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The
USS Cole will return to service after union workers made heroic
efforts to repair the ship. Terrorists atacked the Cole in Yemen
in October, 2000. |
Shipyard Workers
Relaunch USS Cole
Just a little more than a year and a half after al Qaeda terrorists
attacked the USS Cole in Yemen, union workers at Ingalls Shipbuilding in
Pascagoula, MS rebuilt and relaunched the ship. “We worked around the
clock to get the Cole back in service,” said IAM Local 1133 Chief
Steward Jim Bass.
Local 1133 members and workers from 10 other unions at the shipyard did
major overhaul and refit work to repair the damage from the attack in
October 2000. The relaunching ceremony was an emotional one because many
of the workers took the attack personally, they helped build the Cole in
1996.
“The whole place closed down for the event,” said Bass. “Thousands of
people lined the docks waving American flags. Everyone wanted to send a
message: Terrorism isn’t going to win.”
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93 year-old retired IAM General Vice President Ross Mathews, left,
joins striking workers at Lockheed Martin in Marietta, GA. |
Never Too Late to Walk the Line
When 93-year old Ross Mathews, a former IAM General Vice President,
heard that his Local 709 brothers and sisters were on strike against
Lockheed Martin in Marietta, GA, “I wanted to join my Brothers and
Sisters on the line,” said Mathews.
“It’s so inspirational to have him here,” said Local 709 member Carolyn
Hill. “The more he walks with us, the stronger he gets.”
Mathew’s roots with Local 709 run deep. “In 1958 I was a Grand Lodge
Representative and was assigned to a strike in Marietta,” said Mathews.
Local 709 President Jim Carroll gave Mathews a copy of the 1958 contract
he helped settle. “I’m honored to walk the picket line with him,” said
Carroll. “Some of our retirees remember when he was here. It’s great he
can be here today.”
Soon after the visit, Local 709 members approved a new contract and are
back to work.
IAM Local 733
members, from left, Lee Carney, Colleen
Patterson and Joanna Chadwick
helped keep their shop’s
work from going to Mexico.
Raytheon Members Save 320 Jobs in Wichita
When Raytheon announced they were sending cable and harness assembly
jobs to Mexico, Local 733 member Lee Carney decided to do something
about it. She could lose her house and her daughter wouldn’t be able to
go to college.
Carney and fellow stewards Joanna Chadwick and Colleen Patterson got to
work. Getting together with their fellow members, engineers,
lean-manufacturing experts and mangers, they set out to cut harness
costs for King Air business jets.
The process worked. By redesigning how they did their jobs, they reduced
costs enough to convince Raytheon to keep 320 jobs in Wichita. “Now I
can make my house payment and I can send my daughter to college next
year,” Carney told the Wichita Eagle.
With 2,000 jobs leaving Raytheon last year alone, District 70 Assistant
Directing Business Representative Rita Rogers wants to expand the work
that Carney and her coworkers started. “We’re going to have to work
together,” said Rogers. “But everyone’s goal is to keep jobs here in the
United States.”
Quick response: Patrol Boat Captains Wade Hague, left, and Wayne
Fletcher, helped rescue five survivors of a boat collision on the
Chesapeake Bay near the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
Patrol Boat Captains Aid Collision Victims
Fog covered the Chesapeake Bay when the mayday went out. The 520-foot
freighter A. V. Kastner had collided with the tugboat Swift. IAM
Local 2424 member Martin Jacquette heard the distress call. He alerted
his fellow boat captains who operate patrol boats for the Army’s
Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
Captains Wayne Fletcher and Wade Hague were the first to respond. “It
was so foggy we couldn’t see more than a boat length ahead,” said
Hague. "We made contact with the Kastner and then searched the area for
survivors. There was debris everywhere.”
Hague and Fletcher searched the area, but found no one left in the
water. Four crewmen had perished. A nearby tug, the Buchanan 14, radioed
that they had five survivors onboard, two of them injured seriously.
Hague and Fletcher’s patrol boat, able to navigate the river’s shallow
waters that the Buchanan couldn’t, picked up emergency personnel from
shore and then sped to the Buchanan to bring the Swift’s crewmen back.
“We were glad to help,” said Fletcher. “We’re all watermen. We know it
could easily happen to us. We did what anyone else would have done.”
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