For 116 years, from a rail pit in Atlanta to the repair shops of Altoona, Machinists fixed generations of engines – wood-fired, coal-fired, oil-burning, diesel-fueled and electric locomotives. Generation after generation of railroaders demonstrated that they were absolutely indispensable. 

They don’t make the trains run on time. They make certain the trains can run and run smoothly over the rails.

Take the Machinists at Union Pacific, for example.
Operating in the western two-thirds of the United States, Union Pacific is the largest railroad in North America. It serves 23 states and links every major West Coast and Gulf Coast port. Its four major gateways – located in Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans – provide access to the eastern United States.

The Union Pacific uses more than 7,000 locomotives and 87,000 freight cars to ship a diversified list of goods, including more than 240 million tons of coal annually.

And guess what? Nearly 2,500 Machinists repair, maintain and rebuild diesel locomotives. They also service the track maintenance equipment.

Now, if the railroad Machinists didn’t do their jobs skillfully, those massive locomotives would be mere lumps of steel sitting with gondolas filled with lumps of coal a long way from the electric generators.

Machinists working for Union Pacific and dozens of other railroads prove their absolute indispensability every day by making certain hundreds of freight trains can crisscross the continent.

District 26, Hartford, Connecticut
It’s not just North America that relies on Machinists.

Every five seconds a Pratt & Whitney powered commercial aircraft takes off somewhere in the world. That’s twelve every minute, 720 every hour and over 17,000 every single day.

Machinist-made engines have powered the airline industry for decades going back to the Boeing 727 and 737. More modern commercial aircraft like the Boeing 757 and 767 and the newer versions of the 747 fly with Pratt & Whitney engines.

In fact, over 70,000 Pratt engines are flying around the world and across the continent every day.

To millions of passengers each day, Machinist-made engines provide the thrust that keeps them airborne. They arrive at their intended destinations because of the care and craftsmanship of IAM members.

So, if you still doubt the absolute indispensability of IAM members, ask any one of those passengers if they would fly on an airplane that uses Chinese-made engines.

District 143, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
No Machinists would board such a plane. They, too, fly cross-country visiting family or enjoying vacations. Not only do IAM members manufacture the engines and the aircraft, they also handle the day-to-day tasks of operating the airline and making certain passengers get to their final destinations.

Northwest Airlines flies freight to more than 500 cities, in 100 countries, on 6 continents. It has one of the largest trans-Pacific route structures with a fleet of a dozen 747-400 freighters — each with a 284,870-pound payload and 5,120-mile range.

Some of that freight, including mail and overnight packages, is pretty pedestrian. But some of it would astound you: life-saving medicines, computer parts, circus animals and body parts like eyeballs.

With over 14,000 IAM members at Northwest Airlines, we make over 750 destinations available to the traveling public. And while its planes to the Orient are filled with business travelers, its domestic flights are packed with families seeking a reprieve.

Their hard work is matched every day by IAM members at United, Southwest, Hawaiian, US Airways, Continental and dozens of other airlines.

When you fly, you rely on IAM members to get you airborne and get you home.