Three IAM families are celebrating what it means to be union after winning 2021 Union Plus scholarships. Recipients are being recognized for their academic achievements and union values.
Lauren Grace Evans of Cullman, AL. Evans, whose father, Drew Evans, is a member of IAM Local 44, has been awarded a $1,000 scholarship.
Macy O’Neill of Hickory, KY. O’Neill, whose father, Clarence O’Neill, is a member of IAM Local 1969, has been awarded a $1,000 scholarship. Macy was a 2020 Union Plus Scholarship recipient.
Sydney Pizzinato of Gilbert, AZ. Pizzinato, whose father, Angelo Pizzinato, is a member of IAM Local Lodge 764, has been awarded a $1,000 scholarship.
This year, Union Plus awarded $250,000 in scholarships to 199 students representing 37 unions. The 2021 group of winners includes university, college and trade or technical school students from 42 states.
Lauren Grace Evans
Troy (AL) University
Cullman (AL) High School (2020)
Lauren Grace Evans recently completed her first year as a nursing major at Troy and expects to complete her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2024. She hopes to attend graduate school with the goal of becoming a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA). She decided to attend Troy after representing CHS at a Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Summit hosted by the university. Evans worked at Cullman County Center for the Developmentally Disabled while in high school, and her family has assisted with socially distanced chores at the facility during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Evans’ father has held several IAM leadership roles, including serving as president of the Alabama State Council of Machinists. She appreciates her father’s work to assist other union members.
“There are times when my dad has gone on strike to help those around him, and he has always taken pride in that,” said Evans. “IAM establishes loyalty, dignity, and a strong work ethic into each of its members and their families by extension. I hope someday to take part and create better opportunities for those around me.”
Macy O’Neill
Western Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC)
Graves County (KY) High School
Macy O’Neill is a nursing major at WKCTC and plans to eventually pursue bachelor’s and master’s degrees with aspirations of being a nurse practitioner. She is following the footsteps of her mother, who is a nurse.
In addition to his IAM membership, O’Neill’s father is an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) member. She saw the value of his union memberships in 2012 when an injury prevented him from working.
“My father received much-needed disability pay during this time,” said O’Neill. “Union membership helped my family when we needed it most. I am thankful unions exist to help hardworking men and women who want a better and brighter future.”
Sydney Pizzinato
Arizona State University (ASU)
Highland (AZ) High School, Gilbert, AZ
Sydney Pizzinato will return to ASU this fall for her senior year as an English literature major. She spent her first year at Mesa (AZ) Community College (MCC), transferred to ASU for the 2019-20 school year, and took classes at Northern Arizona University (NAU) this past year. Sydney expects to graduate in May 2022 and hopes to enter ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication for graduate school. She is interested in journalism, technical writing, or academia as potential career paths. Pizzinato finished her first book when she was 14 and has published eight young adult books.
Both of Pizzinato’s parents work in the airline industry. In addition to her father’s IAM membership, her mother is an Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) member. Pizzinato’s mother set up the crisis center for airline crew members at Vancouver International Airport following the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
“From their salary to benefits, my parents’ union memberships have enabled our family to have a better lifestyle with a roof over our heads, food on our table, insurance benefits, and much more,” Pizzinato said.
Liala Amin is sitting in her art studio at Var West Gallery in Walker’s Point, a neighborhood south of downtown Milwaukee, where she drives to safely escape COVID-19. It’s full of sunlight, next to a patio and serves as her safe haven during a time of uncertainty. Wearing a sweater due to the 29-degree outside temperature, Amin surrounds herself with art hanging on the walls, symbolic of her colorful life. She wears as much color as possible, whether it be her favorite turban or fun earrings, celebrating her life as a multidisciplinary artist.
Furloughed from the Milwaukee Art Museum, Amin can access her studio every day, but longs to return to the place that gave her hope after 141 employees voted to join the Machinists Union last November.
“I really do miss it,” said Amin. “I’m hoping this voice that employees now have will be taken into consideration moving forward.”
Amin had worked in the museum’s education department for nearly five years and knew security guards there had a Machinists Union contract.
“The security guards have a union and receive incredible benefits from it,” said Amin.
Fellow employee Ryan Jann approached one of the guards, Adam Dudenhoefer, who served as the shop chair.
“It was after a crappy day at work and being broke for however many weeks in a row and I just had enough and said ‘we need to do something here,’” Jann said. “He got me in touch with the organizer for our local lodge.”
Warren Enstrom, an Audio/Visual tech, didn’t know that Jann had spoken with Dudenhoefer, when he answered an online message from the guard. Enstrom said that it would be great to have a union and Dudenhoefer said there was another group of employees already thinking the same thing.
“Having the guards on-site allowed us the opportunity to point to a department and say ‘they’re unionized, they receive pay raises every year, they had a voice in how the layoffs were conducted,’” said Enstrom. “By and large, the workers in that department are very supportive of our union and what it does in terms of the contract, the benefits… they really love it and that was really helpful in convincing people to vote yes.”
Brittany Walker, a Visitor Services Associate, agrees.
Brittany Walker is a Visitor Services Associate.
“Adam has an incredible reputation and a wealth of union experience and with his knowledge and support, I was confident from the beginning,” said Walker.
Communication was key, along with an awareness of current events.
“A lot of us were paying close attention to the wave of unionization that was happening in the museum world, so that was our inspiration,” said Jann. “We saw that it’s possible and we pursued it.” The museum assumes that working in a prestigious, world-class institution is enough to make up for a lack of compensation, but Jann and his coworkers disagree.
“We have this beautiful building we get to go to work in every day and even though I’m just a front desk person… I was only making $10.71 for three years before I got the promotion to reception,” he said. Jann says his activism started with the pay.
One of their slogans during the campaign was “Courage is Contagious.” Jann and his colleagues took that courage to a new level and it paid off.
“The thing that makes it contagious is when we’re at a nonunionized workplace, everyone kind of has this veneer of professionalism, and kind of distance, but with unionism, you have to talk to each other and not only are you talking together, you’re strategizing together, acting together, ” said Jann.
Walker returned to work in early March, hoping the rest would follow.
“My hopes for this very essential relationship with the IAM are a more noticeably just workplace,” said Walker.
LISLE CORPORATION
It takes Michael Graham about 30 minutes to drive home after his day shift. He’s been a hydraulic press operator for nearly 10 years at Lisle Corporation, the Clarinda, Iowa company that manufactures specialty mechanic tools. A colleague, who later became a good friend, approached him and mentioned the Machinists Union.
“I’m not sure,” Graham said, at first. “I’ve got to think about it.”
Graham wasn’t sure how dues worked, but wanted to learn more. That’s a common scenario in “right-to-work” states, where unions exist, but growing membership is a challenge. Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.
After an incident at work, where the union investigated and found that proper procedure wasn’t followed, Graham learned the value of unions, first-hand. “This is why we have a union,” said Graham.
Michael Graham is a hydraulic press operator.
“A lot of people have a misunderstanding, I believe, on what our union is,” he said. “They just run off conspiracies or misconceptions. As a result, a lot of people are skeptical about the union, what it’s about, why it is in place and what it can actually do if set in place properly. If we are strong, we can benefit even more from what it is.”
Graham was so enthused that he joined the organizing drive committee, passing out fliers, going to meetings and encouraging others to do the same, in order to increase the number of dues-paying members. “We’re trying to create a stronger union.”
One-by-one, members are talking to each other, spreading the word about the benefits of the Machinists Union and it’s working.
“If the union is strong,” said Graham, “it keeps the benefits in place.”
CLOW FOUNDRY
You don’t want to produce scrap. Stacey Craig knows that better than anyone, as a Journeyman Patternmaker at CLOW Foundry for 33 years. He’s been working in the trade for 35 years, building patterns for blueprints, prototype tooling and troubleshooting to reduce scrap and make jobs run better.
He says the problem started with management turnover.
“It was odd,” said Craig. “We couldn’t figure out why a lot of salary people were leaving.”
During the last five years, the company hired a new vice resident. The new VP’s attitude is what Craig noticed the most.
“He didn’t really give us the impression of caring for the employees much. He rubbed you the wrong way.”
More and more people quit, including the plant manager and assistant plant manager. Some wages were frozen and little things started adding up. When Craig and his coworkers found out they’d have to start paying for health insurance with little warning, they had had enough. An increase in health benefit costs equates to a pay cut, without a corresponding increase in wages.
Stacey Craig has been a Journeyman Patternmaker at CLOW Foundry for 33 years.
Some employees worked at Clow Foundry because of the free health insurance.
“The vice president said, ‘Here are four plans you get to choose from’ and basically, they gave us like eight days to choose something,” said Craig. “They didn’t give us any kind of opportunity to do any research.”
Several more workers quit.
“Our sister facility across town is a machine shop. They’ve been union all this time,” Craig said about nearby Clow Valve plant members who have enjoyed the benefits of being IAM for decades. “One of the gentlemen behind the scenes reached out to our machine shop union president over there. We were kind of scared. We didn’t know what to do.”
Things moved quickly. Local 1498 President Dean Schultz spoke with a few workers and put them in touch with Chris Tucker, a Special Representative with the Machinists Union’s Midwest Territory, who held a meeting with all those interested.
Just a month had gone by between that first meeting in December 2020 and the vote to join the Machinists Union this past January.
“They put a lot of thought into it,” said Tucker. “They wanted this.”
The workers have chosen their stewards and negotiating committee members. Training began in mid-March.
“It feels good. We have a voice and support, so this won’t happen again,” said Craig.
His advice for anyone trying to unionize their workplace?
“Listen to your fellow workers,” said Craig. “It’s just not about you, it’s about everybody… it’s never gonna hurt to talk to a union rep.”
Craig’s commute is only about five minutes. He said half the workers live about 20 miles away. His close-knit group at Clow Foundry knows that they have their IAM brothers and sisters at the machine shop on the other side of town. Together, they’re ready to fight for workers’ rights and protections all workers deserve.
“Congratulations and welcome to all of our newly-organized IAM members,” said IAM Midwest Territory General Vice President Steve Galloway. “The recognition goes to our organizers, their teams and the IAM activists who helped get each of these campaigns started.
“The purpose of unionizing is not just to help workers in need of union representation,” said Galloway. “It’s also about tapping into workers’ sense of activism – recognizing what drives them – and providing them the tools needed to create real change within their workplace and within their communities.”
WASHINGTON, June 22, 2021 – Robert Martinez Jr., International President of the 600,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), issued the following statement applauding President Biden’s nomination of David Prouty to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):
“On behalf of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, we thank President Biden for nominating David Prouty to fill the next vacancy on the NLRB. Mr. Prouty’s bready of professional experiences make him particularly well suited for a position on the board.
“Throughout his long career as a labor attorney, Mr. Prouty has demonstrated his dedication to protecting the rights of workers in a wide range of fields. His commitment to the principles of workers’ rights and advocacy, as well as his in-depth understanding of the National Labor Relations Act and organizing, make him particularly well-suited to be a member of the NLRB.
“It is important that the people who serve in a position to carry out the law have a real world understanding of how the Act operates on a practical level, as well as have an in-depth understanding of how the Act legal intricacies. Mr. Prouty began his career as an organizer for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Having this hands-on involvement as an organizer is a vital experience for someone who must enforce our laws governing how workers can exercise their rights to join a union.
“Mr. Prouty’s experiences demonstrate his life-long commitment to protecting workers’ rights under the NLRB. We are confident that as a Board member he will apply this same commitment to ensuring the faithful application of the Act to all.
“We enthusiastically support David Prouty to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board.”
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is among the largest industrial trade unions in North America and represents nearly 600,000 active and retired members in the manufacturing, aerospace, defense, airline, railroad, transportation, shipbuilding, woodworking, health care, and other industries.
The IAM is reaching out to members of Congress, encouraging them to support bipartisan legislation that would provide much-needed investment to optimize and improve our nation’s shipyards. International President Robert Martinez Jr wrote a letter to all U.S. Representatives and Senators urging them to co-sponsor the Supplying Help to Infrastructure in Ports, Yards, and America’s Repair Docks (SHIPYARD) Act of 2021.
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The SHIPYARD Act is a vital piece of legislation that would invest $21 billion in the U.S. Navy’s four public shipyards in Maine, Washington, Virginia, and Hawaii to bolster defense infrastructure, fleet repair, and overall capability. It would also invest $4 billion in U.S. Navy private repair and new construction shipyards. Urge your Representatives to get behind the SHIPYARD Act!
Negotiating committee members from IAM Local 1400, along with District 98 Business Representative Kermit Forbes, completed a Negotiation Preparation Field Program prior to entering contract talks with Voith Hydro last week.
Voith Hydro is one of the largest dedicated hydropower manufacturing facilities in the world. The York, PA plant builds and refurbishes components that serve a critical role in the electrical grid and production of renewable energy. IAM Local 1400 members include crane operators, welders, a machine shop, and mechanics.
The five-day training provided the bargaining committee with the tools needed to develop a strategic negotiating plan. Training included writing contract language, analyzing the company’s strengths and weaknesses, and communicating with members. The week concluded with the group giving a bargaining presentation, a facet of the class created to give the bargaining committee a simulation of the atmosphere at the bargaining table.
“The week of intense long days gave us the opportunity to assemble and develop a detailed plan to secure the best contract possible,” said Forbes. “The Committee worked hard, and they are better prepared to represent the needs of the members.”
“A huge thank you to the bargaining committee and BR Kermit Forbes for their hard work,” said District 98 Directing Business Representative Robert Miller. “I would like to thank International President Robert Martinez Jr. and the IAM Executive Council for their continued support of this program and also the staff, instructors at the Winpisinger Center for putting this together.”
The Machinists Union is proud to announce the return of in-person learning at the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center (W3 Center) in Hollywood, MD beginning August 1, 2021. For the safety of the membership and staff, the flagship union training facility was forced to suspend classes in March 2020.
