IAM Members Battle Vast West Coast Wildfires

IAM Members Battle Vast West Coast Wildfires

Sep 11, 2020 | Front Page, GOIAM Stories, Perusals, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Raging wildfires are ripping across the entire west coast, leaving behind a path of smoldering ash and char. Up and down the coast families are being forced to evacuate their homes and scramble to safety. Also increasing are the confirmed reports of IAM members losing everything they own to the fires.

In addition to thousands of IAM members in the path of the West Coast Fires, IAM members are also busy helping to combat destruction from the fires. IAM and NFFE-IAM Federal District 1 firefighters are working day and night to save lives and property.

“Our prayers are with all our members and their families who find themselves within reach of these deadly wildfires,” said IAM Western Territory General Vice President Gary R. Allen. “Our Union is often called to help cure economic injustices for the oppressed, level the playing field in our democracy, but there is no greater pursuit than helping a Sister and Brother in need. I am appealing to you to help our Brothers and Sisters impacted by contributing to the IAM Disaster relief fund.”

“Our hearts are with all who are dealing with these devastating fires,” said International President Robert Martinez Jr. “I want every member affected by these fires to know their IAM family is here for them and we are willing to help in any way we can. On behalf of the IAM Executive Council, I want to thank our members who have left their families during the midst of a pandemic and put themselves in harm’s way to protect others and work to keep these fires from spreading and wreaking even more havoc. I also encourage anyone with the means to donate to the IAM Disaster Relief Fund and help give assistance to our Brothers and Sisters in need.” 

The IAM Disaster Relief Fund is available for IAM members whose homes have been affected by the wildfires.

If you can, please consider donating to the IAM Disaster Relief Fund.

Every dollar you give to the IAM Disaster Relief Fund goes directly to IAM members and their families in need. Donations are tax deductible. IAM Assistance is a registered IRS 501(3) (c) – Tax ID: 46-2575531.

In conjunction with this occurrence, many face the familiar list of continuing problems associated with, but not limited to; substance abuse and addictions, mental health, stress, anxiety, depression, financial hardship and socioeconomic issues. These serious matters can cause problems by worsening the situation and negatively impacting the quality of life for our members.

If you or your family are battling addiction or need assistance with other EAP issues, please know the IAM has two 24/7 nation-wide helplines.

  • IAM EAP Services can be reached by calling 301-335-0735 or by email iameap@iamaw.org.
  • IAM Addiction Services can be reached by calling 1-888-250-4IAM (4426).

All calls are confidential.

Additional resources /// Story first appeared on GOIAM.org 

 

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IAM Airline Workers Need Action: 23 Days Until Relief Expires

IAM Airline Workers Need Action: 23 Days Until Relief Expires

Sep 9, 2020 | Airlines, American, COVID, Front Page, GOIAM Stories, Hawaiian, MNPL, Perusals, Philippine, Spirit, Uncategorized, United | 0 comments

The airline Paycheck Support Program contained in the CARES Act is set to expire on October 1, 2020. Carriers are making plans on how to deal with its loss, and the outlook doesn’t look good for many IAM members and other airline workers.

American Airlines has announced it will lay off 19,000 workers on October 1. Southwest Airlines is eliminating 35,000 flights from its October schedule, and Air Wisconsin, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, ExpressJet, Hawaiian Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airlines, and United Ground Express have issued Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN). 

TAKE ACTION: Tell your Senators and Representative to support a clean extension of the airline Payroll Support Program

The only hope of staving off mass furloughs is Congress taking action to extend CARES Act protections for airline workers. What we need to save jobs is:

  • Increase PSP funding levels by an additional $32 billion (covering six months);
  • Extend requirements relating to involuntary furloughs, share repurchases, dividend payments, and collective bargaining agreements to March 31, 2021;
  • Require Treasury to immediately disburse funds to every air carrier and contractor that executed a Payroll Support Program Agreement, an amount equal to their current payroll support.

“These are not controversial goals,” said IAM Transportation General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “We already have bipartisan support for a clean extension of the program, and President Trump has also signaled his support. What we need is for Congress to actually start doing its job and take action to save the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of airline and aviation families.”

“The airline industry is in dire need of immediate assistance from Congress,” said IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. “Their inaction is jeopardizing the futures of all airline workers. The Machinists have been leading this fight from the beginning, and we must continue to keep the pressure on Congress. Do not stop contacting your Representative and Senators until this extension is enacted.”

U.S. Rep. Fred Keller (R-PA) recently led a bipartisan letter to American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, asking the carrier to continue its advocacy for the PSP extension and to keep communities and working families in mind when considering layoffs. Keller also led a separate letter to congressional leadership, highlighting the dire situation of the aviation industry and the need to include an extension of the PSP in future COVID-19 relief legislation.

TAKE ACTION: Tell your Senators and Representative to support a clean extension of the airline Payroll Support Program

 

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Back From Labor Day, We Have Important Work to Do.

Back From Labor Day, We Have Important Work to Do.

Sep 8, 2020 | Front Page, GOIAM Stories, Perusals, Row 2, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Sisters, Brothers and Friends of the IAM,

For all the changes and hardship 2020 has brought upon us, I know one thing will remain the same—working people like us, the men and women who make North America move—will be offered thanks this Labor Day weekend.

And while I am indeed incredibly grateful for all the sacrifices of our membership, especially during times like these, I can’t help but think that words simply aren’t enough anymore. Our families and our communities, who have put lives and livelihoods at risk during this pandemic and economic disaster, and too many of our own Brothers and Sisters who have become sick and passed away from this terrible disease, deserve more than a pat on the back once a year.

We’re not asking for any special treatment. Our demands—justice and dignity on the job—are essentially the same as they were 138 years ago when a Machinist founded what we now know as Labor Day. And in proud Fighting Machinist tradition, we have gone to the mat each and every day of this crisis for our membership.

As you’ll see in the IAM’s COVID-19 Resource Center, from airlines and aerospace to defense and manufacturing, and every industry in between, this union has been leading the charge fighting for the relief our membership needs and deserves. Just like our members on the frontlines, the IAM is out front protecting our democracy, standing up for racial justice and demanding that working people be prioritized over corporate profit.

But when we see the rich and powerful taking advantage of this crisis to further enrich themselves at the expense of working people, the hollow “thank you” they offer us on Labor Day falls on deaf ears. When political leaders seek to divide, rather than unite, working people, their rhetoric is exposed for what it is—empty words.

Today, with just 59 days until Election Day in the United States, we must each take a hard look at the world we will leave our children and grandchildren. Our membership, in the labor movement’s first-ever rank-and-file presidential endorsement vote, made it clear that we need change.

So, I ask you to get involved and take matters into your own hands. Fight like our future depends on it—because it does. Vote, volunteer and get everyone around you to do the same. Our union’s election year online hub, iam2020.org, is a good place to start.

I know this year has been difficult. Our union is no stranger to preserving through the most challenging of times. Mark my words that our fight will continue and that we will never stop demanding action and a fair shot for every working family.

In solidarity,

Robert Martinez Jr.
IAM International President

Additional Resources  ///  Support the Machinists Non-Partisan Political League

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Justice on the Job: Equal Pay For Black Women

Justice on the Job: Equal Pay For Black Women

Aug 31, 2020 | Community Service Page, Front Page, GOIAM Stories, MNPL, Organizing, Perusals | 0 comments

Celebrating 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage

100 Years ago, women first won the right to vote. In honor of the Centannial Anniversary of Suffrage Movement, the Machinists & Aerospace Union is highlighting the ongoing work of women, activists and unions to create a more just and equal workplace. Today, we take a look at how the IAMAW marked Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. 

 

August 13 marked the date that Black women have to work into 2020 to finally catch up to what white, non-Hispanic men earned in 2019. The day helps to raise awareness about the wage gap for Black women and its impact on them and their families. The goal is equal pay for equal work.  Black women can’t achieve gender equity without racial equity. “To know that just because of the color of your skin or your gender that you would be paid less than the person working next to you, how could you feel whole or complete?” said Renee Killings of IAM Local 2003.

“Thank God for union contracts,” Diane Campbell of IAM Local 778 said. “The union has been a blessing because it’s somebody to fight for you where you may not have that voice or you may not have that soap box to speak on, so I have the union fighting for me.” She said the union has moved the playing field for her and paved the way for others.

On Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, everyone must work together to dismantle barriers and systems of oppression holding women of color back: occupational segregation, low pay, health inequities, racial gaps in education, & more. The A. Philip Randolph (APRI) Institute and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) are two AFL-CIO constituency groups that fight for racial and economic justice.

 

Additional Resources

/// GOIAM Link to original story

/// Celebrating 100 years of women’s right to vote

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Celebrating Women’s Right To Vote

Celebrating Women’s Right To Vote

Aug 28, 2020 | Community Service Page, Front Page, GOIAM Stories, Organizing, Row 2, Uncategorized, Video | 0 comments

Celebrating 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage

100 Years ago, women first won the right to vote. While we’ve come a long way in our ongoing work to create a more perfect union, our work is far from finished. Good news is, we’re nowhere near finished, either. 

When the Machinists Union was founded in 1888 and for years after, there were no women in that Atlanta railroad pit, brainstorming about how to get better wages and working conditions. but that doesn’t mean they didn’t want­­ those things. “They wanted the freedom to decide how to live their lives, whether that was homemakers or workers or advocates or all three,” said Carla Siegel, IAM Deputy General Counsel. “They wanted the freedom to be able to have a voice in the policies that affected their families, that affected their schools, that affected their communities and their coworkers.”

In the 19th and 20th centuries, women were often treated as second class citizens, regardless of their skills. yet, they fought for the right to vote, just like men did in local, state and national elections. “They engaged in nonviolent protest, which was nonetheless illegal and they paid the price for that,” said Mary McHugh of the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center. “They went to jail, they faced physical dangers, in order to put public pressure on elected officials to move women’s suffrage forward as a constitutional issue.”

Deputy General Counsel Carla Siegel says technically, the constitution didn’t actually prohibit women from voting. “It doesn’t refer to gender at all and some states allowed it, but because there were strong forces that were prohibiting women to vote in certain states, there was the push for the 19thAmendment to make it clear that of course, women had the right to vote.”

One hundred years later, women of all races, ethnicities and identities are exercising the rights to vote, despite the fact that many were initially excluded from white women’s suffrage efforts in the early 1900s. “African American women, Native American women had to continue to fight to really be able to realize a right to vote what the constitution said and what the reality was, were not the same things,” McHugh said.

In 2020, women of color are finally getting the recognition they deserve… women like Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, 16, who led ten thousand people in the New York suffrage parade in 1912, or Ida B. Wells, who created the Alpha suffrage club in 1913. “It’s a huge accomplishment,” said Vivianne Simon of IAM Local 1295 in Toronto, Canada. “We need to get more people involved just to show the solidarity for women and to be there for those who basically died for us, to acknowledge them and to show them respect by all coming together to bring it higher. Raise the bar.”

Although Simon lives in Canada, which gave women the right to vote two years before the United States, she and other IAM members understand the significance of the anniversary and the parallel it has to voting in union elections. “Well, I love that we’re celebrating a hundred years and I’ll say a hundred years of success because that’s what women’s suffrage was all about, gaining these types of rights,” said Kimberly Fedd of IAM Local 774 in Wichita, Kan. “This year in particular is a big year for our local and our district. Elections are coming up… that right was fought for and it’s a big deal.”

Women have made great strides in the workforce, even though all of us still don’t have equal pay for equal work in the United States and Canada. But, we have a better chance if we’re in a union like the IAM. Nevertheless, having a right and using it are two different things. “If you’re visible, if you’re active, if you’re vocal through your vote, through attending meetings, through getting involved in the subcommittees that may exist in your local or in your district, that’s how we move forward our agenda as women and as women inside the labor movement,­” said Ines Garcia-Keim, President of the New Jersey State Council of Machinists.

It’s a movement that still needs to be held accountable when it comes to equal rights, gender equity and inclusion, on the shop floor and in the union hall. “Unions aren’t perfect. We have still have a lot of work to do,” said Dora Cervantes, IAM General Secretary-Treasurer. “But, the wage gap is smaller and almost non-existent in union shops. Having women move up the ranks ensures that equity remains a priority.”

 

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Machinists Local S6 Members Successfully End Largest Strike in United States

Machinists Local S6 Members Successfully End Largest Strike in United States

Aug 25, 2020 | Front Page, GOIAM Stories, Organizing, Row 2 | 0 comments

/// Originally posted on GOIAM.org

/// While the following story describes events outside the aviation and aerospace industries, it represents a major milestone in the history of our great union, and so we want to make a record of it at IAM141.org. The strike action of IAMAW Local S6 was the largest in the entire United States at the time. The women and men of Local S6 braved the economic turmoil of a pandemic and soaring unemployment rates, but steadfastly refused to accept less than their worth. The result was a contract that provides virtually everything they fought for, and established the Machinists & Aerospace Union as an institution that must be respected. 

BATH, Maine, Aug. 23, 2020 – More than 4,300 IAM Local S6 members at Bath Iron Works, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, have voted 87 percent to ratify a three-year collective bargaining agreement at the Maine shipbuilding company. IAM Local S6 members, who build destroyers for the U.S. Navy, will return to work beginning with third shift on Sunday, Aug. 23.

The approved contract includes strong job protections against expanded subcontracting and preserves seniority rights, the two top issues that forced members to reject the company’s previous offer and begin the nation’s largest strike nearly 10 weeks ago on June 22.

“IAM Local S6 has shown the world that together working people can stand up and win for themselves, their families and their communities,” said IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. “This fight for dignity, justice and good Maine jobs will go down in the history books of the Machinists Union and all of organized labor. I could not be more proud of our IAM Local S6 membership and negotiating committee, District 4 representatives, Eastern Territory staff and everyone who stood with the IAM and the best shipbuilders in the world. We are also grateful for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and Director Richard Giacolone for helping us get this agreement resolved.”

Federal mediators helped both sides reach a tentative agreement on Aug. 7. IAM Local S6 members received the contract in the mail and voted online and by telephone from 12:01 a.m., Friday, Aug. 21 to noon, Sunday, Aug. 23.

“This strike was a testament to the culmination of Local S6 leadership, our negotiating committee and the incredible power of solidarity shown by our membership,” said IAM Local S6 President Chris Wiers. “Now that we successfully protected our contract language with respect to subcontracting and seniority, we need to get back to work and continue to prove to the U.S. Navy that ‘S6 built is best built.’”

The IAM Local S6 negotiating committee unanimously recommended the improved agreement to the membership.

“I can only salute the Brothers and Sisters who not only stood up for themselves and their families, but for the entire labor movement,” said IAM Eastern Territory General Vice President Jimmy Conigliaro Sr. “They made a statement that we will not give into corporate greed or, most of all, disrespect on the job. IAM Local S6 members didn’t back down, even when faced with hard times at home without a paycheck for months. I couldn’t be more proud of our membership.”

IAM Local S6 members received significant support from elected officials and the community for the duration of the strike, especially from U.S. Reps. Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree, who publicly supported Local S6 several times. State Senate President Troy Jackson, State House Speaker Sara Gideon, State Senator Eloise Vitelli and other state and local elected officials also supported Local S6 members.

“The leadership of the Local, the professionalism of the negotiating committee and the solidarity of our members has been remarkable and unwavering throughout these negotiations and strike,” said IAM General Vice President Brian Bryant. “Each one was a major factor in successfully reaching a fair agreement with BIW. I want to congratulate our members on this hard earned victory. Their solidarity and sacrifice has paid off.”

“This was a strike for the ages,” said IAM Grand Lodge Representative Dave Sullivan. “The older generation of Machinists taught the younger generation what solidarity means. Everybody at every level of this union worked together and showed what we can do when we’re united. When you’re on the right side of history, the sacrifice pays off.”

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.

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