O F F I C E R S

R E P O R T
2004



 


36th IAMAW
Grand Lodge
Convention


From left: Research Economists Joe Thayer, Beth Almeida, David White, Director Steve Sleigh and Assistant Director Neil Gladstein.

Strategic Resources

The International Association of Machinists has taken the lead among labor organizations in the area of maintaining accurate wage and employment data dating back to the 1910s. At that time, Local Lodges had a “statistician” who recorded wage, employment and cost of living data. That information was used in negotiations and helped provide local representatives with a clear understanding of local labor and product market conditions.

As industry advanced after World War I, becoming national in scale and scope, the need for a national database on labor market conditions was a central concern to IAM representatives. At the 1920 Grand Lodge Convention a resolution from District Lodge 12 was adopted by unanimous consent for the General Executive Board to create under the direction of the International President “Éa statistical bureau, whose purpose and objects shall be to gather statistics and information covering wage rates, cost of living and cooperative movement in all its phases.” By the 1930s the IAM had developed a nationally recognized Research Department that carried out the information, analysis and research work required by local lodges.

Responding again to the needs of local union representatives, the IAM evolved research with the creation of the Strategic Resources Department in 1994. With the guidance and leadership of then General Vice President Tom Buffenbarger, our approach changed from collecting and reporting information to a more strategic approach: anticipating, projecting, and proactively analyzing the direction of labor and product markets and the consequent impact on IAM members.

Building on more than eighty years of research and statistical strength, Strategic Resources since 1994 has developed some of the best analytical capabilities of any union in the world. Consistent with that accomplishment, the Strategic Resources Department adopted the following mission statement in 1998:

The mission of the Strategic Resources Department is to help position the IAM for growth and increase the union’s capabilities of improving worklife and the standard of living for IAM members. Strategic Resources provides support to IAMAW officers, field representatives and organizers through research, analysis, and strategic advice on a wide variety of topics.

As a vital resource to our leadership and headquarters departments, Strategic Resources primary responsibilities include maintaining a comprehensive database of over 5,000 IAM collective bargaining agreements, providing accurate and timely analysis in support of bargaining, organizing and legislative initiatives, and participating in the development of strategic approaches to complex problems facing our members.

Since the 2000 IAM Convention, Strategic Resources has actively fulfilled this mission statement. Each year Strategic Resources has assisted in virtually all of the major negotiations involving IAM members through surveys that help prioritize bargaining objectives, financial research that indicates an employer’s ability to pay and make improvements in prevailing wages and benefits, and to develop the strategic approaches needed to maximize our union’s ability to best represent our members.

Three new responsibilities stand out in the last four years as new territory for Strategic Resources: supporting airline negotiations, developing sophisticated capital strategies as a leveraging tool for the IAM, and providing tools and training for IAM representatives use in developing strategic approaches. A fourth responsibility, dealing with financially troubled companies, developed in response to the downturn of manufacturing that began in 1998, picked up speed with the onset of recession in the spring of 2001, and the severe external shock that occurred September 11, 2001, and continues to decimate jobs in the airline and aerospace sectors of the IAM.

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