141 Final Report: Union vs non-Union

141 Final Report: Union vs non-Union

Apr 15, 2022 | Front Page, Page Five, Page Four, Page Three, Perusals, Row 2, Uncategorized, Video

141 Final Report: Union vs Non-Union

YouTube
15 April 2022

141 Report | Join us on the 141 Report this week as host Dave Lehive talks to Local 2508 Orlando United Airlines Committee Chair Gene Betty and Committee person Diego Veron in his final district interview. The Brothers give the viewers and listeners their reports about the membership. Gene and Diego discuss the difference they see being union compared to non-union JetBlue Ramp workers.

IAM District Lodge 141 Report with Host Dave Lehive is a weekly podcast featuring Machinist Union Members and Allies of the Labor Movement. Our Video report airs every Friday at 2:00 PM EST (1:00 CST) on Facebook and Youtube and is also on Spotify.

Recent Machinists Union News

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David Lehive Appointed IAM Communications Representative

David Lehive Appointed IAM Communications Representative

Apr 14, 2022 | Front Page, Page Five, Page Four, Perusals, Row 2

David Lehive Appointed IAM Communications Representative

GoIAM.org
14 April 2022

IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. has appointed David J. Lehive as a Headquarters Communications Representative, effective April 14, 2022.

Lehive, formerly the IAM District 141 Communications Director, is an award-winning communicator with a long history of telling worker stories and helping to develop and implement strategies that advance the goals and brand of the IAM.

“The IAM is fortunate to welcome Dave on board at Headquarters after many great years of service to our members at District 141,” said Martinez. “Our members across North America will quickly get to know Dave as a passionate and dedicated advocate for our union and all working people.”

Lehive was hired on with Piedmont Airlines in April 1985 and became a union organizer almost immediately. After years of airline mergers and persistence, Lehive and his coworkers won IAM representation at US Airways in 1994 and he initiated Philadelphia’s Essington Obie O’Brien IAM Local 1776.

In 2005, Lehive was appointed shop steward, where he helped with communications duties. In 2008, he was appointed local lodge communicator and in early 2009 was appointed District 141 communications coordinator for US Airways, and later for all air carriers in the district.

In 2019, Lehive was appointed communicator for the Pennsylvania State Council of Machinists Executive Board. 

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Machinists Union Demands Answers to JetBlue’s Potential Misuse of Taxpayer-Funded Airline Aid

Machinists Union Demands Answers to JetBlue’s Potential Misuse of Taxpayer-Funded Airline Aid

Apr 13, 2022 | Front Page, JetBlue, Organizing, Page Five, Perusals, Row 2, Uncategorized

Machinists Union Demands Answers to JetBlue’s Potential Misuse of Taxpayer-Funded Airline Aid

Justice at JetBlue
13 April 2022

The IAM is seeking answers to JetBlue’s possible misuse of funds from the Payroll Support Program (PSP), a component of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).

In 2020, as a response to the destruction of demand for air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed the CARES Act. The legislation, which included the PSP, provided approximately $50 billion in aid for U.S. airlines and mandated that the carriers not engage in involuntary layoffs, cut the salaries or reduce the benefits of airline workers.

JetBlue Airways received approximately $2 billion in aid, with most of it coming in the form of taxpayer-funded grants that do not have to be repaid. However, as they took the government funds, JetBlue management cut the working hours of its employees, which consequently cut their pay and benefits.

“We believe what JetBlue did was wrong,” said Richard Johnsen, IAM Chief of Staff to the International President. “JetBlue cut the salaries of thousands of ground workers by at least 20 percent. These are frontline, essential workers who risked their lives coming to work during the height of the pandemic when no vaccine was available. They’re heroes in my book and deserve to be repaid with interest by JetBlue executives.”

The IAM’s Transportation and Legislative Departments are in communication with government officials to get specific answers to specific questions.

“JetBlue just came up with $3.6 billion to buy Spirit Airlines last week,” continued Johnsen. “Some of that money needs to be put back in the pockets of JetBlue workers and not used to shower money on greedy airline executives and shareholders.”

The IAM is the largest airline union in North America and represents over 600,000 members.

 

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Machinist Union Members in Chicago Raise Money, Awareness for Guide Dogs

Machinist Union Members in Chicago Raise Money, Awareness for Guide Dogs

Apr 13, 2022 | Community Service, Front Page, Page Two, Perusals, Row 2, Uncategorized

Machinist Union Members in Chicago Raise Money, Awareness for Guide Dogs

Guide Dogs of America
13 April 2022

On Wednesday, Machinists Local 1487 in Chicago, Illinois, held its annual bowling charity to benefit Guide Dogs of America. Guide Dogs of America is the Machinists Unions’ top charity, providing service dogs and assistance at no cost for those in need across the country.

Guide Dogs of America is the Machinists Unions’ top charity, providing service dogs and assistance at no cost for those in need across the country. The organization also offers free training and support for those in need of service dogs but who may lack experience working with and using a service animal. 

Local 1487, the Machinists Union Local Lodge that reporesents some 5,000 airline workers in the Chicago area, has been a leading supporter of Guide Dogs for the past 65 years, dating back to the founding of the charity. The bowling fundraiser raised an estimated $1,500. “Welcome out!” said Greg Klujewski, the Recording Secretary for Local 1487 and one of the people that helped put the event together. “This is a great turnout,” he said. “We are raising some money for a great cause and bringing union members together,” he continued. “Both of those things are very important.”  

Guide Dogs of America breed, raise, and train guide and service dogs for visually impaired people, veterans, and children with autism. The non-profit also places dogs in hospitals, schools, and courtrooms, areas with an urgent need for service animals. These highly skilled canines become trusted companions that increase people’s confidence, mobility, and independence. The dogs can also mitigate the loneliness and isolation that many residents at these facilities may experience as they get older. 

“An often overlooked healing aspect of having a friendly-looking dog at your side is that people will often come up and pet her,” said Russ Guitlan at a recent union conference. “For a lot of the people that rely on their dog, this human connection, made through their service dog, might just be the only human interaction they may have that day,” he explained. He added that these interactions can happen daily and are always warm and healthy, which can often be difficult without a service animal working as an icebreaker. 

All programs and services, including transportation, personalized training, room/board, and postgraduate support, are provided at no cost to the recipient.

All programs and services that Guide Dogs of America provides, from breeding, training, and post-adoption support, are paid for entirely through voluntary donations from the public. Union members and volunteers who would like to make a donation of any amount in support of Guide Dogs of America may do so at Guide Dogs of America.org.

 

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8,000 Amazon Workers Vote to Unionize – JetBlue Ground Ops is Next

8,000 Amazon Workers Vote to Unionize – JetBlue Ground Ops is Next

Apr 7, 2022 | Front Page, JetBlue, Organizing, Page Four, Perusals, Row 2, Uncategorized

Message from JetBlue Ground Ops:
8,000 Amazon Workers Vote to Unionize – We’re Next!

Justice at JetBlue
7 April 2022

Over 8,000 Amazon workers voted to unionize last week. These brave Amazon workers cited sub-standard working conditions and the ability to have a VOICE AND A VOTE on the job as reasons to unionize.

The workers prevailed even though Amazon spent millions of dollars to an anti-union consulting firm. The firm, GSG, directed Amazon supervisors, managers, and executives, to distribute anti-union materials via emails and flyers and hold meetings to discourage workers from unionizing by touting their “direct relationship” with the Amazon workers.

Sound familiar?

Why? Why do companies such as Amazon and JetBlue try and discourage workers from unionizing? Why do they want to block workers from gaining the legal right to have a real VOICE AND A VOTE ON HOW THEIR WORKPLACE IS RUN?

It’s all about control, power, and the bottom line. The more control and power that JetBlue has, the better it can control its bottom line. Without union representation, JetBlue can do whatever it wants when it wants without our consent, and that’s very valuable to them.

Our time is now.

Please sign your a-card today, so we can call for a vote ASAP! You have the right to sign a card under federal law. JetBlue is prohibited by federal law from knowing who signed a card. Signing a card is not a vote for the union, it only means you want a vote.

 

 

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Negotiations Crawl Along in Chicago

Negotiations Crawl Along in Chicago

Apr 2, 2022 | Front Page, Organizing, Page Three, Page Two, Perusals, Row 2, United

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Negotiations Crawl Along in Chicago This Week

 

1 April 2022

This week, the IAM District 141 Negotiations Committee and United negotiators met in Chicago to continue bargaining for new contracts covering over 25,000 United Airlines ground workers. We reported last week that we were not pleased with the pace of negotiations. This week was mostly more of the same, with some small progress made as the week came to a close.

Both the Union and the Company agreed to expedite these talks with a deadline of August 1st to conclude negotiations. At this pace, we will be hard-pressed to meet that deadline. The Union has made several proposals and counter-proposals to the Company regarding issues we view as being simple to resolve. Still, the Company is dragging its feet, and it doesn’t seem they possess the same urgency to produce industry-leading contracts as we do.

In a recent interview with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, United CEO Scott Kirby stated, “I think the most enduring change that’s going to come from COVID that’ll be most obvious to people is the customer service culture change that’s happened. We had over a 40-point improvement in our net promoter scores. I hear it, like, everywhere I go.” CEO Kirby went on to say, “I actually have the easiest job of anyone at United because I really only have one responsibility, which is to make our employees proud.”

Every IAM member at United Airlines deserves to lead the industry in all aspects of our terms of employment. It’s very obvious that CEO Kirby believes United is the leading global airline. It is also clear that CEO Kirby believes that United employees have led the way in providing United’s top-notch service improvements, which have added value to United’s brand and bottom line.

It’s time for United management to get serious about these expedited negotiations, put their money where their mouths are, and make us proud.

The Union and the Company will meet next the week of April 11th.

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

Recording Secretaries: Please print and post on all IAMAW bulletin boards.

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