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Thursday February 20,  2003


IAM Opens Lockheed Martin Talks in Texas

District Lodge 776 in Fort Worth, TX, opened negotiations with Lockheed Martin yesterday. The current three year agreement at the plant which manufactures the F-16 Falcon and will soon build the Joint Strike Fighter expires April 13. The contract covers about 3,800 members.

"Both Lockheed Martin and the IAM have a big job ahead of us. We are dedicated to negotiate an agreement both of us can be proud of,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger. “We understand the economy is in tough times. But we are going to work toward an agreement that is good for our members and the community.

"It is obvious to at least to us the 'global economy' is not working for employees or the nation. When you transfer work to other nations who may or may not be our friends next month or next year, it hurts everyone. These nations may not have our national security in mind. These jobs need to stay here, employing Americans. We will continue to take a strong stand on outsourcing," said Buffenbarger.

General Vice President Bob Thayer, Southern Territory General Vice President George Hooper, Southern Territory Administrative Assistant Les Schroeder, and Aerospace Coordinator John Crowdis joined President Buffenbarger to open the negotiations.

"We have a great negotiating committee," said GVP Hooper. "DBR Pat Lane has years of experience with Lockheed, and I'm convinced they will work hard to get a good contract for the members." 

GVP Pearson Names Allen New AA
Gary Allen moves into the post of administrative assistant for the Western Territory, reports GVP Lee Pearson. He replaces Tom Hurd, who retires effective March 1. Allen has been serving as Aerospace coordinator.

Allen joined the Western Territory staff as a special rep. in 1989 and became a Grand Lodge rep. two years later. Prior to joining the IAM staff, Allen was the Directing Business Rep. for Local 794, in Albuquerque, NM.

“I am certain Gary will do a journeyman’s job in his new position,” Pearson said. “It’s a pleasure to have such dedicated trade unionists to step up and take on new responsibilities in the finest Machinist tradition.”

It Pays, $1,055,000, to Belong to the IAM
Nearly 200 members of Local W322, in Prescott, AK, know the value of a strong union and an ironclad union contract. Those workers won production bonuses ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 in an arbitration settlement worth a total of $1,055,000.

When Potlatch Corp. unilaterally changed the terms and conditions of a gain sharing plan negotiated with the union, the union promptly filed a grievance that quickly made its way to arbitration, according to Leon Blocker, District W2 directing business rep.

“We negotiated the plan way back in 1995, but it only came into service in 1998. If workers meet certain production standards, they earn performance bonuses,” he explained. All went well through the early stages. Then, company officials unilaterally changed the production goals, a move which drastically cut the workers’ bonuses.

The union grievance found its way to an impartial arbitrator who decided the issue in the union’s favor. Blocker cited a committed union grievance committee and BR Darrell Tharp for seeing the matter to a winning conclusion.

GOP Inaction Scuttles Pension Protections
Neither the Bush administration nor the Republican-controlled Congress lifted a finger on behalf of some 95,000 Bethlehem Steel retirees and their families when the bankrupt company announced an end to health and insurance benefits now set for March 31.

Republican leaders blocked consideration of the Steel Industry Legacy Relief Act, which would have provided continued health care to steel industry retirees.

“This administration is far more concerned about the financial welfare of its Big Business cronies than it is about the needs of working families and our retirees,” declared IP Tom Buffenbarger. “How can this President justify huge tax cuts for the wealthy and turn such a deaf ear to the immediate needs of men and women who’ve worked all their lives building America?”

EPI Pans Bush Tax Scheme
President Bush’s tax plan “will damage the economy and lead to more job loss in the long term than if no changes were made in current policy,” warns Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-backed think tank.

Mishel told a congressional panel that Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy would destroy 750,000 jobs and waste valuable resources needed to pay for such critical services as education and health care. The current recession has drained away more than 2.2 million private sector jobs over the past two years, more than in any of the past three recessions.

Mishel argued that a stimulus package should create jobs through temporary increases in spending and tax policies that expand demand.

Ten Nobel laureates and 450 economists recently condemned the President’s tax restructuring scheme. The AFL-CIO called for a stimulus package that includes a 26-week extension of emergency jobless benefits, financial aid to states, accelerated investments in schools and infrastructure, one-time tax credits for all workers and an increase in the minimum wage.

Bush Medicare Plan Murky
Even key Bush administration officials can’t seem to get a handle on President Bush’s plans for Medicare. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson told a congressional panel he could not guarantee that senior citizens who remain in the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program would get prescription drug benefits.

Thompson offered vague and conflicting testimony on the Bush plan. He also said elderly citizens would not be forced to join health maintenance organizations (HMOs), but that they might have to join “some type of private health plan.”

Even House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, said the Bush plan is “unworkable.”