Apr 28, 2022 | iMail
The IAM gathered at the Winpisinger Education and Technology Center in Hollywood, MD to remember 46 members that will be added to the hallowed memorial grounds.
With more than 100 IAM members attending, Monica Lee Silbas, IAM Chief of Staff to the International President, delivered the keynote address.
Silbas called on members to remember those who have passed and to commit to making things better at work.
“We do this for transportation workers, aerospace workers, healthcare workers, airline workers, government employees, factory workers, railroad workers, woodworkers and any worker we have lost,” said Silbas. “Commit yourself to improving the lives of all workers for the future of our children and our grandchildren.”
For weeks, Winpisinger Center groundskeepers have been preparing the area with love and care placing new bricks around the main memorial. IAM C.R.E.S.T. and Safety and Health Department coordinates the program each year.
“Just look around at the beautiful grounds that were built by IAM members,” said Silbas. “They built it with their hearts in their hands. It’s just too sad that more blocks more bricks had to be built. Remember the fight never stops not while we are still here.”
Immediately after the names were read out loud as a bell tolled each time in remembrance of a life lost.
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Apr 28, 2022 | iMail
The Transportation Department’s Critical Incident Response Training (CIRT) team recently returned to the Winpisinger Center (W3) to participate in its fifth annual class. The 25 participants applied the knowledge and experience they gained from their first four years on the team to this year’s back to the basics curriculum.
“The IAM is excited that the CIRT team was able to return to the W3 Center for more vital training,” said Richard Johnsen, IAM Chief of Staff to the International President. “Their continued education ensures our members have a team ready and able to provide the safety and protection they may need in the event of a crisis.”
This year’s class was taught by Dr. Jeffrey Mitchell, Clinical Professor and Co-Founder of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. The course focused on basic crisis intervention: strategies and assisting individuals in crisis.
The team also prepared by working through mock disaster scenarios to understand better how to handle crises and apply Dr. Mitchell’s techniques.
The class members are active Employee Assistance Program (EAP) representatives selected from the Transportation Department. The main goal of the annual courses is to train the students on how to best help individuals cope with the effects of a traumatic event or critical incident.
The Transportation Department developed the class in response to the horrific Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016 in Orlando, directly affecting some of its members.
Since its inception, the CIRT team has responded to numerous incidents, including the aftermath of a deadly hurricane season, a fatal incident aboard a Southwest Airlines plane forced to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia, and the shootings in a Henry Pratt manufacturing plant in Aurora, IL and a Walmart store in El Paso, TX.
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Apr 28, 2022 | iMail
WASHINGTON, DC., April 28, 2022 – The International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM), one of the largest unions to represent woodworkers in the U.S., today called on President Joe Biden to implement an executive order that would halt imports of all Russian and Belarusian soft- and hardwoods, as action intended to halt the funding of the violent invasion of Ukraine, and help spur more U.S. wood production.
“Our 600,000-member union stands in support of rejecting Russia’s violent military aggression towards Ukraine. That said, our union believes your administration’s ongoing series of sanctions against Russia and Belarus should also include banning all its wood products, which are often used for items such as furniture manufacturing,” IAM International President Robert Martinez, Jr., said in the letter to President Biden. “Halting imports of Russian and Belarusian wood, because it is conflict timber and import is therefore illegal, would also cut off the financial gains used for furthering this unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.”
It has been reported that in 2021, Russia was the third-largest source of U.S. hardwood plywood imports at about $334 million. Lumber is a large economic engine for Russia, which exported about $12 billion in wood products across the globe last year, according to publications that cited data from Wood Resource Quarterly.
The IAM represents 20,000 workers in the nation’s wood, pulp and paper industries.
Banning Russian and Belarusian imports to the U.S., would also help create good-paying domestic jobs in the woodworkers industry if employers follow suggested guidelines, including worker’s rights, Martinez wrote.
“These guidelines would promote more good-paying and decent jobs for woodworkers and forestry workers throughout the U.S.,” Martinez wrote.
Read the complete letter here.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is one of the largest and most diverse industrial trade unions in North America, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, railroad, manufacturing, transit, healthcare, automotive and other industries.
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Apr 28, 2022 | iMail
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 28, 2022 – The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the nation’s largest airline union, supports the recent introduction of the bipartisan bill Protection from Abusive Passengers Act (H.R. 7433, S. 4019), which would help thwart passenger assault on airline workers.
The legislation, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), and in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), would direct the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to create and manage a program that bars passengers who are fined or convicted of serious physical violence against airline personnel from flying.
“We greatly appreciate congressional lawmakers for taking the rising tide of passenger assault on airline workers very seriously,” said Richard Johnsen, IAM Chief of Staff to the International President. “These hard-working men and women are tasked with getting people to their destination safely, so we should always repay them by ensuring that airport and airline workers have a place that is safe for them too. I urge Congress to move swiftly to pass this legislation and give airline workers the safety and protections they deserve.”
The legislation would also permanently ban abusive passengers from participating in the TSA PreCheck or Customs’ Global Entry programs.
This marks the latest effort by IAM transportation leadership urging lawmakers and federal agency officials to take actions to halt passenger assaults on airport and airline workers.
For example, earlier this year, the IAM joined a letter with other transportation unions, urging President Biden, U.S. Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, and U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to help find solutions to thwart the rising passenger assaults.
The FAA has reported a total of 5,981 passenger incidents in 2021, which is up sharply from previous years.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is one of the largest and most diverse industrial trade unions in North America, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, railroad, manufacturing, transit, healthcare, automotive and other industries.
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Apr 26, 2022 | iMail
IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. has appointed Neil Douglas to serve as a Special Representative assigned to the IAM Eastern Territory. Douglas has served as President and Directing Business Representative of IAM Local 1943 in Middletown, OH since 2011. The appointment is effective May 1, 2022.
Douglas hired into AK Steel, now Cleveland Cliffs, in 1998 and quickly got involved in his union (AEIF joined the IAM in 2006), becoming a Grievanceman in 1999. He served as Shop Steward, Committeeman, Vice President, and ultimately President and Directing Business Representative.
Douglas has served the Ohio State Council of Machinists as Vice President and Legislative Agent. He also sits on the Executive Board and Executive Committee of the Dayton Miami Valley AFL-CIO.
Douglas is a proud U.S. Navy veteran who chairs the Middletown Veterans Memorial Fund and has helped raise over $120,000 for scholarships for Middletown area veterans and their families.
“Brother Douglas has been a long-time activist in the labor movement and has been one of the driving forces at IAM Local 1943,” said IAM Eastern Territory General Vice President Brian Bryant. “Neil has not only served the IAM with pride, but he has been a tremendous asset in the Ohio community. Eastern Territory members will benefit from Neil’s extensive experience negotiating fair contracts and bringing new members into the IAM.”
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Apr 26, 2022 | iMail
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 26, 2022 – The 600,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), recently submitted a series of suggestions to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. Department of Commerce, offering pro-worker guidance as the two federal agencies are shaping a U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). The framework seeks to solidify ties with nations in the Asia-Pacific region.
IAM International President Robert Martinez, Jr., submitted formal comments in the U.S. federal registry, urging a focus on “trade policy that is worker-centric and does not follow any of the flawed trade policies in our past that have resulted in scores of job losses in the U.S.”
“In short, the IPEF agreement should place workers first. This means provisions like enforceable labor and environmental standards,” Martinez wrote. “Our nation’s workers often rely on trade, and what we want is a fair playing field, not policies that force U.S. workers to compete with horribly-abused sweatshop workers overseas. Our nation’s workforce can compete with other countries when we are given a fair chance.”
The Biden administration is in the early stages of shaping the IPEF, which has not finalized involved nations and could take nearly two years to complete. The proposed framework has been labeled as a means to counter China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific region. The IPEF will includes the following pillars: fair and resilient trade; supply chain resilience; infrastructure clean energy, and decarbonization; and tax and anti-corruption.
Martinez offered policy suggestions such as enforceable, labor and environmental rules, as well as transparency in the negotiations process. He also cautioned that the IPEF should not resemble the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), a once-proposed flawed trade deal under the Obama administration that would have gutted the nation’s manufacturing sector.
“Moreover, the problem this country has faced with supply chains is simply the result of bad trade policies that has allowed American jobs to go overseas and corporations to profit from low wages,” Martinez wrote. “Will IPEF’s proposal seek to address the real problems of our supply chain with remedies that will benefit the American worker? The Machinists Union is not sure that IPEF is the recovery road we seek, especially when real protective enforcement mechanisms are lacking.”
The IAM has not taken a position on the proposed IPEF, but has been actively engaged in continued discussions with the Biden administration’s trade officials and members of Congress.
The economic framework does not require congressional approval, but Martinez wrote that Congress, as well as labor unions and civil groups “should also be involved in the discussions and review process of this very important trade policy that will impact U.S. workers and their families.”
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is one of the largest and most diverse industrial trade unions in North America, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, railroad, manufacturing, transit, healthcare, automotive and other industries.
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