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“Look at what George Bush has done to your union,” said International President Tom Buffenbarger to hundreds of delegates from layoff-battered locals on the first day of the 2003 IAM Aerospace Conference. “He said his 1991 tax cuts were going to create more than 300,000 new jobs. Instead, we heard a New York Federal Reserve official tell us last week that millions of lost jobs in this country would never be coming back.”

“We are in the midst of the largest contraction of a single industry since the 1930s,” said Steve Sleigh, Director of IAM Strategic Resources. “And the impact on our union has been profound. IAM membership in the aerospace sector has dropped more than 30 percent since 1999.

Despite the dramatic loss of aerospace jobs and a 10 percent decrease in sales industry-wide since 1991, profits for U.S. aerospace corporations are at near record levels. “The greed these numbers represent are the real scandal of the aerospace industry today,” said Sleigh.

Beyond statistics describing falling membership, trade deficits and the current administration’s war on U.S. labor unions, the message repeated by every speaker at the conference was that this union and this industry cannot survive four more years of Bush’s economic priorities.

“The upcoming presidential election is the best opportunity we have to halt the damage being done to our industry,” said General Secretary-Treasurer Warren Mart. “Without changes to the trade laws, labor laws and monetary policies coming out of Washington, we’ll be fighting for our lives with both hands tied behind our backs.”

IAM Associate Counsel Chris Corson described the atmosphere in the U.S. Department of Labor under legions of conservative political appointees: “It has become nothing more than the Chamber of Commerce by another name - it has become the Anti-Labor Department.”

Corson also warned of potential harm to workers and unions from the current wave of Bush’s judicial appointees. “When George Bush leaves, he takes Labor Secretary Elaine Chao with him,” said Corson. “But those judges are lifetime appointments, and could be the legacy of this extremely right-wing, anti labor administration if we don’t act to stop them now.”

The call to political action was heard again when Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) reminded delegates of the corrosive damage outsourcing and unfair trade pacts can cause. “Today it’s engine parts – in two years it will be the entire engine,” said DeLauro, referring to the recent transfer of Pratt & Whitney engine component work from Connecticut to Poland. “More than 11 million jobs in this country are supported by aerospace,” said DeLauro, “Yet, unlike our competition, we have no national strategy to protect this industry.”

Energized delegates returned home ready to remind fellow members that aerospace, more than any other is an industry, is driven by politics and political decisions. “This fight can be our Dunkirk or our Waterloo,” said General Vice President and Conference Chairman Bob Thayer. “Our industry and our union hang in the balance. It will all come down to how bad we want JOBS Worth Fighting For.”