San Francisco Local Union Activists Offer Education, Preparations for This Fall

San Francisco Local Union Activists Offer Education, Preparations for This Fall

Jul 16, 2020 | American, COVID, EAP, Front Page, MNPL, Uncategorized, United | 0 comments

SFO Local 1781 and 1782 Conduct 3 Days of Briefings to Help Members Prepare 

Chris Lusk, IAM District 141 Educator and Vice President of 1781, briefs the membership about efforts their local is taking to prepare for the potential of large-scale labor that major airlines are planning for this fall.

Members discussed the potential impact that impending furloughs are likely to have on airline workers in the region. IAMAW  Union activists also helped educate each other on how best to prepare, and shared ideas for how other local lodges can hold similar meetings for their members, as well. 

 

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Machinists and Aerospace Workers Call for Clean Extension of Airline Payroll Support Program

Machinists and Aerospace Workers Call for Clean Extension of Airline Payroll Support Program

Jul 15, 2020 | COVID, Front Page, MNPL, Row 2, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Over the last four months, we have experienced the devastating effects of COVID-19. Many of us have lost family and friends, and just about all of us know someone whose life was cut short due to this vicious virus. In addition to the human suffering we have witnessed, we have also experienced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, which has disproportionately impacted the global airline industry with record low air travel demand.

Although passenger counts have increased since the lows in April, the industry as a whole is only moving approximately 25 percent of the amount of passengers who were flying one year ago. And while there was some optimism in June that increased bookings would continue to rise, that does not appear to be the case due to some states issuing quarantine orders and halting re-opening plans as a result of increased rates of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. Sisters and brothers, we are facing unprecedented layoffs in October, which could put hundreds of thousands of airline workers on the unemployment line literally overnight.

On October 1, 2020, the Payroll Support Program (PSP) component of the CARES Act expires and airlines that participated in the PSP will be permitted to furlough workers. Led by the IAM, along with our sister airline unions, we have proposed a “clean extension” of the PSP, which would provide additional funding to airlines to keep workers employed through March 31, 2021.

In late June, airline labor sent a letter to congressional leaders to request that Congress pass the PSP extension. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for every single IAM member to contact their elected officials and demand that the PSP be extended through March, 31, 2021. Please ask your family members to have their voices heard, as well.

CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE TO YOUR ELECTED FEDERAL OFFICIALS.

The airline industry was set for a record year of air travel in 2020. The industry produces about $1.7 trillion in economic activity and drives approximately 10 million jobs. We cannot cut the cord on this most critical industry and allow it to implode. We must act to save our jobs and to ensure that when air travel rebounds, and it will, that we are there to facilitate a seamless transition, which will be beneficial for our industry and the economy as a whole.

Over the last four months I have never been so proud of being a representative of the Machinists Union. Under unbelievably difficult circumstances, you have courageously answered the bell and facilitated the transportation of essential goods and services to a nation in need, and you continue to do so day in and day out. You exemplify the best of our nation and you are truly the backbone of this country.

We will only be successful if ALL of our voices are heard. Our representatives need to hear from us and they need to listen to us. While we are certainly going to have to navigate some turbulent times in the near term, we WILL get through this crisis as we have others. That’s exactly what the Fighting Machinists do.

 

Sincerely and fraternally,

Sito Pantoja
General Vice President IAM Transportation Department

 

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Association Update: American Airlines Issues WARN Notice

Association Update: American Airlines Issues WARN Notice

Jul 10, 2020 | American, COVID, Featured, Featured News, Front Page, MNPL, Row 2 | 0 comments

July 10, 2020

To All TWU/IAM Association Members at American Airlines:

American Airlines has informed the Association that it will be sending Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN Act notifications) to Association covered employees. This notice, which is required by law, will contain information indicating that American Airlines may furlough employees.

All of the TWU/IAM Association Collective Bargaining Agreements ratified on March 26, 2020, contain industry-leading System and Station protections for our members. It took several years to achieve the Industry-Leading Contract that you are covered by and the Association Leadership is willing to participate in any discussions that may help the situation we are faced with, but by no means does this mean we are willing to concede any of the contractual protection or language we fought so hard to get. Should American attempt to violate any provision(s) of our Agreements, the Association is prepared to defend the membership.

The reality is that we are in very unstable and worrisome times. While there are certainly more passengers flying today than in late March, this industry is still operating at only a fraction of 2019 passenger levels. And due to a lack of a coordinated national response to the coronavirus pandemic, rising infection rates in the US and several state-mandated quarantines, there is great risk that a significant rebound in air travel demand will not occur soon enough to return American Airlines to the record profits they achieved not too long ago. The TWU/IAM Association is committed to make all efforts to mitigate the effects this instability may have on those we represent.

Association leadership has had dialogue with American’s senior leadership expressing ideas that could lead to more members opting for a Short Term leave or Voluntary Separation (including offering the Early-Out American presented to members on JetNet during negotiations), fully implementing the work provisions of the negotiated JCBAs and bringing in work currently performed by vendors.

The TWU/IAM Association is also working very hard with legislators to extend the Payroll Support Program (PSP) component of the CARES Act through March 31, 2021. If we are successful, this would mitigate any involuntary furloughs and protect our members for an additional six months. We ask every member to reach out to their elected officials to support the PSP extension. Please CLICK HERE to send a message to lawmakers now, asking them to send help as soon as possible and delay furloughs at our airline.

In closing, we have faced tough times in the past as an Association and each time we have been tested, our common bonds and solidarity have been the driving principles that have led us forward and made us stronger. We must not allow fear, differences of opinion, unsubstantiated rumors, or inflammatory rhetoric to divide us.

Now is the time for unity, not division.

The Association Leadership Team

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Study: Right to Work Laws Create Lower Wages

Study: Right to Work Laws Create Lower Wages

Jul 8, 2020 | Featured, Featured News, Front Page, GOIAM Stories, MNPL, Row 2 | 1 comment

A Georgia Tech study has found that so-called “right-to-work” laws lead to a decrease in worker wages, confirming what labor unions have known for decades.

A study published in the Journal of Financial Economics examined more than 19,000 collective bargaining agreements in the United States between 1988 and 2016 and asserts that it is the “first paper to use wage information embedded in these contracts.”

“Companies are out for big money. They’re not out to protect to workers,” said Craig Norman, Director of the IAM’s Collective Bargaining Department. “They’re out to maximize their profitability at the expense of workers. We’re trying to get a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”

The study found wage growth of 2.9 percent, with inflation at 2.6 percent, suggesting that the applicable RTW laws “eliminated a substantial fraction of real wage growth.”

When workers negotiate together, working people earn higher wages. The average worker in a RTW state makes $6,109 less per year than a worker in a free-bargaining state, according to the AFL-CIO. Twenty-eight states have RTW laws, mostly in the Midwest, South and Southwest, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

The authors of the study are Sudheer Chava, András Danis and Alex Hsu, professors at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller College of Business.

 

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New NAFTA Won’t Prevent Outsourcing of Jobs

New NAFTA Won’t Prevent Outsourcing of Jobs

Jul 6, 2020 | Featured, Featured News, Front Page, GOIAM Stories, MNPL, Row 2 | 0 comments

Robert Martinez Jr., International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), issued the following statement regarding the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) going into effect today:

“USMCA won’t stop the hundreds of thousands of manufacturing and service jobs that are being offshored from the U.S. Contrary to this administration’s self-congratulations, USMCA, which goes into effect today, is not the dramatically improved NAFTA that the president promised. Nothing in the agreement will stop U.S. companies from sending aerospace, call center, food products, electronics, appliances and countless other jobs from going to Mexico. With a growing aerospace industry in Mexico that now employs over 40,000 workers and exports goods totaling over $9 billion, USMCA represents one more lost opportunity to save the U.S aerospace industry and its highly-skilled workers.

“While the agreement does contain some improvements in the labor chapter, these improvements were only made because of the hard effort of labor unions and the strong support of Democrats like Speaker Pelosi, Senators Brown and Wyden, Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal, Trade Subcommittee Chair Blumenauer, Congresswoman DeLauro and others on the majority side. These improvements in the labor chapter will only be effective, however, if they are enforced. They will also only be effective if Mexico moves quickly to finally implement the labor law reforms they have promised. The arrest of labor lawyer Susan Prieto, on trumped up charges, is a very bad indication of Mexico’s willingness to abide by the labor provisions. Sister Prieto must be freed immediately if USMCA is to have any chance at all to succeed.”

 The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is among the largest industrial trade unions in North America and represents nearly 600,000 active and retired members in the manufacturing, aerospace, defense, airlines, transportation, shipbuilding, woodworking, health care and other industries. For more information, visit goIAM.org.

 

 

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TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Extend Airline Payroll Funding Program and Help Prevent Furloughs this Fall

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Extend Airline Payroll Funding Program and Help Prevent Furloughs this Fall

Jul 2, 2020 | COVID, Featured, Front Page, MNPL, Row 2, Uncategorized | 11 comments

The IAM is among several labor unions urging Congress to extend a provision of the CARES Act coronavirus relief law as an effort to thwart airline executives threatening to lay-off several workers in the fall.

The IAM signed a letter asking the federal lawmakers to extend the Payroll Support Program (PSP) contained in the CARES Act until March 31, 2021. The current provision expires Oct. 1, 2020.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to extend the airline Payroll Support Program (PSP)

“When the CARES Act job and pay protection we secured expires on October 1, the number of IAM members furloughed could easily rise into the tens of thousands, literally overnight,” IAM General Vice President Sito Pantoja wrote in a letter to members. “Although passengers are slowly returning to the sky, the industry’s downturn will last far beyond CARES Act protections.”

Extension of the provision would provide $31 billion in increased funding over six months, in addition to extending requirements for involuntary furloughs. The CARES Act, signed into law in March, has included provisions like $114 billion for the transportation industry. That has mandated that the funds be exclusively used for continuation of wages and benefits for workers.

“Nobody likes to ask the government for assistance, but without additional intervention I fear a repeat of the multiple airline bankruptcies that marked the opening of this century,” Pantoja wrote in the letter to members. “Tens of thousands of IAM families, hundreds of thousands of airline families from outside our union, will soon be faced with devastating job loss unless action is taken.”

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“The airlines do not expect to see any substantial increases in passenger travel in the near future,” said IAMAW District 141 Legislative Director David Roderick. “This will, without a doubt, result in the airline industry having no choice but to cut our livelihoods in order to protect their bottom lines.”

“The impact of these cuts will be devastating to most of us.  We depend on our full pay and full working hours to sustain our quality of life and to support our families,” he continued.

Director Roderick went on to underscore the importance of regular, recurring automatic MNPL donations, calling them the “lifeblood” of union political activism, and a major reason why airline workers have not already been laid off in huge numbers.

“We are currently on another campaign to tell Congress that they MUST support an extension of the “Airline Payroll Funding Program,” Roderick said of the MNPL program.

“We have a clear call to action for those of us that are willing to participate in legislative action,” Roderick said. “We are asking union members once again to contact their Congressional leaders in helping their constituents to quickly move forward with this extension.”

Members can sign up for recurring MNPL donations of any amount by visiting the MNPL Legislative Department at IAM141.org. 

Fall is Coming...

Every major airline has announced mass furloughs and layoffs starting October 1. However, if Congress extends the Payroll Support Program, air carriers will be forbidden from furloughing us for another 6 months. This could buy us enough time to stop the pandemic and bring Americans back to the skies once more. Contact your member of Congress right now. Tell them to renew the Payroll Support Program ASAP.

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