Human Rights — 2

The Human Rights Seminar held each year at the IAM William W.Winpisinger Education and Technology Center in Hollywood,Maryland has been revised and expanded to teach IAM leaders and Human Rights Committee members the skills to be effective advocates for human rights at work and in the union and understanding their ROLE as leaders and committee members.

The seminar also provides an opportunity for sharing ideas to improve the status of women and minorities in our union and our workplaces.

We travel to local and district lodges and conferences, at the request of Business Representatives and General Vice Presidents, to conduct classes on diversity and harassment so our Leadership and Human Rights Committees can better serve the membership.

The Human Rights Department continues to work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other likeminded organizations that support our human rights agenda.

Once again we are in the fight of our lives to stop the current administration’s continuing attempts to turn the clock back on advances in civil and human rights in America. After eight years of a friendly administration and appointees who gave us a seat at the table and an ear to listen to the needs of working families, we are faced with the most anti-labor and antihuman rights administration in the last 40 years.

When you look at the assaults on affirmative action, and on women’s rights and when you look at the judicial nominees that are currently being put forth by this administration, we see an erosion of the significant gains that people of color and women have made in the past decade.

We are again fighting the same battles for fairness and dignity for all that have been fought and won in the past. This administration will not rest until they have taken back the gains that we have struggled for over the last 40 years.We must fight back in our local lodges, in our communities and at the ballot box.

This administration’s approach to civil rights is reflected in the actions (or inactions) of Federal departments such as the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Labor (DOL), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Many exploited workers around the world are women, children and people of colo(u)r. Workers rights are human rights.We expect our Human Rights Committees to become active and involved with the political issues that affect the working families of North America and the world.

We again encourage all local and district lodges who have not done so to establish a Human Rights committee in your lodge andregister that committee with the IAM HumanRights Department at IAM Headquarters.