June 27 is a 'Day of Action' to support
trade unionists in South Korea face who severe repression. Use the
IMF digital postcard feature to
send a letter of
protest to the South Korean government. |
The IAM is holding a
members-only photography contest this year and if your photo wins, you
could win a cash prize and your picture could appear in the 2003 IAM
Calendar. The deadline is June 30, 2002. For complete contest
information and an entry form,
click here.
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
interviewed Amtrak president David Gunn, who recently took over the
troubled rail service. Gunn talks about Amtrak's financial situation,
the proposal to break up Amtrak, and the role Congress played in
creating the crisis at the nation’s passenger rail carrier. |
Get Your Convention Gear
Check out gear for the
2004
IAM Convention
The IAM
Executive Council
International President
R.
Thomas Buffenbarger
Secretary Treasurer
Donald
E. Wharton
GVP Western
Territory
Lee
Pearson
GVP Canada
Dave
Ritchie
GVP Midwest
Territory
Alex
M. Bay
GVP Headquarters
Robert
V. Thayer
GVP Southern
Territory
George
Hooper
GVP Eastern
Territory
Warren
L. Mart
GVP Transportation
Robert
Roach, Jr.
|
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
IAM-Boeing Open Contract Talks
IAM and Boeing officials opened negotiations today over the nation’s
largest aerospace labor agreement, which is set to expire September 1.
The contract covers some 25,000 IAM members in Kansas, Oregon and
Washington State who build airplanes for the Boeing Company, the largest
U.S. export manufacturer. The union says jobs, pensions and health care
are the key issues in these talks.
“Boeing has
eliminated more than one-third of the IAM membership’s jobs since the
1999 contract, yet Boeing’s after-tax profits have gone up 152 percent
and sales have gone up 27 percent during that same period,” said IAM
Chief Negotiator Dick Schneider.
“This contract
involves a matter of basic fairness: Should conditions get better or
worse for employees of a profitable, world-leading corporation?”
Schneider continued.
“By any measure,
Boeing is one of the most successful corporations in world economic
history, yet, more than 95 percent of the IAM membership goes to work
each day at Boeing in fear of losing their jobs.
“Our union is about
moving forward, and not backward,” Schneider said. “We will build on the
progress we have made in the past and move forward, because that is the
right thing to do for our members, for our communities, for our country
– and for Boeing, as well. The IAM seeks positive, practical solutions,
so all of us – labor and management – can continue to move forward and
succeed – and to do that, we must work together.”
Bookmark the "IAM Boeing
News" page on www.goiam.org for
current information on Contract 2002 negotiations.
Rail Labor
Leaders Meet
With DOT’s Mineta to Save AMTRAK
Leaders of the nations rail unions and
the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department met today with Department
of Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to avoid a July shutdown of
Amtrak, the nation’s passenger rail service.
“Secretary Mineta
assured us that nobody in the Bush administration wants to see Amtrak
die,” said IAM Railroad Coordinator Mark Filipovic, who attended the
meeting. “We are confident that the Secretary and the White House will
work around the clock to make emergency federal loan guarantees
available in order to prevent the looming shutdown of Amtrak.”
Labor
representatives joined a growing chorus of public pressure to give
Amtrak a $270 million federal loan guarantee and an emergency
appropriation. “Passenger rail service is a vital link in our nation’s
transportation system. Every other nation in the world supports rail
service with public investment, we should do the same,” said General
Vice President Robert Roach, Jr.
You can join the
fight to keep our bothers and sisters at Amtrak working.
Click here to send a message
to Congress and President Bush to fund Amtrak immediately.
Ergonomics Bill
Gets Committee OK
A
bill that could bring about a comprehensive ergonomics standard for all
workplaces within two years sailed through the Senate Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions Committee. Last year the Bush administration repealed
the nation’s ergonomics standard and replaced it with what Sen. Ted
Kennedy, D-MA, called “toothless voluntary guidelines that most
corporations will simply ignore.”
The standards are
designed to prevent such painful work-related musculoskeletal and
repetitive stress injuries as carpal tunnel syndrome and back injuries.
IAM Joins
Worldwide Action
to Free Korean Labor Leaders
Behind the positive image displayed
during the World Cup, South Korea is waging a brutal battle against its
workers. More than 30 labor leaders are currently imprisoned under
Korea’s “obstruction of business” anti-labor laws. The IAM will join
thousands of trade unions on June 27 for a worldwide Day of
Action. The International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) is asking all of
its affiliates to join in the day of protest.
“As the leader of
the Machinists Union, I personally urge you to release all the trade
unionists currently in jail and to refrain from using this tactic
[obstruction of business] in the future,” said IAM President Tom
Buffenbarger in a letter to Korea’s President Kim Dae-Jung. “By properly
recognizing basic fundamental worker rights, you can avoid the
embarrassment, shame and worldwide condemnation this activity has
brought to South Korea.” (Click
here for the complete text of President Buffenbarger's letter).
Click here to send
an electronic protest card to Kim Dae Jung.
U.S. Foreign Debt
a Major Threat
The overvalued U.S. dollar stands to do
more damage to our battered economy than the dot com’s meltdown and the
Enron collapse put together. Economists are sounding the alarm that a
looming debt crisis poses a major threat to the world economy.
This country’s
accumulated foreign debt, i.e., the amount we owe for our ongoing
import-buying binge, is now running $400 billion a year. By 2006, the
debt will rise to 40 percent of the U.S Gross Domestic Product, roughly
Argentina’s level before that economy tanked last year, says Economic
Policy Institute economist Jeff Faux in an upcoming article.
Faux calls for an
immediate pause in the relentless drive to sign more trade expansion
agreements, which are causing our trade deficits to grow by 2 percent
for every one percent increase in our national income.
Congress and the
administration are clueless about the problem, says Faux, deferring
instead to “the divine right of multinational corporations” on matters
of trade.
There is precedent
for steps needed to correct the overvalued dollar. After Reagan’s
policies drove the dollar up in the mid 1980’s, a cooperative approach
by the world’s largest economies reduced it by 25 percent over a
three-year period.
Faux hold little
hope for such steps by the current administration. “Chances of the
Bushies – steeped in unilateral arrogance and ideologically wedded to
laissez faire finance – moving in these directions is close to zero.”
Canadian Member Makes “Cut for the Cure”
|
Local Lodge 1927’s Helen MacGregor did her part in the fight against
cancer by raising $2,500 to fight the disease. As a participant in
“Cut for the Cure,” MacGregor completely shaved her head. She was
cheered on by fellow IAM members and her supervisor Jim Smellie, who
also shaved his head. |
Macgregor has
survived a bout with breast cancer in 2000 and has been cancer-free
since then. To read the complete story, click below:
http://www.iamaw.ca/new/LL1927/helen_macgregor_e.html
Senate Blocks Tax
Gift to Wealthy
The Senate killed a measure that would
permanently eliminate estate taxes for the wealthiest taxpayers,
millionaires and billionaires whose heirs would reap huge tax windfalls
from the White House-backed measure.
President Bush touts
the measure as benefit for small business and family farmers, but fewer
than 2 percent of all taxpayers pay any estate taxes whatsoever. But the
heirs of President Bush and many other members of his administration
benefit handsomely under the tax repeal. Bush heirs stand to gain as
much as $5.9 million, VP Dick Cheney’s heirs could rack up $40 million
and the heirs of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld could see as much as
$120 million in the tax windfall.
Heirs of Enron’s CEO
Ken Lay would get $59 million.
K-Kids Raise
Funds for K-9s
Students from Franklin Elementary School in Manitowoc, WI, came up with
a major gift for Guide Dogs of America. The 4th, 5th
and 6th graders handed a check for $1,900 to help support the
IAM’s unique guide dog facility in Sylmar, CA. Russ Wittkop Midwest
territory special representative accepted the gift and praised the
youngsters for their efforts.
The
Franklin School’s
“K-Kids” raised this substantial amount through monthly cookie,
cupcake, popcorn and orange drink sales.
|