www.goiam.org
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
IAM-Boeing Open Contract Talks
IAM and Boeing officials opened negotiations today over the nation’s
largest aerospace labor agreement, which is set to expire September 1.
The contract covers some 25,000 IAM members in Kansas, Oregon and
Washington State who build airplanes for the Boeing Company, the largest
U.S. export manufacturer. The union says jobs, pensions and health care
are the key issues in these talks.
“Boeing has
eliminated more than one-third of the IAM membership’s jobs since the
1999 contract, yet Boeing’s after-tax profits have gone up 152 percent
and sales have gone up 27 percent during that same period,” said IAM
Chief Negotiator Dick Schneider.
“This
contract involves a matter of basic fairness: Should conditions get better or
worse for employees of a profitable, world-leading corporation?” Schneider
continued.
“By any
measure, Boeing is one of the most successful corporations in world economic
history, yet, more than 95 percent of the IAM membership goes to work each day
at Boeing in fear of losing their jobs.
“Our
union is about moving forward, and not backward,” Schneider said. “We will build on the
progress we have made in the past and move forward, because that is the right
thing to do for our members, for our communities, for our country – and for
Boeing, as well. The IAM seeks positive, practical solutions, so all of us –
labor and management – can continue to move forward and succeed – and to do
that, we must work together.”
Bookmark
the "IAM Boeing News" page
on www.goiam.org for current information on
Contract 2002 negotiations.
Rail Labor
Leaders Meet
With DOT’s Mineta to Save AMTRAK
Leaders of the nations rail unions and
the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department met today with Department
of Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to avoid a July shutdown of
Amtrak, the nation’s passenger rail service.
“Secretary Mineta assured us that nobody in the Bush administration wants to see
Amtrak die,” said IAM Railroad Coordinator Mark Filipovic, who attended the
meeting. “We are confident that the Secretary and the White House will work
around the clock to make emergency federal loan guarantees available in order to
prevent the looming shutdown of Amtrak.”
Labor
representatives joined a growing chorus of public pressure to give Amtrak a $270
million federal loan guarantee and an emergency appropriation. “Passenger rail
service is a vital link in our nation’s transportation system. Every other
nation in the world supports rail service with public investment, we should do
the same,” said General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr.
You can
join the fight to keep our bothers and sisters at Amtrak working.
Click here to send a message to
Congress and President Bush to fund Amtrak immediately.
Ergonomics Bill
Gets Committee OK
A
bill that could bring about a comprehensive ergonomics standard for all
workplaces within two years sailed through the Senate Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions Committee. Last year the Bush administration repealed
the nation’s ergonomics standard and replaced it with what Sen. Ted
Kennedy, D-MA, called “toothless voluntary guidelines that most
corporations will simply ignore.”
The
standards are designed to prevent such painful work-related musculoskeletal and
repetitive stress injuries as carpal tunnel syndrome and back injuries.
IAM Joins
Worldwide Action
to Free Korean Labor Leaders
Behind the positive image displayed
during the World Cup, South Korea is waging a brutal battle against its
workers. More than 30 labor leaders are currently imprisoned under
Korea’s “obstruction of business” anti-labor laws. The IAM will join
thousands of trade unions on June 27 for a worldwide Day of
Action. The International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) is asking all of
its affiliates to join in the day of protest.
“As the
leader of the Machinists Union, I personally urge you to release all the trade
unionists currently in jail and to refrain from using this tactic [obstruction
of business] in the future,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger in a letter to
Korea’s President Kim Dae-Jung. “By properly recognizing basic fundamental
worker rights, you can avoid the embarrassment, shame and worldwide condemnation
this activity has brought to South Korea.” (Click
here for the complete text of President Buffenbarger's letter).
Click here to send an
electronic protest card to Kim Dae Jung.
U.S. Foreign Debt
a Major Threat
The overvalued U.S. dollar stands to do
more damage to our battered economy than the dot com’s meltdown and the
Enron collapse put together. Economists are sounding the alarm that a
looming debt crisis poses a major threat to the world economy.
This
country’s accumulated foreign debt, i.e., the amount we owe for our ongoing
import-buying binge, is now running $400 billion a year. By 2006, the debt will
rise to 40 percent of the U.S Gross Domestic Product, roughly Argentina’s level
before that economy tanked last year, says Economic Policy Institute economist
Jeff Faux in an upcoming article.
Faux
calls for an immediate pause in the relentless drive to sign more trade
expansion agreements, which are causing our trade deficits to grow by 2 percent
for every one percent increase in our national income.
Congress and the administration are clueless about the problem, says Faux,
deferring instead to “the divine right of multinational corporations” on matters
of trade.
There
is precedent for steps needed to correct the overvalued dollar. After Reagan’s
policies drove the dollar up in the mid 1980’s, a cooperative approach by the
world’s largest economies reduced it by 25 percent over a three-year period.
Faux
hold little hope for such steps by the current administration. “Chances of the
Bushies – steeped in unilateral arrogance and ideologically wedded to laissez
faire finance – moving in these directions is close to zero.”
Canadian Member Makes “Cut for the Cure”
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Local
Lodge 1927’s Helen MacGregor did her part in the fight against cancer by
raising $2,500 to fight the disease. As a participant in “Cut for the Cure,”
MacGregor completely shaved her head. She was cheered on by fellow IAM
members and her supervisor Jim Smellie, who also shaved his head.
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Macgregor has survived a bout with breast cancer in 2000 and has been
cancer-free since then. To read the complete story, click below:
http://www.iamaw.ca/new/LL1927/helen_macgregor_e.html
Senate Blocks Tax
Gift to Wealthy
The Senate killed a measure that would
permanently eliminate estate taxes for the wealthiest taxpayers,
millionaires and billionaires whose heirs would reap huge tax windfalls
from the White House-backed measure.
President Bush touts the measure as benefit for small business and family
farmers, but fewer than 2 percent of all taxpayers pay any estate taxes
whatsoever. But the heirs of President Bush and many other members of his
administration benefit handsomely under the tax repeal. Bush heirs stand to gain
as much as $5.9 million, VP Dick Cheney’s heirs could rack up $40 million and
the heirs of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld could see as much as $120 million
in the tax windfall.
Heirs
of Enron’s CEO Ken Lay would get $59 million.
K-Kids Raise
Funds for K-9s
Students from Franklin Elementary School in Manitowoc, WI, came up with
a major gift for Guide Dogs of America. The 4th, 5th
and 6th graders handed a check for $1,900 to help support the
IAM’s unique guide dog facility in Sylmar, CA. Russ Wittkop Midwest
territory special representative accepted the gift and praised the
youngsters for their efforts.
The
Franklin School’s “K-Kids”
raised this substantial amount through monthly cookie, cupcake, popcorn and
orange drink sales.
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