JetBlue Union Organizing Effort Heats Up

JetBlue Union Organizing Effort Heats Up

Jul 8, 2022 | Front Page, JetBlue, Organizing, Page Five, Page Four, Page Three, Perusals, Row 2, Uncategorized

Tristan “Lion” Dutchin (center, light brown shirt) was instrumental in the historic campaign to bring union rights to the Amazon Staten Island Facility, the first such victory in the history of the trillion-dollar company.. He is lending his insights and support to JetBlue Ground Operations Crew members currently organizing with the Machinists Union!
Tristan is shown here with GVP Richard Johnsen (center, blue shirt) District 141 President Mike Klemm (center, dark shirt), and a team of Machinist Union Organizers. Photos: Brian Vega, IAMAW 141 Communications Coordinator

JetBlue Union Organizing Heats Up in Wake of Historic Union Victories

Organizing
8 July 2022

A recent spate of high-profile union victories is inspiring union organizers at JetBlue, according to Ground Operations Crewmembers, at an appreciation rally this week at JFK airport in New York.

The event was hosted by the Machinists Union, which Ground Crews at JetBlue are seeking to join. The Machinists include ground and gate agents, flight crews, and other air transport workers at every airline and large airport in the country. 

Headlining the rally was Tristan “Lion” Dutchin, one of the lead organizers at Amazon’s Staten Island facility that became the first property at the trillion-dollar corporation to unionize. 

“I wanted to come out and show support for what Ground Ops are trying to do,” said Dutchin. “It’s not easy. Really, organizing with a union is impossible until suddenly it’s not,” he said. “There’s a lot a company like JetBlue or Apple or Amazon can do to mess you up,” he continued. 

As one of the lead organizers at Amazon, Dutchin saw firsthand how far companies are willing to go to stop a union drive. “They hired people to go work and pose as real employees,” he said. “When really their only job was to spy on us and badmouth unions,” he explained. “That fooled a lot of us for a while until we caught on to what they were doing.”

A central union-busting talking point at Amazon was to portray unions as “outsiders” and “third parties,” an argument that Dutchin laughed off. “I’m a third party now just because I joined a union?” He asked mockingly. “Ain’t no third parties. Sometimes they act like they don’t even know what a union is,” he said of Amazon’s anti-union efforts.

The union that Dutchin helped found, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), is aggressively building itself up, growing, and educating its membership about union activism. An essential part of that effort includes outreach to other labor groups and participating in high-profile union drives like the ongoing campaign at JetBlue.

Richard Johnsen, General Vice President of the Machinists’ newly formed Air Transport Territory, expressed optimism that the Machinists and the ALU could forge a strong alliance. “We are more than just unions,” said Johnsen. “We’re also part of a movement. People are tired of sitting on the sidelines. They want to act, they want to make changes. That’s why this campaign at JetBlue is so exciting; it’s a vital part of a larger movement to prove that working people deserve just as much respect as managers and executives.”

Johnsen also pledged to work closely with the ALU, including hammering out a potential agreement to open the renowned Winpisinger Education Center to ALU members. “The Winpisinger Center is the largest labor school in North America,” he said. “It has an expert teaching staff that holds classes on things that matter to unions. Things like contract negotiations, leadership training, arbitration, organizing and more. It’ll be a great asset to JetBlue Crewmembers once they come on board, and I hope that ALU members will look into the opportunity to find out more about the Winpisinger Center.”

Machinists held the rally to showcase union organizing at the airline and recognize Ground crews currently working towards joining the Machinists Union. According to event organizers, the demonstration drew about a hundred JetBlue Crewmembers, many of whom participated in a raffle, were served an assortment of food items, and signed union authorization cards. Union authorization cards are critical to earning union rights at the workplace. More than half of employees must sign a card petitioning the federal government to recognize a union vote. Once a vote is scheduled, employees will then get a chance to formally join a union.

While JetBlue has thus far managed to avoid a union vote among Ground Crewmembers, Machinists Union organizers say that the campaign is getting very close to reaching its target of “50% +1” for card signing.

“We are very close,” said Machinists Union District President Mike Klemm. “The mood has changed. The rate of card signing is way up. People are asking questions, and we’ll be here to give our Ground Operations Crewmembers all the resources they need,” Klemm said.

“Importantly,” he continued, “we have the best union organizers in the nation working on this from our end. They’re working side by side with Crewmembers at JetBlue, who are organizing on the inside. Altogether, I am incredibly proud of this team. I know we’re going to get this done,” he said.

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Starbucks, Amazon Wins Inspire Organizing Everywhere

Starbucks, Amazon Wins Inspire Organizing Everywhere

Jul 5, 2022 | Front Page, Organizing, Page Five, Page Three, Page Two, Perusals, Row 2

Summer of Possibility: Starbucks and Amazon Wins Inspire Organizing at Trader Joe’s, REI, Target, and Apple

Labor Notes
5 July 2022
Written by Dan DiMaggio and Angela Bunay.

Baristas from across the country gathered at the Labor Notes Conference this month. As more stores begin to push for a first contract, Starbucks Workers United is ramping up for a summer of solidarity: “We’re gonna need the whole labor movement to come out,” says Casey Moore, a barista at a Starbucks in Buffalo, the city that was home to the union’s first victory last year. Photo: Jim West

This article first appeared on Labor Notes.org. 

“Seven months ago if you asked me about a union I would’ve said, ‘I don’t know, cops have them?’” says Sarah Pappin, a shift supervisor at a Seattle Starbucks. But on June 6, she and her co-workers voted unanimously to join Starbucks Workers United, part of an upsurge of organizing by younger workers with little union experience that is breathing new life into the labor movement.

Now they’re dreaming even bigger. “We want to not just open the door for the rest of the food service industry, we want to kick it down,” said Pappin, who’s worked full-time at Starbucks for eight years. “Eventually you get tired of jumping to the next job and praying it’s gonna be better. You realize you should just take a stand where you have some good ground.”

The union wave at Starbucks and the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) victory on Staten Island have sparked a new sense of possibility among workers at some of the country’s biggest nonunion employers, where unions have struggled for decades to establish any sort of foothold.

Since their April win, ALU organizers say they’ve heard from workers at another 100 Amazon facilities across the country who want to unionize. And in recent months workers have filed for union elections at Trader Joe’s stores in Massachusetts and Minneapolis, an REI in Manhattan, a Target in Virginia, and Apple stores in Atlanta and Towson, Maryland.

Workers in other largely non-union sectors are also organizing, with workers at an Activision Blizzard subsidiary forming the first union at a major video game company in May and tech workers at The New York Times becoming the largest bargaining unit in tech in March.

A CASCADING EFFECT

The organizing wave is turning the labor movement’s prevailing wisdom on its head. Until now unions have mostly avoided filing for election at single workplaces that are part of big chains, like fast food restaurants or Amazon warehouses, not seeing a viable route to a first contract.

But the worker-organizers behind the current upsurge have relied on grassroots organizing to produce a cascading effect.

“The most beautiful thing about this whole movement is that we only have to win one to show what’s possible,” says Casey Moore, a barista at a Starbucks in Buffalo, the city that was home to the union’s first victory last year.

After the December vote count, Moore said, “we just started getting flooded with emails and direct messages on social media saying ‘We’re so inspired, how can we do it here?’”

Boston barista Kylah Clay was among those inspired. “We started talking about our working conditions in this new light—that we can actually change them,” she said. Clay is now helping Starbucks workers throughout New England to organize.

As we went to press, the upstart union had won elections at 177 Starbucks stores in 30 states, and lost just 30; 98 more stores had filed for elections. Workers have also struck over issues ranging from leaky ceilings and malfunctioning grease traps to cuts in hours and retaliatory firings.

Starbucks baristas have a tight workplace culture that helps explain their success. Many of the workers are younger, queer, and work there in part for the gender-affirming health benefits. “We work shoulder to shoulder in very frustrating conditions,” says Pappin. “We already know what the power of working together is.”

 

DIRECTED FROM BELOW

The level of self-direction is a novel aspect of these recent campaigns. While Starbucks Workers United is getting advice and legal help from the SEIU affiliate Workers United, most of the organizing is being done by Starbucks workers. ALU is independent.

“What strikes me about what’s going on now is that it’s not being done by professional organizers,” says Labor Notes co-founder Kim Moody. “A lot of these campaigns are being initiated by the workers themselves, much as auto workers did in the 1930s.”

“It’s different from anything I’ve seen in the worker arena,” said Stephanie Luce, a professor at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. “It feels like elements of what we saw around other upsurges of protest—the globalization moment, the Occupy moment, the George Floyd moment. What those had in common was that they were not directed from above.”

When ALU filed at the Staten Island warehouse with signatures from just 30 percent of the workforce—the bare minimum to get a union election—most labor organizers scoffed at their chances. The general rule is that you have to file with at least 60 percent support (and preferably more) to withstand management’s anti-union campaign.

But ALU shocked the world and won. “It caused me to rethink the old rules of organizing,” said Peter Olney, former organizing director for the Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). “You start to think: what about the churn at Amazon? You’re never gonna get to 70 or 80 percent with the churn [the high rate of turnover –Eds]. If you have the organization to get to 30 percent, then you may have the organization to win an election.”

Olney said he’s now encouraging unions to take more seriously the idea of filing for election sooner: “Shouldn’t we be viewing this as a moment to engage in mass filings to stress management and their union-busters? Say you’ve been building out a committee, done actions, marched on the boss—couldn’t you win an election? And wouldn’t winning an election put you on the map?

“Yes, we’ll lose some, but if we were to win at an Amazon facility in Southern California, imagine the media and public reverberations of such a victory.”

WHY NOW?

Why is this uptick in organizing happening now, instead of 10 or 20 years ago? “It’s like Murder on the Orient Express—you can find at least 10 good suspects,” says Elaine Bernard of the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program.

The tight labor market is one. Another is the flat-out indignation of a generation that grew up in the Great Recession and has just watched its employers rack up record profits during a brutal pandemic.

 

Another factor is the recent movements that young people have participated in, from Black Lives Matter to LGBTQ rights to climate justice to the push for stricter gun laws in the wake of school shootings.

“Any of the rights campaigns have taught a lesson—that you have to stand up for yourself and you need your coworkers to stand with you, that nobody’s coming to rescue us, that the system is not just,” says Bernard.

“So many people who work at Starbucks were out on the streets for the Black Lives Matter uprising,” says Moore. “I think so many people have seen collective action happening outside the workplace and are saying, ‘Hey, we can do that inside the workplace too.”

“We grew up in this world that is literally on fire and there’s so many things that you can’t do anything about,” says Pappin, who just turned 31. “For me this was the first time in my life that I felt there was something wrong and I could actually take steps that would right them.”

Those sections of the labor movement that have kept the organizing flame alive also deserve credit, says Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations; she named SEIU, UNITE HERE, and the Communications Workers in particular.

“We don’t have this moment because of politics,” she said. “It’s because of the Kellogg’s workers, the Mineworkers, all the workers that went out on strike. And frankly because U.S. employers were so outrageous during Covid and before.”

STILL A CHALLENGE

Moody urges workers to organize now, before an eventual recession makes things harder: “you’re not gonna get a much better time to do it.”

But even with comparatively favorable conditions, wins are far from guaranteed. At a second Staten Island Amazon facility, for instance, workers lost their vote in April.

The outcome of the March rerun election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, is still hanging on hundreds of challenged ballots—though in the initial count, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union did much better than the vote last year, winning 875 yes votes against 993 no. That shows that even if you lose or make mistakes, “you can come back and do better,” says Bronfenbrenner. “You just have to do the work.”

RWDSU is asking the Labor Board to once again set the election aside for employer misconduct.

Workers at a Target store in Christiansburg, Virginia, recently pulled their election petition after the Labor Board said they hadn’t met the 30 percent threshold. As Target Workers Unite, an independent union, they’ve been organizing for years for Covid-19 safety protocols and against a racist, sexist manager.

The group is keeping at it despite the setback. “If we could just get one win at one store, I think that will be the catalyst for other stores,” said Adam Ryan, who has worked there for five years. “A lot of people are just waiting for a breakthrough.”

At an Apple store in Atlanta, workers who had filed with 70 percent support withdrew their petition, too, in the face of an anti-union campaign.

New York City Apple store workers say the company ramped up its anti-union campaign against their own organizing after the Atlanta store filed. Their advice: Don’t rush things. “When you’re in that stage of talking to your co-workers, make sure you take as much time as you need,” said a worker at the Grand Central Terminal store who asked to remain anonymous. “Everybody needs to be involved, and have everybody heard.”

On June 18, Apple workers in Towson, Maryland, became the first to successfully form a union at the company, voting 65 to 33 to join the Machinists. Kevin Gallagher, one of the Towson workers involved in the campaign, said that since their win he’s gotten direct messages on social media from dozens of other Apple employees interested in unionizing around the country.

PATH TO A CONTRACT

None of these upstart unions has won a contract yet. So we don’t know yet whether their gamble will pay off.

Workers at the outdoor equipment and clothing store REI in New York City are facing threats and retaliation from management since they voted 88 to 14 to unionize in March. “I’m anticipating REI will fight us every step of the way,” said Graham Gale, a technical specialist at the store.

Since ALU’s election win, Amazon has filed 25 challenges to the outcome and fired two of the organizers and several managers at the Staten Island warehouse. Similarly, Starbucks Workers United has accused the coffee chain of retaliating against organizing efforts by firing union leaders and cutting hours at numerous stores.

“I don’t think any of us is under the illusion that it’s going to be easy,” says Moore.

One challenge for Starbucks workers, Bronfenbrenner points out, is that they’ll have to negotiate with the company’s founder, Howard Schultz, who returned as CEO in April. In the 1930s auto workers organizing drives, Ford was a tougher nut to crack than General Motors because it was still run by Henry Ford. “It’s hard for Starbucks to settle because it’s [Schultz] giving up control over his baby,” Bronfenbrenner said. “It’s much more of a control issue.”

Still, “I sense that Starbucks is vulnerable—it’s hurting because of the organizing campaign, its investors are uncomfortable,” says Bronfenbrenner. “As long as the number of Starbucks stores keeps growing, then the union has power.

“There’s a tipping point where a certain number of stores are organized. The question is: what is that tipping point? At some point they’re going to have to bargain, is my feeling.”

SUMMER OF SOLIDARITY

Starbucks Workers United is ramping up for a summer of solidarity that includes spreading the organizing to more stores as well as deepening the community and labor support for the campaign.

“It’s gonna be all hands on deck,” said Moore. “We’re gonna need the whole labor movement to come out.”

Workers United announced it has created a $1 million strike fund.

“A lot of us are ready to do whatever it takes to put the pressure on,” Clay said. “I hope we’ve organized at least 1,000 stores by Labor Day.”

A version of this article appeared in Labor Notes #520. Don’t miss an issue, subscribe today.
Dan DiMaggio is assistant editor of Labor Notes.dan@labornotes.org

Angela Bunay is an intern at Labor Notes in summer 2022.angela@labornotes.org

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Up, Up and Away; JetBlue Management
Again Ups its Bid for Spirit: Now $3.7 BILLION

Justice at JetBlue
22 June 2022

Washington, June 16, 2022 – The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) applauds the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for approving the Global Aircraft Maintenance Safety Improvement Act (H.R. 7321). 

JetBlue management yesterday once again upped its bid to $3.7 BILLION to merge with Spirit Airlines. This is approximately 68% more than the Frontier offer.

You read that right, yes, 68% more.

JetBlue management is totally obsessed with merging with Spirit, and it appears no price is too high.

Management previously cut the summer flight schedule by about 10 percent due to staffing concerns. JetBlue could be investing much more in its people to retain workers that we need and attract new workers, which we also need. But, it seems management is more concerned with merging with Spirit, even as many economists predict a slowing economy
due to rising interest rates to battle inflation.

The tough questions are:

(1) Could this money be utilized more wisely?

(2) Is the total obsession with merging with Spirit good for us?

Management has claimed it will divest routes in the Northeast and gates in FLL. Without a union contract to protect our interests in a merger, we are certainly at risk and that needs to be fixed as soon as possible.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is one of the largest and most diverse industrial trade unions in North America, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, railroad, transit, healthcare, automotive, and other industries.

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Apple Store Workers Win Historic Vote to Join the Machinists

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Jun 21, 2022 | Front Page, Organizing, Page Five, Page Three, Page Two, Perusals, Row 2, Uncategorized

Apple Store Workers Win Historic Vote to Join the Machinists

GoIAM.org
21 June 2022

TOWSON, Md., June 18, 2022 – Over 100 Apple store employees in Towson, Md., who recently organized into the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (CORE), have overwhelmingly voted to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).

The National Labor Relations Board vote count was announced on Saturday, June 18.

CORE and IAM sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook in May 2022 informing him of the decision to organize their union, listing “access to rights we do not currently have” as a driving reason for the move, which has strong support from a majority of the workers.

WATCH: Why Apple Workers in Maryland are Organizing with the Machinists Union

“I applaud the courage displayed by CORE members at the Apple store in Towson for achieving this historic victory,” said IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. “They made a huge sacrifice for thousands of Apple employees across the nation who had all eyes on this election. I ask Apple CEO Tim Cook to respect the election results and fast-track a first contract for the dedicated IAM CORE Apple employees in Towson. This victory shows the growing demand for unions at Apple stores and different industries across our nation.”

The IAM has launched organizing campaigns in non-traditional industries to grow the strength of the IAM and working families over the past few years, including the Baltimore County Public Library system, tech industry, healthcare, and veterinary medicine. This campaign was an employee-driven campaign from the start and can take credit for Apple’s decision to raise the starting wages for every Apple retail employee across the nation. 

READ: Maryland Apple Store Employees File for Election to Join Machinists Union

“The IAM Eastern Territory has provided every resource to ensure the employees in Towson were given every opportunity to win this election,” said IAM Eastern Territory General Vice President David Sullivan. “I want to thank IAM Special Representative David DiMaria for his dedication to this historic campaign. David was instrumental in keeping this group together, allowing their voices to represent Apple employees everywhere. The IAM and the Eastern Territory will provide the necessary resources to help achieve a first contract.”

READ: Maryland Apple Store Employees Move to Join the IAM 

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is one of the largest and most diverse industrial trade unions in North America, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, railroad, transit, healthcare, automotive, and other industries.

@ACOREUNION | @ACOREUNION Instagram | goIAM.org | @MachinistsUnion

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Jun 14, 2022 | Front Page, GOIAM Stories, Organizing, Page Five, Page Four, Page Three, Page Two, Perusals, Row 2, Uncategorized

Machinists Union Sisters on the Frontlines

Air Transport
14 June 2022

Across the country, women are on the move in the IAM. In the IAM’s airline division alone, 13 IAM women serve as local presidents. Some are new to the position, while others have years of service to the membership. All of them are trailblazers.

“Each and every one of these women are trailblazers,” said IAM Air Transport General Vice President Richard Johnsen. “All of them have led the way and by doing so laid the path for other women to follow behind them.

My appreciation goes out to each of them for their hard work and dedication to the members and the Machinists Union.”

Thanks to a newly launched IAM program called “LEADS” which stands for “Leadership Excellence Assembly of Dedicated Sisters,” the trend should continue to grow. The LEADS Program is a mentoring program designed to continue the advancement of IAM women by offering new pathways to leadership for the sisters of our union family.

 

Sharon Sugiyama
Local 2339G

Sharon Sugiyama started her career in June 1992 with Continental Micronesia as an airport sales agent and then a load planning specialist. She also worked as a lead customer service representative and most recently became a storekeeper with United Airlines.

In 1997, when Continental Micronesia was represented by another union, she became a shop steward and was involved with several negotiations. Under that union, she was elected as the committee chair for passenger service and held that position until 2012.

In 2012, during the merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines, passenger service voted for representation with IAM. Sugiyama was voted in as the president of the new IAM Local 2339G. She continues to hold that position.

In 2015, Sugiyama was appointed the IAM vice president in Guam and most recently was re-elected to serve another four-year term. In 2021, she became an AFL-CIO delegate for the IAM.

Sugiyama credits her success to the IAM leadership and being able to help working people in Guam understand the importance of being a part of the union.

 

Kiana Peacock
Local 601

Kiana Peacock was born and raised in Kotzebue, AK, and started with Alaska Airlines in January 1995 as a ramp agent in Kotzebue after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in December 1994.  Peacock transferred to customer service in April 1995 and became a shop steward in 1997 for Kotzebue at the urging of District 143 General Chair Don Welch. 

In 1998, she transferred to Anchorage where she continues to serve as a shop steward. In 1999, she was elected and served as local trustee until 2005. From 2000 until 2010 she was elected and served as chief shop steward. In 2008, she was appointed as District 142 vice president of Alaska Airlines until 2011. She was elected as president of Local 601 in 2005 where she currently serves.

Peacock was elected as a delegate to three Grand Lodge Conventions, District Conventions, and Transportation Conferences. She is especially proud of completing the four-year cycle of leadership programs at the Winpisinger Center.

 

Lorraine Fraser
Local 846

Lorraine Fraser initiated into IAM Local 846 in Baltimore in 2002 as a customer service agent for Southwest Airlines. Since then she has served as the chairperson for the legislative committee, elected as shop steward, trustee, vice president, and then elected as president of Local 846.

Fraser was recently appointed to vice president of Southwest Airlines at District 142. Safety being one of her priorities, she served as an associate instructor under the IAM CREST U.S. Transportation Department grant. 

Fraser worked on several organizing campaigns for her local lodge, as well as District 141 and 142.

When Fraser first began her union career, she never dreamed where it would take her. She took the position of the legislative committee chairperson as a favor to the local president at the time, and shortly after, she was on the executive board.

Fraser is a very active union member who believes the labor movement has a duty to educate, motivate and inspire the membership to understand the values of our union. She loves the challenges union work brings and enjoys mentoring new stewards and officers. 

 

Wendy Goodell
Local 1782

Wendy Goodell began her career at United Airlines in 1997 as a customer service representative at San Francisco International Airport. Because of a passion to travel, along with helping others, her dream has always been to work in the airline industry. Goodell has worked just about every customer service and lead position at United Airlines, including lobby, gates, baggage service, international arrivals and premium service – which consists of the United Club, Global Service and Polaris.

When asked to become a shop steward more than 10 years ago, she expected the role to be temporary. However, she has continued as a shop steward to the present. In her union career, she has also served as Customer Service assistant committee person, IAM Local 1782 vice president and currently serves as its president.

During her long and extensive career at United she has assisted numerous members with issues and or concerns both union and non-union related. Goodell has had the opportunity of attending all leadership classes at the Winpisinger Center, the IAM women’s conference in Las Vegas, along with committee conferences and district conventions.    

 

Lydia Roman
Local 2220

Lydia Roman started with Southwest Airlines in 1999, knowing nothing about unions for years. One day, she needed help from a union representative and could not get it. That’s when she started investigating, telling herself no one should struggle to get union help.

Shortly afterward, she became a shop steward at the urging of Larry Morgan and Gary Collins.  Roman says she’s very passionate about what she does as a steward, and loves upholding the contract and helping members.

Roman became Local 2220 president in 2017, again pushed to do so by her peers. Currently in her second term, she hopes to run again.

 As the president, she started a political committee and a community service committee. She continues to ensure to the best of her ability that her members have a successful union, and she enjoys attending classes at the Winpisinger Center to learn all that is needed in order to do a good job as president.  

Roman credits Rachel Cavasos, a previous Southwest Airlines agent and local president, with helping her through all of this.  She also looked up to IAM Secretary-Treasurer Dora Cervantes with her courage and strength that pushed her to say, “I can do this.” 

 

Maria Victoria Schoening
Local 845

Maria Schoening started at Continental Airlines on the ramp in Cleveland in 2000. She became involved with the IAM during the process of having an election to choose between another union and the IAM. She educated herself about the IAM and decided that was the way she was going to vote, while educating as many of her coworkers as possible about the benefits of being a part of the IAM.

Once they became IAM members, she got involved by first volunteering to help around the local. Shortly after, her union president and chair Tony Media got her involved with the hazardous materials workers awareness train the trainer program for IAM CREST. After completing her training, she was part of the team that helped train other trainers in her station.

Schoening credits the guidance of Committee Chair Rod Fields, who made sure she had the tools and support to get her to this point, along with her former chair and former Local 845 Vice President Scott Mexiner and Assistant General Chair Kyle Carrol.

In January 2022, the opportunity to run for Local 845 president presented itself, and she was elected. Five of the eight board members are women. Schoening says she feels extremely lucky to get to work with these strong, intelligent sisters.       

 

Dianne Willaum
Local 1894

Dianne Willaum became an IAM member in 1987 after joining British Airways in New York. In 1994, she was elected as a shop steward for reservations and related, and in 1995 was elected as chief steward for reservations. In 1996, she was elected as trustee for Local 2656, and served on the negotiating committee until 1999 during negotiations with British Airways. In 1999, Willaum joined the IAM Transportation Organizing Team until 2001, and in 2002 was elected as District 142 vice president of British Airways.

Later in 2002, after a transfer to JFK customer service agent and Local 1894, Willaum was elected as shop steward for customer service, a position she has served now for two decades. In 2004, she was elected as trustee for Local 1894, and in 2007 was elected as the president of Local 1894 serving the membership in that capacity since. In 2020, she retired from British Airways.  

She had the opportunity to work with wonderful union sisters and brothers including General Secretary-Treasurer Dora Cervantes during her two years organizing, and she worked with great members of IAM Headquarters and the Transportation and Legal departments.

Willaum credits the support and opportunities during her years as an IAM member for her success. She says she was very fortunate over the years to have access to some of our great union leaders. Carol Creamer and Maur

 

Nancy Jakubczak
Local 1635

Nancy Jakubczak started with Southwest Airlines in 1994, and admittedly never really understood what a union about in the workforce and had no reason to inquire until witnessing a discussion between a member of management and a co-worker. She questioned the supervisor on his approach and the discussion he was having in front of other members and his response to her was, “why do you care, it’s none of your business.” Her response was, “you just made it my business by the way you are handling this.”

She was inspired to run for shop steward and was elected by her peers and has been representing the work group for over 24 years. The person who played the most important part in her career as a steward was her General Chair Ann Liu.

Eventually she became a trustee for Local 1635, later being asked by President Tish Kellogg to be recording secretary to fill a vacancy midterm and held that position for over six years. She went to training classes at the Winpisinger Education and Technology Center. Her president during the majority of her term was Beverly McMullan, who was a true mentor to her.

McMullan asked Jakubczak to run as her vice president and she gladly accepted. Both were elected by the membership in 2015. Sadly, President McMullan passed away suddenly in December 2016. As vice president, Jakubczak is now holding the position of local president. These were tough shoes to fill, but with the knowledge and friendship she learned from McMullan, she has succeeded.

 

Mary Sansom
Local 1833

Mary Sansom began with the former Northwest Airlines flight kitchen in Minneapolis as a “packer” and initiated into the IAM in 1973, when co-worker and mentor Carol Borg took her to a union meeting.

 In 1982, the mechanics and related workers went on strike against Northwest Airlines. That’s when her union career really took off. The local executive officers at the time did not want women to walk the picket lines, so during the strike they were assigned to manage strike headquarters by answering phones, assigning strike crews, and visiting the picket lines with refreshments.

 In 1988, she attended her first Grand Lodge Convention in Atlanta and has been elected to many more since. She is grateful the Local 1833 membership has honored her so many times to represent them.

When the mechanics, cleaners and custodians voted in 1999 to leave the IAM, new leadership was needed and while she was attending a National Safety Council Labor Division Conference, Sansom learned that she had been nominated for the recording secretary position.

In 2010, Sansom retired from the airline, but not her union. From January 2000 until January 2022, she served as the Local 1833 recording secretary, and in January 2022 she took the oath of office as president of Local 1833. 

Sansom is a proud 48-year IAM member who says “just because I retired from the company does not mean I retired from my union. Go union. Go IAM.”  

 

Kari Hebert
Local 2339N

Kari Hebert became an IAM member in 2010 when she was hired at ExpressJet, and began regularly attending meetings in 2012. In November 2020 she hired on at CommutAir to become an active member again after being furloughed by ExpressJet.

Hebert grew up in a union home, and her mother was an active union member. She was immersed in unionism and understood early on that one must actively participate. In her youth, Hebert held many picket signs, sat outside while her mother was in union meetings, and participated in various community service projects and organizing campaigns. 

She credits her former coworker Banetta Jones with getting her involved with the IAM. She would always ask her to come to a union meeting. Hebert was reluctant at first, but it blossomed from there. Jones would always say “you have to get involved if you want to see the change that you desire.”

Along the way, Hebert held many positions including auditor, trustee, vice president, secretary treasurer, and grievance representative. She also served on the jumpseat committee, ERC/ASAP safety committee, women’s committee and human rights committee. Hebert worked on the Delta Air Lines organizing campaign in Atlanta and New York. In 2021, she was elected president of Local 2339N.

 

Jami Meyer
Local 2909

Jami Meyer started with Southwest Airlines in December of 2011 and was initiated into the IAM.

Meyer has been in the airline industry for over 20 years with one airline or another. Because of her experience with her previous airline and no union, she lost pay with no recourse. She vowed not to let that happen again and became active in the union.

She was able to see the benefits of a union and found her voice to make sure that this did not happen again. Former Local 2909 President Carol Johnson took Meyer under her wing and showed her the strength in fighting for what the union stands for and that there is security in the work force.

In 2016, Meyer became a shop steward. In 2018, she was elected as vice president and in February 2022, when Johnson retired as local president, Meyer took over for Local 2909.  

 

Kelli Apollo
Local 949

Kelli Apollo initiated into the IAM after joining Southwest Airlines in 2001.

 She admittedly became very vocal during one of their contract negotiations and had lots of questions. That’s when former Local 949 President Joy Asbill got Apollo involved, explaining to her that “your voice would be considerably louder if you were active in the lodge.” Asbill encouraged her to become a shop steward.

Apollo became an IAM shop steward in 2010, and was elected as a local trustee. In 2015 she became Local 949 vice president. She credits Asbill with mentoring her in all of her executive board positions. In 2017, when Asbill retired, Apollo became president.

 

Helena Thornton
Local 1725

Helena Thornton started her career in August 2006 with US Airways in Charlotte, NC as a part-time fleet service agent and member of Local 1725. She was elected as a Shop Steward in 2008.

When Thornton started, she worked a lot of overtime to make ends meet and would read a lot of the US Airways policies and procedures to ensure she was working safe and would go back home the way she came into work that day. She was introduced to the grievance committee and they talked to her about the benefits of unionism and what it meant to her and her family. 

As time passed, she found herself speaking up for what was right for members in many different situations and they would ask, “Helena, this has happened to me and I don’t think that’s right? Could you help me?” More and more she found herself helping members get their point across or making sure management was upholding the contract.

In 2010 she ran for conductor sentinel and lost by three votes, but never gave up, working harder to learn and it paid off because she was then elected to her first District 141 convention. Her hard work and determination to learn more paid off when she ran in 2013 for conductor sentinel and won.

She also became a delegate for her local lodge and attended her first Grand Lodge Convention, as well as the Transportation Conference and the women’s and human rights conference. During this time, she served on her local lodge’s women’s committee.

In 2016, Thornton was elected to serve as Local 1725’s recording secretary.

During her term as recording secretary, she was appointed to be an auditor to District 141. In 2019, Thornton was one of the three honorary recipients of the community service award from the Women’s Department at the IAM Women Rising Conference.

In 2022, Thornton was elected as the first woman president of her lodge.

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United Negotiations Update: Job Security Talks Continue

 

Contract negotiations continued this week in Chicago, IL. IAM and United negotiators focused exclusively on IAM members’ top priority, which is job security. We are cautiously optimistic we can reach agreement on key issues related to protecting our jobs. 

Our approach to this issue is multi-faceted and focused on protecting our work from outsourcing, ensuring that we grow when United grows, and protecting our jobs during economic downturns. 

These protections are necessary to achieve agreements on seven contracts covering over 25,000 IAM members at United. 

Negotiations resume the week of June 20th. 

In solidarity,

Your District 141 Negotiating Committee

Olu Ajetomobi
Joe Bartz
Victor Hernandez
Barb Martin
Andrea’ Myers
Terry Stansbury
Faysal Silwany
Erik Stenberg
Sue Weisner

Michael G. Klemm

President & Directing General Chair,
IAMAW District 141
#LGR

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