Web
Highlights
Get Ready for
Labor Day &
Union Label Week
Raise
awareness about working family issues. The AFL-CIO has Labor Day sample
fliers, background information fact sheets available online.
Celebrate this Labor Day
Online
Join
the AFL-CIO in the Online Labor Day Festival at www.aflcio.org.
Union Label Week Begins September
3
Use
the entire week to make an extra effort to look for the union label when
you shop. Spread the word in your community about the benefits of being
a union member, too.
Send a Labor day Message
to Your Hometown Newspaper
A
sample Labor Day message that you can use as a letter to the editor of
your local paper or other Labor Day activities is linked to this page.
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Noteworthy News:
High prescription prices are a
major factor in driving up medical costs
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Play Greed, The Executive PayWatch
Board Game Greed takes you through a story of what life
is like for a millionaire CEO and a worker struggling to make ends meet.
Just click to roll the dice to see if you end up on Easy Street or Tough
Luck Row.
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Read The Summer IAM Journal
Online
The IAM takes an in-depth look
at the Unemployment Insurance system.
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The IAM's
Executive Council
International President
R.
Thomas Buffenbarger
General Secretary Treasurer
Donald
E. Wharton
GVP Western Territory
Lee
Pearson
GVP Canada
Dave
Ritchie
GVP Midwest Territory
Alex
M. Bay
GVP IAM Headquarters
Robert
V. Thayer
GVP Southern Territory
George
Hooper
GVP Eastern Territory
Warren
L. Mart
GVP Transportation
Robert
Roach, Jr.
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Thursday, August 30, 2001
Picketing
Slated at American Airlines
Disgruntled
IAM members at TWA plan to mount informational picket lines at 10 major
airports August 31, urging American Airlines to live up to the promises
made when that airline purchased TWA. Top officials at both carriers pledged
to protect jobs during the transaction, but recent announcements of station
closings and widespread layoffs show TWA employees that those promises
ring hollow.
Thousands of TWA families will be affected by American’s decision to renege
on its commitment to them. The informational picket lines will go up at
passenger entrances at major airports served by American. The sites include
Dallas (DFW), New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), St. Louis (STL), San Francisco
(SFO), Chicago (ORD), Los Angeles (LAX), Boston (BOS), Kansas City (MCI)
and Miami (MIA).
OSHA
Targets High-Risk Worksites
Officials at 14,000 worksites received letters
from OSHA telling them that their injury and illness rates exceed those
of most workplaces and urging them to reduce hazards and protect their
workers. Over the next four months, the federal safety agency plans to
inspect about 1,000 sites that recorded especially high injury and illness
rates.
Every District or Local Lodge that becomes aware of an IAM-represented
employer receiving this OSHA notice should immediately notify the IAM Safety
and Health Department at 301-967-4704, urged Director Mike Flynn.
The 14,000 sites are listed by state, alphabetically on OSHA’s website
at www.osha.gov on the current Freedom
of Information Act page. The list does not single out those targeted for
inspection. States that operate their own job safety and health programs
also conduct inspections at high-hazard workplaces, but may do so using
a different system, Flynn explained.
Related Site
OSHA Lists Workplaces With
Hughest Injury/Illness Rates
Make
Guide Dog Reservations Now
The
deadline is September 21 for room reservations at the popular Guide Dogs
of America Banquet and Golf Tournament in Las Vegas. The event will be
held October 26-27. The event sells out quickly, so reservations should
be made as soon as possible. To make your room reservations, call the Flamingo
Hotel at 800-835-5686. For additional information about the golf
tournament and banquet, contact Debbie Sands 818-362-5834 ext. 226.
A Message From President Buffenbarger
on Labor Day 2001
Many
Workers Can’t Afford To Celebrate
Good news for working Americans is in short supply
this holiday weekend. The U.S. economy is stuck in a recession. Companies
are firing thousands of employees in a desperate bid to sustain the record
profits of the past decade.
Corporations are forcing workers to pay for this recession with the loss
of their houses, health care and automobiles. Those same employees pushed
profits and productivity to historic highs. Now they are being told to
drop their tools, turn off their computers and hit the street. And for
what? So that shareholders can be spared a pause in quarterly dividends?
Rather than turn on the workers, employers should hold Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan accountable. Last year’s ill-advised interest rate
hikes smothered the best economy in a generation. Recent rate cuts have
done little more than fuel concerns that any recovery is beyond the Fed’s
control.
For today’s unemployed, the news quickly goes from bad to worse. Gone are
the days when unemployment insurance would cover bills and preserve buying
power. The average weekly benefit today, for those who qualify, is $220
per week – barely enough to cover the mortgage.
Many states’ unemployment insurance programs are seriously under-funded
and unprepared for waves of workers with nowhere else to turn. The trust
funds that used to provide jobless benefits in fourteen states are rapidly
approaching critical condition, with less than a year of unemployment insurance
benefits available if this recession digs in.
Gone too, is the prospect of a quick recall to a previous job and workers
are not finding replacement jobs with wages and benefits that can reasonably
support a single worker, let alone a family of three or four. The
options that once existed for laid off workers are evaporating faster than
the federal budget surplus.
This Labor Day we face the prospect of millions of Americans being used
as human shields to give U.S. corporations cover from an unnecessary economic
downturn. It is a testament to our strength that we will survive, but we
must examine the wisdom of forcing mass layoffs to give Wall Street an
unfair advantage at the expense of Main Street.
As we celebrate our day, Labor Day, remember that no matter how tough the
times get, we have the resources of our union and each other to carry us
through.
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