Preliminary findings from the biennial
State of Working America from the
Economic Policy Institute.
Keep up to date on Boeing negotiations on
the "IAM Boeing News"
page on goiam.org. Video, press releases, updates and news stories are
available.
President Bush signed Fast Track legislation that will usher in a
new round of NAFTA-style agreements.
To get the Facts about 'Free
Trade' and its damaging effect on America's workers, read "The
Real Cost of 'Free' Trade" from Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders.
Video:
Live Here if You
Dare
Join Eastern Territory IAM members in a tour
of the Maquiladora area in Tijuana, Mexico to see firsthand the
deplorable living and working conditions of Mexican workers.
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Get Your Convention Gear
Check out gear for the
2004
IAM Convention
The IAM
Executive Council
International President
R. Thomas Buffenbarger
Secretary Treasurer
Donald E. Wharton
GVP Western
Territory
Lee Pearson
GVP Canada
Dave Ritchie
GVP Midwest
Territory
Alex M. Bay
GVP Headquarters
Robert V. Thayer
GVP Southern
Territory
George Hooper
GVP Eastern
Territory
Warren L. Mart
GVP Transportation
Robert Roach, Jr.
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Tuesday,
September 17, 2002
Boeing
Contract Voted Down
Machinists at Boeing rejected the company’s ‘last, best and final’ offer
by a 62 percent margin, but failed to achieve the two-thirds majority
necessary for a strike. Under terms of the IAM Constitution, the
company’s contract offer took effect automatically.
“Our Constitution, a
document written by IAM members, requires a two thirds vote to authorize
a strike. That super majority protects our members from sacrificing
their earnings and savings when the support necessary to sustain a
strike does not exist,” explained IP Tom Buffenbarger.
“For the next three
years, our members will work under the terms of a contract that the
majority felt was inadequate. The IAM will make the best of a bad
situation by doing everything in our power to aggressively represent our
members,” pledged the IP.
Workers at Diversifiée Edelstein Ltée Go IAM
The 16
workers at Montreal’s Diversifiée Edelstein Ltée in Ville Lasalle,
specializing in the manufacture of adhesive tape, are now IAM members.
All workers had signed union cards and made a certification request for
IAM representation. Management, unhappy with the situation, contested
the IAM certification request. Following two days of hearings at the
Canadian Labour Commission, the IAM received the right to represent the
workers on September 6, 2002.
Transportation Bill Includes Amtrak Funding
The AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), representing 35
member unions in airline, rail, maritime and surface transportation, is
urging union members across the country to rally around a transportation
appropriations bill that includes $2.1 billion in funding for Amtrak.
The bill, (S. 2808),
more than doubles the Bush administrations budget request and represents
a long overdue investment in the nation’s national rail system. “Amtrak
has the support of the American public and deserves realistic funding to
make U.S. rail travel the same reliable utility it is in every other
industrialized country,” said Transportation GVP Robert Roach, Jr.
San Fran Hotel
Workers Win First Contract
After
a long struggle, members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
(HERE) Union, Local 2, approved a first contract for nearly 900 workers
at the downtown San Francisco Marriott Hotel.
In September 2000,
delegates to the IAM Grand Lodge Convention, staying at a nearby union
hotel, staged a massive street rally in support of the Local 2 workers.
More than 2000 IAM delegates, family members and representatives marched
to the Marriott Hotel to stand with dishwashers, chambermaids and hotel
staff looking for their first union contract.
Pay and benefits for
hotel workers will rise under the new contract, with Marriott paying any
increases in the costs of the medical coverage.
Weekly Jobless Claims
Rise to 426,000
Initial jobless claims for the week ending Sept. 7 climbed to the
highest level in more than four months, according to U.S. Labor
Department figures.
Weekly jobless
figures increased more than expected to 426,000, with the four-week
moving average of initial jobless claims hitting 409,500.
The Labor Department
pointed to devastating job losses in manufacturing and continued
weakness in high tech industries. Drought conditions, rising health
insurance costs and an ongoing travel recession all point toward the
possibility of a double dip recession, where a weak recovery loses steam
and reverts back to negative economic growth.
GOPAC Ad on Social Security Scorched
A Republican-sponsored television commercial attacking Social Security
and targeting African-Americans came under blistering criticism from the
NAACP. Julian Bond, NAACP chairman, called the ad "wrong on the facts
and outrageous in intent."
The commercial was withdrawn after a public outcry. GOPAC, a Republican
political action committee chaired by Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating,
sponsored the commercial. The ad called Social Security "reverse
reparations" which blacks must pay to whites.
"Social Security is not unfair to blacks. Social Security has helped
promote equal opportunity and it has benefited all Americans, including
African-Americans," Bond said.
He added that 45 percent of retired African-Americans depend on Social
Security for 90 percent or more of their retirement income.
"Republicans are pushing partial privatization of Social Security by
attacking and trying to demonize the very core of the program itself...
it is really just pushing the President's agenda of privatizing Social
Security and it is flat-out wrong," Bond said.
Washington Post Staff
Fights for Union Rights
The
IAM is lending support to the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild in
their fight for a new contract at one of the nation’s largest
newspapers, the Washington Post.
An attempt by Post
management to completely remove union security language from the
commercial and newsroom workers’ agreement is drawing union outrage from
across the country.
“We are prepared to
extend out full support to the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild,”
wrote IP Buffenbarger in a letter to Post management. “This will include
widespread support for the Guild’s subscription pledge campaign, which
calls on members and their families to cancel subscriptions until the
Post agrees to a fair contract settlement.”
More information on
this important fight for collective bargaining rights is available on
the Guild’s website at
http://www.wbng.org/post/bulletins/2002/080602.html.
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