www.goiam.org
Friday, February 15, 2002
IAM-UAL
Mechanics Negotiations to Resume
With less than a week
remaining before a Feb. 20 strike deadline, IAM leaders will sit down
with United Airlines in an effort to hammer out a new deal before the
30-day cooling off period expires.
Earlier this week, the 13,000-member mechanic and related group voted to
reject an offer from United containing terms drafted by a Presidential
Emergency Board (PEB). “The PEB’s recommendations fell short of what
we felt we could achieve in direct negotiations,” said lead negotiator
and District 141-M president Scotty Ford.
The prospect of unwanted congressional involvement in the airline
negotiations diminished following a lobbying blitz by IAM members who
contacted their representatives in droves urging ‘hand’s off’
union members’ collective bargaining rights. “My
advice to Congress and the President remains the same,” repeated IP
Buffenbarger. “Stay out of this and we will get it done.”
NY
Die Sinkers First With New Microsite
IAM Die Sinkers Local DS 490,
representing skilled workers at American Axle & Manufacturing in
Tonawanda, NY, is the first local lodge to take advantage of the IAM’s free
website hosting service introduced last month.
The upstate New York local now has their own website capable of
providing instant local and international union news with additional web pages
containing local meeting times and a roster of local officers. The simplified
website also has a one-page history of the local and photos of Local 490 Die
Sinkers at work.
More than 100 local lodges have signed up for the IAM’s Micro Site
Service. Locals can select from a number of pre-designed websites and using a
simplified content management program, a local web steward can add or remove
content by means of the basic cut and paste procedure.
“It was easy to set up, and there was no cost,” said web steward
Jeff Fox, who maintains the Die Sinkers’ new Microsite. “Any local wanting
a web site for posting basic information should look into this program.”
Take a look: http://ds490.goiam.org
Amtrak
Reform Council Calls for Breakup
The
Amtrak Reform Council (ARC) released its so-called “restructuring plan”
this week for the nation’s passenger rail system. As predicted by Rail Labor
four years ago, the ARC is committed to the destruction of Amtrak and
submitted a plan calling for privatization of the passenger rail system in the
United States.
Rail
Labor has serious concerns about the ARC’s plan to break up our national
passenger rail system. “Our members, all rail workers, and the traveling
public deserve more than the nonsensical approach proposed by the ARC majority
report,” said General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr.
Bush
Budget Hammers Seniors
Senior citizens are among the
biggest losers if President Bush rams his budget through Congress, notes
George Kourpias, who now leads the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA).
“Social Security, Medicare and a prescription drug plan are priority
items for most Americans, but the Bush budget fails to even minimally address
these concerns,” Kourpias said.
Bush still wants to privatize Social Security accounts despite the painful
lessons from the growing Enron scandal, which show that workers cannot count
on a volatile stock market for their retirement security, Kourpias added. At
the same time, President Bush is spending Social Security/Medicare funds to
pay for massive tax cuts, he is backing away from the already inadequate
spending Congress budgeted for a modest drug plan last year.
Business,
Labor Unite For Health Care
In a rare joint statement,
AFL-CIO President John Sweeny and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO
Thomas Donahue called this week for a unified push to resolve the health care
– a crisis grown so severe “it
endangers the well-being of our nation as a whole.”
“There were 39 million uninsured Americans at the end of 2000, before the
economic downturn began. All indications show the recession is making a bad
situation worse,” Sweeny and Donahue said. “Even during the economic boom
of the 1990s, the number of uninsured grew by 10 million.”
People without insurance “live sicker and die younger,” requiring
treatments “more complicated and expensive than if the problems had been
caught earlier.” The costs of that care are passed along to providers,
insurers, businesses and consumers, pushing medical costs further beyond the
reach of more companies and individuals.
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