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Tue
IAM Launches Cyberlodge
Membership Program The project, called ‘Cyberlodge,’ features a guild-like structure where workers retain their traditional employee-employer relationship while enjoying benefits normally reserved for employees with collective bargaining agreements. Software developers, computer programmers and technical employees in the U.S. are facing the same market forces that have led workers to organize for decades. Thousands of U.S. jobs have recently been exported to low wage countries as companies seek to benefit from overseas labor that is increasingly inexpensive and highly trained. An important goal of the Cyberlodge project is to give high tech workers the opportunity to bring their concerns before members of Congress. The number of work visas issued to foreign tech workers by the U.S. State Department is only one example where lobbying by companies is virtually unopposed. A one-year charter membership of $120 gives Cyberlodge members access to portable health insurance and member-only programs that can save hundreds, even thousands of dollars annually. Coordinated lobbying and online communication about issues affecting tech workers are additional advocacy features of the innovative new program.
For more information
about the IAM’s Cyberlodge project, visit
www.cyberlodge.org.
GOP Guts Medicare
Legislation The GOP majorities who control both houses of Congress labored diligently to produce a bill that punishes seniors, while shoveling huge profits to the drug industry, noted IP Tom Buffenbarger. “This is unshackled corporate greed run amok. It is shameless, disgraceful and the kind of political chicanery that cannot be permitted to continue.” A new study shows that the pharmaceutical industry is the biggest beneficiary of the proposed legislation. “That’s no surprise, since the drug industry funneled millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of President Bush and his Republican cronies,” Buffenbarger said. The drug industry is in line for “windfall profits” of more than $139 billion under the Medicare drug proposal, according to the study done by Boston University’s School of Public Health. The study says the proposed legislation has no provisions to control prices and does not even allow Medicare to negotiate prices for drugs.
“These unrestrained
prices---given the remarkably low real costs of producing the added volume
of pills that Medicare patients need---will bestow enormous windfall
profits on prescription drug makers,” the report says. Visit
www.healthreformprogram.org
to read the report.
350 Jobs in
Wisconsin Say ‘Adios’ Tom O'Heron, Directing Business Representative of IAM District 66 in La Crosse, Wisconsin said the announcement by Trane Co. caught its workers by surprise. “It's the trade agreements that are killing us,” said O’Heron. “I don’t believe anybody would argue that fact." The IAM represents hourly workers at Trane. Democratic State Representative Jennifer Shilling said she was "deeply disappointed" by Trane's decision, which came the same day a Wal-Mart opened a store in LaCrosse. “We are losing jobs that you can support a family on, and only gaining entry-level jobs that pay just over the minimum wage." A Trane spokesperson said the move was necessary to compete in a global marketplace.
“Trane joins a long
list of American companies who are abandoning American workers, and their
communities to take advantage of desperately poor workers and pay poverty
wages,” said GVP Jim Brown. “It’s an absolute disgrace.”
The Rat Wins Again! In her ruling, Judge Sandra Beckwith agreed with the IAM and stated, “Suppression of protected speech, even for minimal periods of time, constitutes irreparable harm.” Fairfield Ford’s Auto Technicians voted to join the IAM on November 26, 2002 and despite being cited numerous times by the National Labor Relations Board, the company still refuses to negotiate a reasonable contract. The ruling marks the second time the widely recognized symbol of corporate buffoonery has emerged victorious from courtroom showdowns with the City of Fairfield. Earlier, the IAM won a preliminary injunction after city officials tried to have the rat balloon removed by designating it to be a “structure” and subject to local building ordinances.
UTC Fuel Cells
Negotiations Begin
Negotiations between
the IAM and UTC Fuel Cells, whose workers are members of IAM Local 1746 in
East Hartford,
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