Mike Klemm, District 141 President, on NBC Nightly News Discussing Vaccine Mandates

Sep 30, 2021 | COVID, Front Page, Page Four, Page Three, Page Two, Row 2, United, Video

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IAMAW District President and Directing General Chair, Mike Klemm was among those calling for United to use incentive programs before terminations at United.

Mike Klemm, District 141 President, on NBC Nightly News Discussing Vaccine Mandates

IAMAW District 141 President Mike Klemm was among those interviewed in the aftermath of United Airlines’ decision to fire nearly 600 employees who refused to get vaccinated and did not obtain a religious or medical exemption.

Unions around the nation are facing vaccine mandates, including professional athletes, actors, Flight Attendants, Pilots, and others. To date, no unions, lawmakers, government officials, or organizations have successfully prevented employer vaccine mandates.

The position of the IAMAW District 141 is that employer vaccine mandates are unnecessarily provocative and divisive. They should not be used until an honest, good-faith effort to employee incentive programs has been tried first. IAMAW District 141 is planning to use the Grievance process to defend the contractual rights of any workers who lose their jobs as a result of vaccine mandates.

141 Report: District Educators Hold Workshop

This week, the District 141 Education Department held a two-day workshop at the District Headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. The workshop was hosted by Mac McGovern, the District Director of Education.

District educators help train union stewards and local officers by holding on-site classes at local lodges around the country. The training classes cover a wide range of union topics, including understanding contract language, officer responsibilities, and best practices for union stewards as they participate in employee discipline hearings. The lessons are available to all IAMAW 141 Members, Committee Members, and Local Officers across all airlines represented by the District.

District Educators participating in the workshop updated some elements of the union steward curriculum, adding new lessons and revamping others. “Some of the changes have been made to grievance writing and investigation sheets,” said attendee Chris Lusk. Lusk also explained that Zoom training would be used when needed, but the District Educators are moving forward with more live training. He also advised viewers seeking education classes “to reach out to their AGC’s if the locals need some education classes done.”

District 141 Educators participating in the workshop included Chris Lusk (UA), Brian Harrison (AA), Deena Pena (UA), Kim Krasani (UA), Alice Potter (AA), Ku’ueli McGuire (HA), and Jeff Carlson. The event was led by District 141 Director of Education, Mac McGovern.

Explaining the Protecting the Right to Organize Act

IAM Organizing Director Vinny Addeo draws on decades of experience to explain how the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act would help break down the barriers for working people to join unions.

The PRO Act will make it easier for working people to bargain together and win good contracts because it will:

Empower workers to exercise our freedom to organize and bargain.
Repeal “right to work” laws.
Ensure that workers can reach a first contract quickly after a union is recognized.
End employers’ practice of punishing striking workers by hiring permanent replacements. Speaking up for labor rights is within every worker’s rights—and workers shouldn’t lose our jobs for it.
Hold corporations accountable by strengthening the National Labor Relations Board and allowing it to penalize employers who retaliate against working people in support of the union or collective bargaining.
Create pathways for workers to form unions, without fear, in newer industries like Big Tech.

Click here to tell your senator to support the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.

Click Here to Send a Message

Watch This Couple Scream at JetBlue Crewmembers, Get Thrown Off Flight

Last week, flight crews booted a couple from a JetBlue flight to San Diego during a screaming, drunken tirade over masks. As usual, the event was captured on video and posted online for all to enjoy.

In the video posted on Reddit, a man can be seen screaming and grabbing at a male flight attendant who, he said, did not give him enough warning that his nose needed to go in his mask. “You gave me one “f-ing warning,” he shrieked in the viral video. “I pulled it up the second he said something,” he continued. “The second he said something, I pulled it over my nose,” he cried in a high-pitched wail as cellphones recorded.

At one point, Alice Runkevich, who recorded the video, grabs some snacks and turns her attention to a female passenger accompanying the man. As she enters the video, his counterpart is correctly wearing her mask, nose in, but she seems to lose those skills soon after. Stumbling and slurring her speech, she pleads to the other passengers that they tried to follow the Federally-mandated mask rules but just couldn’t satisfy the flight crews. “We’re being kicked off the flight and we don’t know why,” she explains, adding, “we’re Americans.”

Despite this, they were both removed from the flight before it left Fort Lauderdale, to the delight of onlooking passengers. Flight B6 529 had been delayed for several hours before the incident, which went down while the plane was on the tarmac.

JetBlue said in a statement that the would-be travelers had been asked “multiple times but would not comply with the federal mask mandate.”

“Eventually the customers were asked to leave the aircraft at which time one customer became verbally and physically aggressive toward crewmembers before eventually exiting the aircraft,” the carrier said in a statement to local media outlets. “The customers will not be allowed to fly JetBlue in the future.”

The tantrum is the latest in a record-shattering number of air-rage incidents that have happened this year. This year, entitled and enraged passengers have been fined more than $1 million, resulting from more than 3,000 serious rage incidents in 2021. According to IAMAW District 141 Legislative Director David Roderick, the attacks are not limited to in-flight; they are becoming a problem for gate and ticket counter agents, as well.

“it’s really not just airline workers getting abused this way,” said Roderick. “There have been 85 assaults on uniformed TSA Agents this year, too.” Roderick suggested that increased penalties for those who abuse airline workers and other airport staff may need to be increased to discourage more assaults. “Most of these attacks are provoked by Federal masking rules and alcohol,” he said. “We don’t make Federal masking rules, no airline does. We just have to enforce them – which puts our members in danger too often.”

Roderick is participating in discussions with a coalition of labor unions, including the Chicago Federation of Labor to develop legislative strategies to deal with the rise in air rage incidents. On September 4th, Roderick and representatives from the Airport Labor Committee met with AFL-CIO President Robert Reiter and Vice President Tefere Gebre to discuss the issue. “The main goal was finding ways to get more union members involved in this issue,” Roderick said of the meeting.

In September, the Biden Administration doubled the penalties for not wearing masks at airports and aboard aircraft to between $500 and $1,000. Fines for repeated violations can go as high as $3,000. Disrupting or attempting to intimidate or interfere with a flight crew is now a federal offense that can potentially result in prison time.

20 Years Later, the IAMAW Remembers 9/11

Recounted by IAMAW District 141 Legislative Director, David Roderick.

During the September 11 attacks in 2001, 2,977 people were killed, 19 hijackers committed murder-suicide, and more than 6,000 others were injured. The immediate deaths included 265 on the four planes (including the terrorists), 2,606 in the World Trade Center and the surrounding area, and 125 at the Pentagon.

The first plane to hit its target was American Airlines Flight 11. It was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 am.

Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 am, the World Trade Center’s South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 175.

A third flight, American Airlines Flight 77, flying from Dulles International Airport, was hijacked over Ohio. At 9:37 am, it crashed into the west side of the Pentagon.

The fourth and final flight, United Airlines Flight 93, was flown in Washington, D.C. This flight was the only plane not to hit its intended target when, at 10:03 am, it crashed into an empty field.

I was transitioning to work in our Manpower office as a union steward.

When we heard of the first hit of A.A. flight 11, everyone working that day was shocked and scared. And, many of us thought it was just an accident.

Some of us had access to television and could see the events as they unfolded. Then moments we witnessed United flight 175 hit the World Trade South Tower. We couldn’t believe our eyes. We knew that this couldn’t be an accident.

Next, we heard the news about an A.A. flight 77 hitting the Pentagon and another U.A. flight 93 heading toward Washington DC but did not hit its target.

The airlines immediately shut down air traffic and ordered all planes to land as soon as possible.

While O’Hare United management was going into meetings, I went back to the ramp manpower office. I was asked to help answer the phone calls coming in, primarily from worried family members of employees working that day.

The airport became frantic with passengers waiting to travel.

Even though no flights were leaving, if I remember correctly, overtime was being called, and authorities were ordering all flights to land at the nearest airports. As our planes landed, we had more aircraft than gates to park them, so many planes were double-parked for added space.

I also remember that, in the following days, employees were still expected to return to work even though no flights were going out.

But we planeside workers could go outside on the ramp, and all we heard was silence. It was eerie; the silence from airport noise was overwhelming to workers who are used to wearing ear protection protecting us from hearing damage.

The attack of 9/11 change not just how airlines deal with air travel, but it affected the entire world. Anything that involved air travel, entering other countries, etc., generated a new norm for the world.

The actions of 9/11 created the need for TSA and Homeland Security.

Even for employees, if you drove to work and parked in an employee parking lot, as always, we were driven by employee busses to our work drop-off areas.

But if you took public transportation to work, it became required for all employees would now need to go through security and have their belongings, including our lunches from home, be screened.

TSA was looking for anything that may be a risk. If we had a bottle of water or other beverages, it would be confiscated. Metal utensils with sharp points such as knives and forks were seized, and the TSA took up pocket knives, box cutters, even knitting needles. There was no clear understanding of what we can or cannot bring to work.

For those that drove, we always had to pass security guard gates to enter airport property. But now, security began to require vehicles to have their cars and trunks inspected before entering the property.

Even Chicago’s O’Hare badging for airline workers to enter the airport made it more challenging to get badged, mainly if you worked on international flights.

To this day, it can take weeks to renew a badge, including new hires. We have had employees who could not return to work if their airport badge expired and did not get it renewed before the renewable date.

Between 9/11, Covid19, and unions constantly fighting for workers’ rights in Washington, DC, the past twenty years has and will never be the same before 9/11.

Today we continue to fights for the protection of transportation workers. FAA Reauthorization Bill, which the President signed into effect October 5, 2018. This bill includes many actions that protect workers, including banning knives on planes and attacks on flight attendants.

Dealing with violence in the nation’s skies has not ended. Today, airline workers are coping with Air-Rage from angry passengers who think they have the right to violate Federal laws just because they paid for an airline ticket. They ignore instructions from Customer Service workers and flight attendants resulting in hours-long disruptions to flights.

Even though not in our job scope, many airline workers continue to look over our shoulders as they walk through airport terminals, watch for suspicious activity, or even spot an unattended bag that needs to be reported to airport law enforcement.

While 9/11 was traumatic for the entire nation, airline workers were among those who were most impacted; our industry can never return to September 10.

Labor Day a Time of Celebration, Remembrance

This week, unions and working people around the nation celebrated Labor Day with outdoor cooking, gatherings, and some old-fashioned politicking. It was also a time of reflection, as the date also marks the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In this week’s 141 Report, Dave Lehive covers some of the celebrations that Machinists and Aerospace Workers held around the nation, beginning at his home local of 1776 in Philidelphia.

The City of Brotherly Love is a well-known union town and represents well over 150,000 members from various labor unions. With a large Monday turnout from many of these unions, the Machinists and Aerospace Union was not alone as it marched down Columbus boulevard in Penn’s Landing for a day of music, food, drinks, and celebration.

“We’re out here on the waterfront with all our hard-working labor unions,” said Larry Reeves, President of Local 1776 in Philadelphia.

“We’re here for Labor Day because people fought for Labor Day,” said Reeves. “People fought for the right to work under CBAs and contracts. Thank You, and happy Labor Day to everyone.”

“Labor Day is a celebration of labor and all the people that came before us, who made it possible for us to have the right to organize and have rights in the workplace,” said fellow 1776 member Roland Jenkins. “Health, medical, decent salaries, living wages for our families… we have to keep that tradition going.”

Other union members in attendance credited the historic United and American Airlines contracts as their inspiration for Labor Day this year.

“I wouldn’t be standing here today if we didn’t have the best union contract in the airline industry,” said Milo Dabney.

Bill Wilson, Assistant General Chair, IAMAW District 141, who also attended the Philadelphia event, said, “we’re celebrating the contribution that workers have made to America. I just want to tell you how proud I am to be part of this movement.”

Machinists also heard speeches from several US Congressional Representatives, such as Brendan Boyle from Pennsylvania’s District 2, Dwight Evans (PA-3), and Mary Gay Scanlin (PA-5), speaking about pro-labor battles they’re fighting on Capitol Hill.

“So proud to be out here at the labor day parade with all unions,” said Congresswoman Scanlon. “Especially the Machinists Union!”

Scanlon, who wore a baseball cap emblazoned with the message “Vote!” reminded union members of the importance of voting. “This year and every year,” she said.

Pennsylvania State Council President Obie Obrien and Vice President Rich Howell met with State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder and President Rick Bloomingdale.

Also attending the Labor Day event were retired US Congressman Bob Brady and State Representative Jennifer Omar, who was invited to come out to Local 1776 and meet with members.

On Tuesday, Local 1759 in Virginia held an open house so union members could stop by for a visit and grab a meal.

Trustee Lulu Torres welcomed members to the open house, “We have really good food; catered BBQ, T-shirts, Lunchboxes, mugs,” she said. “We celebrate Labor Day,” she said, “because you deserve it.”

Local Lodge 1759 President Bill Huston was also on hand to ensure that the vibrant history of the IAMAW is not forgotten. “We’re here to celebrate Labor Day as it was laid out for us by the hard-working 19 men in Atlanta, Georgia in 1888, when they formed our illustrious IAM union,” he said. “They laid the groundwork for us and gave us a voice at our jobs,” Huston said. He also pointed out that the founding members of the IAM worked for only 25 cents an hour and had no sick time, or essential benefits, among other workplace rights. Yet, these early members created the modern workplace that we often take for granted today. “Our voice and our jobs today are due to their hard work, and we’re working to build on their efforts day in and day out.”

At Local 1322, President Sal Foria echoed the sentiments with a “Day After” Labor Day celebration and BBQ. “to recognize and give back to the folks set out a path for us,” Fiora said. The Local 1322 had a few special visitors, including Assitant General Chair Mike Cyscon and IAMAW District President and Directing General Chair Mike Klemm, who cooked burgers for the members. Klemm, a ramp lead at JFK Airport, calls Local 1322 home.

This Labor Day comes as Unions around America prepare to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11. More than 600 union members perished on September 11, 2001, due to the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Approximately two dozen unions lost members on that day, with the death toll of unionists making up about 20% of the 2800 people killed in the attacks. Union members included 343 Firefighters and 60 Police officers, who rushed to save others trying to escape the World Trade Centers as they collapsed. Another 73 workers, many of them unionists, died trapped at the top-floor restaurant at the Trade Centers’ North Tower.

Flight Attendants, Pilots, and other airline employees were among those killed on the four planes used as weapons by hijacking terrorists. May we never forget the sisters and brother lost on that terrible day.