While this year has been unlike any other, there is still much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
This challenging time has given us all a new perspective. I know I’m especially grateful for our Machinists Union family—and the work all of our members have done day in and day out during these difficult times.
I am also thinking of those who have been affected most by this pandemic—the families who are mourning the loss of a loved one or picking up the pieces after losing their job. We see you and we are here for you, Sisters and Brothers. This is one union family.
And while many of us are not able to spend time with loved ones this year, we know that in this union, we are never alone. We have 600,000 Fighting Machinists across North America who have our backs.
For the thousands of Machinists who are working this holiday weekend—safeguarding our country and keeping our world moving—we are forever and always grateful.
On behalf of the entire IAM Executive Council, I wish all of you a very happy, healthy and safe Thanksgiving.
Recently, more than 193 seasonal employees at Seneca Foods vegetable processing facility in Leicester, NY voted to join the IAM. This organizing campaign accomplished something relatively unheard of, filing for an election with just 30 percent of the workforce signing representation cards and then overwhelmingly winning the election.
“On behalf of the Eastern Territory, I would like to congratulate and welcome the women and men from Seneca into the IAM family,” said Eastern Territory General Vice President Jimmy Conigliaro Sr. “This was a great team effort. Thank you to Chief of Staff Juan Negron, Grand Lodge Representative Chuck Herod, Directing Business Representative Ron Warner and IAM District 65 for your dedication and relentless work in bringing this organizing campaign to fruition.”
The seasonal processing schedule typically runs from July 1 through the end of November. Many of these seasonal employees are from Puerto Rico and have traveled back and forth to Seneca Foods for years. Working conditions were not favorable and employees were required to work twelve-hour days, seven days a week.
“These employees have seen the disparity of how they are treated compared with how fulltime workers in the facility are treated and compensated under a Collective Bargaining Agreement,” said District 65 Directing Business Representative Ron Warner. “They know we can make a difference and that is why they voted for the IAM. Since the majority of the workers spoke only Spanish, I’d also like to give special thanks to Chief of Staff Juan Negron and Chief Steward Luis Diaz who were integral in communicating with our new sisters and brothers.”
IAM Local Lodge 1580 currently represents 40 fulltime employees at the Seneca Foods facility. In September, seasonal employees, who handle all the processing including canning of the vegetables, contacted Local Lodge 1580 Chief Steward Luis Diaz expressing a strong desire to join the IAM.
Union members want good contracts and good service for those contracts, in order to improve quality of life, through higher wages, better benefits and safe working conditions. The IAM’s Southern Territory has changed its culture by reorganizing districts so members receive the service they expect, while making organizing a top priority.
The newly chartered districts are in Kentucky and Tennessee, with consolidated locals in Virginia and North Carolina.
“We started looking at districts that only had one representative and how we could support them better, give them more resources to help with their servicing needs and to help with organizing,” said IAM Southern Territory General Vice President Rickey Wallace.
District 74 in Virginia, District 110 in North Carolina and unaffiliated Local 10 in Richmond, VA were consolidated into the new District 2020 in February. Newly-chartered District 1888 was formed when Districts 27 in Louisville, KY, 154 in Calvert City, KY and District 711 in Murfreesboro, TN were consolidated into District Lodge 1888 in September.
“We chose that number for a reason,” said District 1888 President and Directing Business Representative Jerry Benson. “That’s the year the union started and we’re looking at this district as a rebirth in this area of our union. This union started in the South and we’re going to grow it in the South.”
Russell Wade, President and Directing Business Representative of District 2020, says the reorganization will help in a number of ways.
“It gives us a chance to collaborate between local business representatives much more easily because we talk to each other regularly since we did this combination, so to me it’s like the sum of the parts makes a greater whole than the parts individually,” said Wade.
Servicing Members
The Machinists Union provides workers with a collective voice to communicate with company managers. Whether it’s a shop steward or a business representative, the union helps to resolve problems that may arise.
“Some of our representatives were servicing up to 45 collective bargaining agreements, which is a huge workload on somebody,” said Wallace. “It’s a juggling act for a representative, constantly with balls in the air all the time, trying to negotiate these contracts. Multiple contracts coming up at the same time. What we had done in the past is our Grand Lodge staff would go in and support these districts and helped them out when they needed it.”
Although Grand Lodge Representatives are good at multitasking, Wallace saw a need and an opportunity to get members better services, by having the Grand Lodge Representatives focus on organizing, while business representatives at the district level could concentrate on servicing.
Joe Greaser has been a Grand Lodge Representative since 2007.
“To the general member, seeing their business agent more often, they kind of have the tendency to think the union cares more about them,” said Greaser, adding that the “whole aspect of servicing should improve” under this new system and representatives can get out onto the shop floors to get to know members better.
Members often contact their shop stewards in-person and their business representatives through email, text and phone calls.
“I think they’ll see a better response from business agents, due to the realignment the Southern Territory did with the Grand Lodge Representatives,” said Wade. “It frees the business representatives up to better service the members and be much more responsive to the members.”
The goal is to make sure members hear back from their representatives as quickly as possible.
“We believe in servicing our membership. That’s one thing I think the Machinists Union does better than any other union out there,” said Benson. “By having the reps located in different areas, different regions of the district, they’ll be able to visit their shops and visit their members. So, hopefully, the ones that are out of the [formerly] one-rep district maybe they will see their rep more often than what they were used to. Hopefully, they’ll see that their rep has more resources to use for them when have an issue.”
Organizing
Another one for the history books. New Charters for IAM Districts 1888 and 2020.
President Robert Martinez Jr. made it his top priority when he took office in 2016 and has taken steps to boost it since then.
“We weren’t using our Grand Lodge staff really to organize at all. If we got a lead, they would pick it up and run with it,” said Wallace.
But the added responsibility of organizing on top of servicing was burdensome. The reorganization of the districts in the territory will facilitate the organizing goal and streamline the process. Wallace said the territory is always working on strategic targets.
“Organizing is important to keep the balance of the union and keep the strength of the union,” said Greaser. “The biggest impediment when you’re organizing is not being able to dedicate the time necessary to have a successful campaign. As a pure organizer, when you don’t have those impediments of having to be at meetings, having to be at negotiations, having to deal with internal disputes, you can set your game plan for your organizing effort a lot more efficiently.”
A winning game plan involves a tireless fight to organize workers who need help improving working conditions. The union’s job is to show them how organizing is power.
“Working people need our help more than ever,” said Benson. “We’re in an environment now that is not worker friendly. This new district will have Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, Chattanooga, Knoxville, a lot of cities spread out across this new district where there’s organizing opportunities. Hopefully, this district grows and with it this union grows.”
Culture Change
Change can be a difficult, yet necessary transition in any industry. “It’s a change for us in culture,” said Greaser, “but at the end of the day we’ll do it in fine Machinists fashion.”
Greaser’s life as a Grand Lodge Representative has involved a lot of travel. He spends a lot of time in his car, traveling from city to city throughout the territory. Business representatives are also busy, making shop visits and putting out fires.
“No one likes change, including me,” said Wade. “But if you don’t change, you go the way of the dinosaur. You’ve got to adapt and change with the times and I think these changes were in the best interest of the membership, otherwise I would have put up a fight, so I think it’s a change in the right direction.”
The Machinists Union wants to keep moving forward together on the local, district and territory levels, with each entity supporting the other for the greater good.
The district reorganization will take time, according to Wallace. He says it won’t happen overnight, “but we think we have a structure in place now that will better service our members and focus on organizing at the same time. This is change for us. And change comes difficult sometimes, but we think this is needed in the territory. The whole purpose is to grow these districts, expand our footprint, increase our union density in these districts, so we can negotiate better contracts for our members.”
District numbers may change, but the people behind the districts, who represent the union members in them, remain the same, as well as the fighting effort that makes us the “Fighting Machinists.”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted the grounding of the 737 Max, clearing the way for airlines to begin scheduling flights in the upcoming months. The move comes after more than a year of the IAM partnering with the FAA and Congress to ensure the aircraft is safe to carry passengers again after its worldwide grounding in March 2019.
The FAA order only covers domestic flights, which will affect American, United and Southwest Airlines, who all have the 737 Max in their fleets. International flight safety agencies are still
IAM District 751 members have worked extensively to maintain these aircraft in long-term storage and members look forward to bringing the 737 Max back into service and increasing production rates as necessary to meet the needs of the customers going forward.
“This is great news for our Brothers and Sisters in Puget Sound who build these planes,” said IAM Western Territory General Vice President Gary R. Allen. “District Lodge 751’s leadership has done an excellent job in keeping the pressure on Congress, the FAA and Boeing to ensure the best aircraft builders on the planet and their job security are considered and respected.”
“I’m proud of the work our members have done throughout these difficult times,” said IAM Aerospace General Vice President Mark Blondin. “The quality of their work has really stood out during the storage of the planes, the thorough review process and now getting the 737 Max back into service and eventually ramping up production.”
The @MachinistsUnion and @IAM751 worked tirelessly with our partners at the #FAA and in Congress to get the #737MAX back in the air and safer than ever. The ungrounding of the MAX is great news for our skilled and dedicated aerospace membership.
“The FAA’s decision to unground the 737 Max is good news for us in the Pacific Northwest,” said Aviation Subcommittee Chair Rick Larsen (D-WA). “The decision provides some certainty to the aerospace jobs in Northwest Washington, despite the downturn in aviation travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With critical changes in place to ensure the 737 Max’s safe return to service, it is my hope Boeing employees can get back to work, drive economic recovery and ensure U.S. aviation remains globally competitive.”
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure issued a final report on the Boeing 737 Max. Based on the report, the House passed a bipartisan bill, the “Aircraft Certification Reform and Accountability Act.”
There has been no new agreement signed for facemasks. Compliance with facemasks should be everyone’s concern and priority, aligning with the terms and conditions of the existing Memorandum of Agreement. What we don’t want is direction being given that incites an argument or misguided direction, leading to disciplining of our members. The agreement signed by both parties back on 8/13/20 is below for reference so everyone understands what the rules are.
