IAM Opens Talks with Lockheed-Martin

Negotiations for a new contract covering more than 6,000 IAM members at Lockheed-Martin got underway this week in Palm Springs, California, where IAM leaders joined with local negotiators to demand protections for members’ health care and pensions.

“The number one issue for IAM members at Lockheed-Martin is pensions,” declared IAM President Tom Buffenbarger, who scoffed at proposals to replace defined benefit pensions with risky investment schemes.

“Defined benefit pensions belong to the men and women who earned them. They do not belong to Wall Street. This union is firmly committed to the protection and promotion of a defined benefit pension plan.”

Buffenbarger was joined by Headquarters GVP Bob Thayer, Western Territory GVP Lee Pearson, Southern Territory GVP Bob Martinez and negotiators representing IAM members at Lockheed-Martin facilities in Marietta, Georgia; Clarksburg, West Virginia; Meridian, Mississippi; Palmdale, California; Sunnyvale, California; Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; and Cape Canaveral, Florida.

“You’re always cautiously optimistic when negotiations begin,” said IAM Aerospace Coordinator John Crowdis, who will lead the negotiations with Lockheed. “We fully expect to be successful in our effort to achieve improvements in health care, retirement, job security and wages.”

A special IAM website will provide information about the negotiations, which are scheduled to continue until late February with membership votes on the Company offers on February 27th at each local site.

MNPL Conference Sets Agenda for 2005

More than 200 IAM activists from local and district lodges across the U.S. are gathered this week in Monterrey, California for the 2005 MNPL National Planning Committee (NPC) meeting. The delegates will debate legislative strategies, participate in forums with nationally recognized political experts and honor IAM local and district lodges for MNPL fundraising efforts during the past 12 months.

“The annual NPC conference is where IAM members help set the political agenda for this union,” said Rich Michalski, IAM Legislative and Political Director. “Despite the challenges we face, I’m confident that our energy can overcome our obstacles and that we can make a positive impact on the issues that matter to us.”

The 2005 conference takes place in the shadow of a divisive national election that saw the GOP increase its majority in both houses of Congress and deliver a second term to President George W. Bush.

“We have a huge job ahead of us,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger, who listed Social Security and health care among the key issues that workers will face in the months ahead.

During the week, delegates will also hear from Charlie Cook, the highly regarded author of the Cook Political Report, AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and Bill Hickey, President of Lapham-Hickey Steel Corp.

President Proposes Radical Budget

President Bush is proposing to pay for his massive tax cuts with a $2.57 trillion budget for 2006 that eliminates critical domestic programs, cuts funding for education and guts environmental protection and law enforcement grants.

The President’s budget targets 150 programs, many designed to aid the poor, for complete termination or severe reduction. A total of 48 education programs would be axed. The budget also cuts $440 million in Safe and Drug-Free School grants, $225 million for the Even Start literacy program and $500 million in state education grants.

Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor, would take the largest hit. The Bush Administration hopes to slash $45 billion from the program over the next ten years. This comes at a time when the number of Americans without health care is at a record high.

The budget also does not include a subsidy for Amtrak, and eliminates $20 million slated for the next generation of high-speed rail and $250 million for railroad rehabilitation.

The President’s spending plan fails to include future expenses for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, nor does it include the billions in upfront transition costs for the President’s proposed restructuring of Social Security.

Employees Pressured to Push Privatization

The Bush Administration’s full-court press to privatize Social Security is reaching new lows. Besides using misleading statements that Social Security will be bankrupt by 2042, Bush appointees at the Social Security Administration (SSA) have been directing career civil service workers to tell the public that Social Security is in crisis and to push the Administration’s privatization effort, according to testimony before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

The public relations and lobbying blitz possibly violates federal laws that prohibit the use of federal agency funds to advocate political positions or to lobby for or against legislative proposals.

“Over the years, through Republican and Democratic Administrations, there was one constant: the work of the Social Security Administration should not be politicized. … Unfortunately, over the last three years there has been a significant shift in agency policy and practice on political activity,” said Debbie Fredericksen, a 31-year employee and Executive Vice President of the National Council of Social Security Field Operations Locals in testimony before the Committee.

“Today, as part of an Agency-wide, top-down marketing and communications strategy, frontline Agency employees are being instructed to provide the American public with information that is designed to promote the idea that Social Security is in crisis and that Social Security privatization is the answer,” said Fredericksen.

She cited an internal “Communications/Marketing Tactical Plan” that outlines how SSA resources will be used to promote privatization. Talking points for Agency employees include one that says “Modernization must include individually controlled, voluntary personal retirement accounts to augment Social Security.”

There’s no mention that Social Security trustees admit that the Fund can pay full benefits through 2042 and that relatively minor changes can keep the fund fully solvent. There’s also no mention that other analysts say private accounts will make Social Security’s future funding problems worse than doing nothing at all.

Support the IAM Workers’ Memorial

Each year on April 28, Workers’ Memorial Day, the IAM holds a solemn ceremony at the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center in Hollywood, Maryland to honor members who died from an occupational illness or injury on the job.

The ceremony takes place at the base of the Workers’ Memorial Monument where bricks are inscribed with the names of fallen workers’.

Locals and districts are invited to honor their fellow members by purchasing a brick for the Workers’ Memorial. An inscribed 8 by 4 inch brick can be purchased for $100. An 8 by 8 inch brick can be purchased for 200. Individuals may also purchase bricks.

Any IAM member who perished due to an occupational illness/injury and is not on this list, is entitled to a brick free of charge. Please email Amanda Lephew, or call her at 301-967-4704 with this information so that arrangements for a brick can be made.

All orders must be received by March 7, 2005 to be included in this year’s ceremony.