Tuesday, January 4, 2005
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Labor issues you care about in streaming video
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Bush Jokes About Trade Deficit
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As the manufacturing base of the United States is being shipped to foreign soil, President Bush is joking about the 566 billion dollar annual trade deficit.

Organizing For The Future

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Ken Walsh, Director of the Organizing Department talks about organizing strategies to advance the IAM.

Don't Take Away Our Medical Benefits
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Dozens of US Airways retirees traveled from Philadelphia, Delaware and New Jersey to the US Bankruptcy court in Alexandria Virginia where a judge will decide on their livelihood.


Bombardier Board Changes, Govt. Promises Aid

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Bombardier CEO Paul Tellier was dismissed on Monday, December 13th sending company stock to a record low.

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Down to the Wire at US Airways

Union leaders representing IAM members at US Airways met in Philadelphia, PA on Monday to provide an update on contract negotiations with the bankrupt airline and to address long-standing concerns over the carrier’s Philadelphia operation.

“On Jan. 4, the IAM Negotiating Committee for Fleet Service Employees returns to the bargaining table and we expect to conclude our discussions with US Airways,” said Randy Canale, President of IAM District 141. “We are continuing to provide positive input into the 1113(c) discussion process.”

Talks between US Airways and the IAM District 142 committee representing nearly 4,000 of the airline’s Mechanic & Related workers are also taking place in Crystal City, VA this week.

Both groups are laboring under the shadow of a looming decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Stephen S. Mitchell, who indicated he would rule on Jan. 6 on an 1113(c) motion to dissolve labor contracts covering union-represented workers at the airline.

Members and officers of IAM Local 1776 in Philadelphia also spoke out on Monday about the misinformation that circulated in news accounts following cancelled flights and irregular operations during the Christmas weekend. “US Airways’ Philadelphia operation has long been plagued by inefficient equipment and gross understaffing,” said Robert Boland, President of Local 1776. “Demoralized by bankruptcies, pay cuts and poor management, employees are leaving in record numbers and dozens of openings in Philadelphia remain unfilled.” Some news accounts blamed employees for the problems.

The IAM represents nearly 8,450 US Airways employees in the Fleet Service, Mechanic & Related and Maintenance Training Instructor classifications nationwide, including 2,000 in Philadelphia.

PBGC to Take Over UAL Pilots Pension Plan

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced on December 30, 2004 that it was moving to assume responsibility for the pensions of more than 14,000 active and retired pilots at United Airlines represented by the Air Line Pilot’s Association (ALPA). The PBGC, a government agency that insures defined benefit pension plans, filed a complaint in federal court in Chicago seeking an order to terminate the pilot’s defined benefit pension plan and have the PBGC appointed as the plan’s statutory trustee.

The PBGC estimates that the current UAL pilot plan can cover about 49% percent of its funding liability of $5.7 billion in promised benefits. The termination would be the third largest in PBGC history. The agency claims it is acting to protect against the possibility of up to $140 million in additional losses.

The PBGC’s filing comes in the middle of voting on a proposed agreement by United’s ALPA-represented pilots. One provision of that agreement allows UAL to terminate the pilots’ defined benefit pension if UAL terminates the defined benefit plans for all other employee groups. The PBGC action could void the provision.

The IAM has already met and has scheduled additional meetings with United Airlines and the PBGC to find alternatives to terminating the defined benefit plans for United’s IAM-represented employees. “We will not let United walk away from its obligations to our members,” said Transportation General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr. “We are working aggressively to ensure our members have the secure retirement they earned and deserve.”

GOP Plan Would Cut Retiree Benefits

White House officials have yet to confirm a final decision regarding President Bush’s proposals for calculating future Social Security benefits, but recent reports indicate the President will propose a formula that drastically cuts future retiree benefits.

"The Bush Administration has finally acknowledged that the centerpiece of its plan to radically overhaul Social Security is a benefit cut of more than 40 percent in the coming decades for every American senior, said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. “This is the equivalent of forcing seniors today to live at a 1940s standard of living. And, according to Republicans, nothing else is seriously on the table.”

The President’s approach recommends using inflation rates rather than workers’ wages to calculate Social Security benefits. Due to the fact wages have traditionally risen much faster than inflation, this would result in drastically reduced benefits for retirees.

"I would hope that as we begin the 109th Congress, my Republican colleagues are prepared to do better than that,” said Pelosi. “Drastic benefit cuts and the false promise of private accounts are recipes for disaster. Republicans keep saying that Social Security won't be there for today's workers -- and if they get their way, they'll be right.”

The Bush administration continues to characterize Social Security as a system in a dire crisis, however, the Labor Research Association reports the system can continue to pay full benefits at current levels for the next 38 years.


Rep. Robert T. Matsui, who appeared at the IAM's 2003 Next North American Expansion conference, with GVP Lee Pearson and Secretary-Treasurer Warren Mart.

IAM Mourns Chisholm, Matsui

Labor and civil rights advocates this week are mourning the recent deaths of two influential leaders. Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, died January 1 at the age of 80. In 1969, Chisholm became the first African American elected to Congress, where she was a strong advocate for women and minorities during her seven terms. She was also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972.

Throughout her career, Chisholm refused to be defined by party politics or racial affinities. She fought for the working poor, Haitian refugees, Native American land rights and poor mothers. One of her greatest achievements, she said, was the inclusion of domestic workers under the minimum wage law.

Rep. Robert T. Matsui, who would have been sworn in yesterday for his 14th term in Congress, died January 1 from a rare disease at Bethesda Naval Hospital outside Washington, D.C. Matsui, who earned fame as a champion of Social Security, was first elected to the Fifth Congressional District in California in 1978.

Matsui was the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, a critical position for Democrats as they prepared for the push by President Bush to overhaul the system. Matsui gave every impression during the final few weeks of his life of being eager to lead the opposition to Bush's plans to establish personal retirement accounts as part of a highly controversial overhaul of the program.


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IAM
Executive Council


R. Thomas Buffenbarger
International President


Warren L.
Mart
Secretary-Treasurer


Lee Pearson
GVP Western Territory


Dave Ritchie
GVP Canada


Robert V. Thayer
GVP Headquarters


Robert Roach, Jr.
GVP Transportation


Lynn Tucker
GVP Eastern Territory


Robert Martinez
GVP Southern Territory


James Brown
GVP Midwest Territory