two-tier pay structure. It didn’t work. It ruined membership solidarity,” said Yungkans.

Loral continued making changes and eliminating hourly employees until there were only 30 people left. “Then they laid everyone off,” recalls Yungkans.

Spanky retired in 1991. Because he had to change jobs often, his pension was modest. But he never stopped paying his dues. His original Arizona local was disbanded. Now he is an active member of Local 519 serving as Recording Secretary and Office Manager.

Retired on Medicare is no walk in the park. Spanky’s fifteen monthly prescriptions and his dozen pills a day cost him more than $200 a month. One medication alone is $150 for a one-month supply and it’s not covered by his plan or by the new Medicare prescription benefit card. If his doctor did not give him samples, Spanky couldn’t get the medication.

Medicare automatically enrolled him in the prescription benefit card program, but his pharmacist told him not to use the card. “It doesn’t make any difference,” said the pharmacist. “Not one bit.”

Spanky dislikes the Bush Administration’s Medicare reforms. While the cost of seeing his primary care doctor dropped from $15 to five dollars, the cost of seeing a specialist rose to $30 a visit and $15 for x-rays.

If it weren’t for the part-time job at his local, “I don’t think we could make it,” he admits.

Who Cares About Us?
As employers flee the country for cheaper labor, Machinists stand tall. As they struggle to live paycheck to almost paycheck, the question is loud and clear: Who does care?

Who cares about us? About our brothers and sisters? About our kids? Our grandkids? Those questions demand an answer. And the answer to the question “who cares about us” can be found in the mirror each morning. Change begins with each of us.

We cannot let our communities fall into disarray because of our own complacency, or the complacency of others. We cannot let our country down.

Voting is our civic duty, our patriotic duty. But it also means our survival. It is OUR work, OUR families, OUR community we are voting to protect.

Who cares? Steve does, Ralph does, Spanky does and so does every member of the Machinists Union.

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