Local 1486 member Joe Brame, center, talks with some of the 25,000 attendees at the “World of Wheels” custom car show in Baltimore, Maryland

Machinists a Hit at Auto Show

More than 25,000 auto enthusiasts in the Baltimore-Washington area enjoyed a wide array of vintage automobiles, customized trucks and performance cars at the three-day “World of Wheels” auto show in Baltimore, MD. Members of IAM Local 1486 in Washington, D.C., returned for their second year, manning a display booth and spreading the union message to members of the automotive and truck community.

“I was going to a lot of these shows on my own,” said 1486 member Joe Brame, an avid auto show fan who works as a truck technician for Collington Services in Bowie, MD. “I realized this was a great opportunity to get the IAM’s message out and our local agreed to sponsor a booth. The response has been tremendous. We talk to hundreds of interested technicians and let them know the benefits of being an IAM member.” The IAM booth featured Brame’s collection of vintage tools, manuals and other memorabilia of the technician trade.

Fellow truck tech Paul Kelly also drew fans with his trademark Harley-Davidson on display. Kelly won second place in the North American Manufactured Motorcycle class competition. Also helping set up and man the booth were 1486 President Kenneth Vinson, Recording Secretary John Snoddy, members Vince Ridgell, Joe Cicala and GLR Frank Forgione.

The World of Wheels is America’s oldest custom car show series and sponsors events nationwide. “These shows are a great way to talk face-to-face with the people who work in the industry,” said Forgione, who serves as the automotive coordinator for the Eastern Territory and is expanding the IAM’s presence to other cities on the tour. “The members of Local 1486 did a great job at the Baltimore show.” Click here for pictures from the “World of Wheels” show.

GOP Picks Old Hand to Replace DeLay

The race to replace tarnished House Majority Leader Tom DeLay ended when GOP House members rejected DeLay crony Roy Blunt in favor of former Newt Gingrich lieutenant John Boehner (right). A Congressman from Ohio, Boehner (pronounced BAY-ner), rode back to power as a reform candidate promising to distance scurrying Congressmen from the growing Abramoff lobbying scandal. His past record, however, shows it’s business as usual at the GOP.

As Republican Conference chair from 1995 to 1998, Boehner was the GOP’s “liason to business,” and came up with the Thursday Group, a “weekly strategy session with business and trade association leaders” that set the tone for cozy relationship between lobbyists and GOP lawmakers.

Boehner is also famous for passing out tobacco lobbyist checks on the House floor in 1996. He didn’t think it was a problem until two freshmen Congressmen objected. As for reform, don’t count on it. Both Blunt and Boehner gave out more than $270,000 from their political action committees to fellow GOP House members in the run-up to their election.

The newspaper The Hill reported that Boehner gave out a total of $150,000 to 30 Republican colleagues on December 15, 2005 and another $10,000 to two more on December 22. Blunt handed out almost $110,000 in December. Boehner also racked up $32,500 in campaign contributions from Jack Abramoff and his clients, even more than Tom DeLay.

LL 1315 members in Elkhart, Indiana celebrate a $320,000 arbitration win.

Indiana Machinists Win Big

Fifty-five members of Local 1315 in Elkhart, Indiana employed at the Dexter Axle Company will divide more than $320,000 in back pay after a U.S. District Court upheld an arbitrator’s ruling that the company unfairly used an incentive pay program to cut employees’ pay.

The case dates to September, 2001, when the company instituted a new incentive rate for assemblers at Dexter, which drastically cut the earnings for some employees. With help from District 90 representatives, the Local 1315 Grievance Committee took their case to arbitration. An arbitrator ruled in favor of the employees and determined that the company owed a significant amount of back pay.

The company appealed the case unsuccessfully to U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals, repeatedly claiming the Arbitrator overstepped his authority in this matter.

First IAM Sisters of the Month Honored

The IAM Women’s Department announced the first IAM Sisters to be profiled in the IAM Sister of the Month program that will recognize the hard work and dedication of women in the IAM. Sister Stormy V. Moore-Moffat, Secretary-Treasurer and Organizer for IAM District Lodge 776 in Texas was selected for the U.S. and Sister Noreen Schmitt, Recording Secretary for Local Lodge 764 in British Columbia, was selected for Canada.

An IAM member for 28 years, sister Moore-Moffat advises anyone seeking a leadership position within the IAM to begin by attending meetings regularly and volunteering where help is needed. “Your sisters and brothers will respect and depend upon you when they see you’re always working to make things better,” said Moore-Moffat.

Sister Schmitt has been an IAM member for 30 years and has spent 12 years serving on the Executive Board of her local lodge. She has also been elected to three terms as Secretary of her local constituency for the New Democratic Party (NDP), three terms as Recording Secretary for the British Columbia Women’s Rights Committee of Provincial NDP and a delegate to four Grand Lodge Conventions.

Union Growth on the Rise

The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports union membership numbers are on the rise. According to January 20th figures, there has been a significant increase of 213-thousand union members in the past year while union density remained steady at 12.5 percent. Those numbers reverse a trend of decline in recent years as good union jobs disappeared.

Labor figures show the increase in union members’ wages was double the increase in wages of non-union members, underscoring just how important union membership is to workers at a time when wages are being held flat and health care and retirement costs are being shifted from employers to employees.

Watch the Video: Union Growth On the Rise

Minimum Wage Fight Rages On

The Maryland General Assembly voted to override Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich’s 2005 veto of a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.15 an hour. The win for working families in Maryland follows soon after the legislature overrode another Ehrlich veto of landmark legislation requiring large corporations to provide health care for their workers.

Also on the minimum wage front, Democratic Governors Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania last week urged their state legislatures to act on bills to boost their states’ minimum wage. Union leaders are pushing minimum wage increases in dozens of states across the country, and at least nine states are expected to include referendums on the November ballot that would boost their minimum wages.

The federal minimum wage has not been increased since 1997. Republican congressional leaders have turned back several attempts to boost the wage, including twice derailing minimum wage bills in 2005.

Watch the Video: The Fight to Raise Minimum Wage Rages On

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