Delegates from across Minnesota gathered recently for the Minnesota State Council of Machinists meeting. The meeting focused on the importance of staying engaged throughout the electoral process and outlined priorities for the membership. The attendees heard from a slate of dynamic speakers, including IAM Midwest Territory General Vice President Steve Galloway, IAM Legislative and Political Director Hasan Solomon, and Minnesota top elected officials including Governor Tim Walz, State Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Secretary of State Steve Simon.
“This year’s state council meeting allowed us to come together and discuss our top priorities,” said Minnesota State Council of Machinists President John Steigauf. “This meeting featured dynamic speakers including a video from Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II. When we come together, it allows us to keep reminding members of our priorities and stay engaged on the issues that matter in the lives of our members. Everyone left the meeting energized and committed to the issues facing our membership and the state of Minnesota.”
Members attending the Minnesota State Council meeting heard how vital the Machinists Non-Partisan Political League (MNPL) is for our union and state councils. Increasing contributions to the MNPL is always a big part of the Minnesota State Council’s agenda with the help of IAM staff from the political and legislative department. The voluntary donations to the MNPL help us get pro-worker candidates up and down the ballot elected in hopes of implementing a pro-worker, pro-democracy agenda in the state.
“I always look forward to attending the Minnesota State Council and engaging with the members on some of our top issues in our union,” said IAM Midwest Territory Vice President Steve Galloway. “The leadership of the Minnesota State Council should be commended for always taking a lead on some of the most difficult issues facing our nation. They should also be commended on their level of participation amongst the delegation – which included young, senior and retired members. I am proud of working alongside each and every one of them as we push through this very important time in labor’s history.”
The Minnesota State Council of Machinists represents more than 5,400 active and retired members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). The IAM is among the largest industrial trade unions in North America, representing nearly 600,000 active and retired members in manufacturing, aerospace, transportation, shipbuilding, woodworking and other industries in both the U.S. and Canada.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) applauds the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) committee for advancing the nomination of two union-friendly members to the National Mediation Board (NMB), which includes longtime labor lawyer and former IAM Legal Fellow Deirdre Hamilton.
The HELP committee recently voted to approve the nomination of Hamilton and renomination of Linda Puchala, an action that moves both for a full Senate consideration. The IAM is now urging Senate leadership to swiftly move forward with a full floor vote to confirm the two NMB nominees.
“We thank each senator of the HELP committee who voted in favor of the Democratic nominees for this very important federal panel, which will help make sure the pendulum stays balanced in the efforts to smooth out disputes in the rail and airline industries,” said IAM International President Robert Martinez, Jr. “We also applaud the Biden administration for choosing a slate of very qualified members to the NMB panel, which would become Democratic majority. We are confident that Deirdre Hamilton and Linda Puchala will fight hard to protect the interest of the American worker.”
“We applaud the Senate HELP Committee for moving our labor-friendly nominees out of committee and we are now urging Senate Leadership to schedule a floor vote. The IAM’s Transportation Department stands ready to work to help get these nominees confirmed,” said Richard Johnsen, Chief of Staff to the International President. “Both Hamilton and Puchala have shown to be advocates of workers, so I am confident that they will assure workers’ rights will be protected.”
The NMB is a three-member panel tasked with handling labor issues in the nation’s railroad and airline industries.
In January, the IAM joined 18 unions representing rail and aviation workers in sending a letter to the Biden administration asking for some immediate attention to confirm Hamilton and Puchala.
Approximately 280 IAM Local 588 (District 65) members from Garlock Sealing Technologies in Palmyra, NY ratified a new four-year contract today, ending a three-day strike.
The new deal includes significant wage increases, a signing bonus, automatic 2 percent employer contribution for all members to their 401k plan, seven full paid sick days under the New York State Sick Leave(NYSSL) policy and improvements to company medical contributions. The contract also removes discipline restrictions for job bidding, reverting to the original language. The attendance policy will go back to original point levels.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our Local 588 members for sticking together and showing the company what the Machinists are all about,” said IAM District 65 Directing Business Representative Ron Warner. “It was a tough fight, but we didn’t waver. Member activism was high and the bargaining committee was ready and well-prepared. This group was determined to get a good contract, and they did.
“Congratulations to the members of IAM Local 588 on their new contract,” said IAM Eastern Territory General Vice President Brian Bryant. “This contract was achieved because of the solidarity exhibited by our sisters and brothers on the picket line. I’d also like to thank District 65 Directing Business Representative Ron Warner and the Negotiating Committee for their tireless work and relentless pursuit of a fair and just contract.”
The new accord ended the strike which began when members rejected the company’s last proposal which included concessions, such as a freeze to the company pension and a change to the attendance policy.
IAM CREST provided a 3-day Setting Up a Joint Labor/Management Safety and Health Committee program for IAM District 166 and Local Lodge 2061 with Jacobs Space Operations Group at Kennedy Space Center, Florida from October 19 – 22, 2021.
The focus was to get labor and management on the same page to address past barriers and recognize the benefits of working together jointly by identifying and addressing hazards. Something we stress is that in order to have a successful joint labor/management committee you must start with a joint commitment which must be cat all levels (bottom up throughout each organization).
Class Participants: Matt Ammons, Joe Blumenthal, Doug Brownlee, Kaylee Colvin, Mike Easley, Robert Casey Ford, Brandon Giera, Stephanie Hansen, Steve Jezowski, John Jones, Jim LaRocque, Manny Martinez, Tiffany Osborne, Tyler Polk, Christine Raub, James Severson, Nicholas Smyth, Steven Starbird, Taylor Whalen, Jim Whitaker, Chris Zeuli.
IAM CREST Instructors: Teri McClendon, Shaun Trude,
Members of IAM Local Lodge 99, District 14 Negotiating Committee attended Negotiation Prep training at the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center (W3). The committee represents members at Weldco Heavy Industries in Fort Mackay, Alberta, Canada. Weldco does heavy mine maintenance on 400 ton trucks and shovels.
The committee’s courses included how to draft contract language, strategic planning, contract costing, and a negotiation simulation.
The committee lauded the information, skills, and the education center itself that included Chief Steward Broc MacWhirter. Brother MacWhirter travels to Fort Mackay every month for his 14-day rotation of 12 hour shifts, and was a key organizer for the bargaining unit in 2018 when the 95 new members joined the IAM.
“The facility is second to none,” said MacWhirter. “The staff out do themselves every single day to provide a safe, clean and extremely well maintained center. If you ever get a chance to partake in a course go out of your way to make it. I can’t wait for my next trip to the harbor.”
Brad Lesperance, a shop steward for the IAM at Weldco, was identified as an organizer in 2018 and lost his job in the fight for recognition with the IAM, but was able to return to work thanks to the efforts of the IAM organizing team. “It was a great honor and privilege to be able to take part in such a great training program,” said Lesperance. “The instructors were incredibly knowledgeable and the staff was willing to help in any way. The Winpisinger Center exceeded our expectations.”
Cody Caldwell, who also played a strategic role in helping the union get Brad his job back, said “The time I got to spend at the Winpisinger education & technology centre was an amazing opportunity. The knowledge and experience the instructors bring to the table really helped me prepare, and has boosted my confidence for our upcoming negotiations. I am truly grateful to be here.”
“It was a pleasure to accompany these first-time visitors to W3, said District 14 Business Representative, and Lead Negotiator Jim Patterson. “It’s always a good time going to classes and furthering my knowledge, but this was especially invigorating seeing the committee experience the school for the first time.”
“We are very glad that our Local 99 Weldco members are getting training at the Winpisinger Center,” said Canadian General Vice President David Chartrand. “This means that they will be better prepared to bargain with the employer and obtain a better contract. “The Winpisinger Education Center adds incredible value to being a member of the IAM.”
NFFE-IAM stands in solidarity with an alliance of nearly 300,000 federal workers across the country who support the three recent nominations to the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA).
NFFE-IAM is part of 30 labor unions that make up the Federal Workers Alliance (FWA), an organization of unions that represent federal workers across the country. Under the FWA umbrella, these unions have united in backing Ernest W. DuBester’s nomination and former NFFE-IAM General Counsel Susan T. Grundmann’s nomination as members of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) along with Kurt Rumsfeld’s nomination for FLRA General Counsel.
Based on their distinguished professional backgrounds, the hope is that these three candidates would restore much-needed balance back to the FLRA board, which has recently supported decisions that hurt federal workers rather than protect their collective bargaining rights.
The letter was sent directly to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), which is scheduled to take up the nominations in the very near future.
Cristino Vilorio, New Jersey State Council of Machinists President, this week represented the IAM at President Biden’s Build Back Betterevent in New Jersey, which focused on the status of the Infrastructure and the Reconciliation Bill and how it will create thousands of union jobs in New Jersey and across the nation.
Vilorio was also among a select few to meet privately with the President during the event.
“As the president of New Jersey State Council of Machinists and a full-time Business Representative for District 15, I will continue to provide the best representation to our over 20,000 members that we represent in various industries in New Jersey,” said Vilorio. “We will continue with our supportive agenda that creates good union jobs with great benefits for our members and their families.”
“Brother Vilorio continually fights for the rights of all union members, so I couldn’t think of a more deserving representative of our union at President Biden’s event,” said IAM Eastern Territory General Vice President Brian Bryant. “I congratulate him for having the esteemed honor of meeting the President. Our union has advocated relentlessly for the passing of this legislation which will further enhance good-paying union jobs.”
President Biden, who was joined at the event by New Jersey representatives, including Gov. Murphy and other union leaders, thanked all attendees for their leadership, dedication and support while asking all attendees for their continued support in passing the Infrastructure Bill.
The Machinists Union has been at the forefront of the labor movement in supporting the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal.
Tiwaan Bradley pulled up to the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center for the first time in early August, not completely aware of what was in store during the week-long Leadership 1 class.
Tiwaan Bradley, Business Representative, District 4
The new business representative for IAM District 4 described the center’s entrance of beige and brown buildings reminiscent of the dorms at his old college
Beyond that appearance, everything else was different.
What followed during the week is what Bradley described as high-energy, interactive classes taught by passionate class instructors. The social interactions with his fellow IAM sisters and brothers left him in amazement.
“It was really great. Going there really gets you refocused and energized,” said Bradley, a former IAM Local I-064 shop steward at the IKEA in Westampton, N.J. “You leave there with so many more tools in your toolbox and you sharpened the ones you do use.”
The cornerstone of the IAM’s 67-acre southern Maryland facility is geared toward educating to benefit the union’s membership. For Bradley, that also meant a shot of solidarity as classmates shared problems and their solutions as new IAM leaders.
“We are often in the realm of doing your job function and you feel as you are all alone,” he said, referring to issues like getting members to attend meetings. “I see there’s a lot support going on. So many people shared their stories and then you realize we have the same situations and how they overcame it.”
The class is already paying dividends for Bradley, who said he got a call from a classmate who sought guidance to solve an issue they were having in their local.
Strengthening the rank-and-file is among the key intentions set forth when former IAM International President William W. Winpisinger spearheaded the creation of the education center, which officially opened in Hollywood, MD in 1981.
The land, which touches the Patuxent River, was purchased in 1980 from the Retail Clerks International Association. The tract was formerly the Placid Harbor Yacht Club, which explains some of the present amenities such as a nine-hole golf course and a boating dock.
There’s also a bit of irony as the estate was once owned by conservative radio commentator Fulton Lewis Jr., a staunch critic of labor unions.
The IAM education center’s concept was inspired from Winpisinger’s visit to the worker education centers in Scandinavian countries.
In the early years of the IAM facility, initially called Placid Harbor, the curriculum was largely focused on sharpening organizing skills to help grow the union’s membership.
Prior to the establishment of the Placid Harbor facility, many of the union’s education classes were taught at the IAM headquarters or in other urban centers across the U.S.
During Winpisinger’s farewell address in June 1989, he referenced the importance of the center he started as ranking “as one of our proudest achievements. Information is power.”
“At the Placid Harbor, thousands of us gather each year to learn the truth about ourselves, and our history, to share our experiences and to receive professional training in everything from collective bargaining to micro-computers,” Winpisinger said in the address. “The IAM will have the best-educated, best-trained members and leaders in the world. That very immodest goal is the goal of Placid Harbor.”
Now, 40 years strong, the IAM facility keeps expanding its curriculum to stay in lock step with changes of the North American workplaces.
More than 100,000 people have participated in classes at the IAM facility since it opened in 1981. That includes members such as business representatives, shop stewards, district officers, and even IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr., who credits the center for helping shape his skillset.
IAM International President William W. Winpisinger speaking with members during the formal dedication ceremonies of the Placid Harbor Education Center in 1984.
A group of IAM Directing Business Representatives attend an organizing class at the Placid Harbor in 1982.
The facility, often referred to as W3, is also a rarity in the labor movement.
Very few U.S. labor unions have a dedicated, full-time education and training facility. The center employs doze of workers, including instructors, maintenance crew, and kitchen staff. All are union members.
“Because education is highly valued in the IAM, that has helped our capacity to adapt to the changes that occurred in the environment and that has allowed us to persist and to sustain ourselves where other labor organizations have struggled because education is often seen as an extra,” said Winpisinger Center Director Chris Wagoner. “Education is the cultural DNA of the IAM and I think the Winpisinger Center is a reflection of the value that is places in education by the membership.”
The property also houses the IAM Workers Memorial, which is dedicated to the remembrance of those who lost their lives while on the job. The bricks surrounding the memorial bear the names of fallen members along with bricks donated from lodges and proud members of the IAM.
Adapting to Changes
The center’s rural landscape has changed a lot since its early days of a few organizing classes held in the basement of the two-story colonial-style mansion.
Construction of classrooms and administrative facilities started in 1982. The IAM has also added onto the center since then, including the construction of dormitories, multi-media enabled classrooms, and computer labs. The hallways are donned with displays of several Machinists-made products ranging from food containers, Miller Lite beer cans and replicas of Boeing Co. airplanes.
The curriculum has also been expanded through the years with classes such as arbitration, pension fundamentals and negotiation preparation for bargaining committees. The lessons have also been expanded to Spanish-speaking and French-Canadian classes.
The center is also gearing up for more classes in coming months intended to grow leadership from the IAM’s female members.
“It is a recognition that the workplace and workforce demographics is changing and as an organization we have to change with it,” Wagoner said. “It’s changing to how we teach and how to mentor women leaders. It’s the same for Spanish leaders and we can mentor and help them develop.”
The classes have also been retooled for more interactive, real-world simulations.
“There’s a lot simulation-based education, including one-on-one organizing like contacting someone at their door, and even arbitration where they are presenting a case of where you are in negotiations,” Wagoner said. “We’ve learned that as adults there is a lot learning that comes from doing.”
The installation of Martinez at the helm of the union in 2016 also ushered in some changes to organizing classes at the W3, especially with a focus on strategic organizing tools.
Martinez, a former Southern Territory Education Representative, said he takes education very seriously in the growth of the IAM.
“Knowledge is power. Our union is stronger today because of the cutting-edge lessons at the center – from collective bargaining to organizing,” he said. “It’s all important education to help strengthen and expand our great union.”
Teaching During the Covid-19 Pandemi
Winpisinger Center faced an unprecedented challenge in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic that forced its year-long closure.
Bradley was part of the first class of resumed in-person lessons. Prior to the reopening, the center was operating classes online with Zoom calls and other virtual tools.
The virtual classrooms were a bit of an adjustment, Wagoner said, and at times missing the true Winpisinger experience.
Many of the lessons learned by members don’t come from the front of the room, but from the course participants, Wagoner said. “It’s very difficult to match that with online learning because those opportunities for serendipitous learning by where I’m just talking to somebody and it that is not going to happen online,” he said. “It’s not like the nature of the forced interactions here that occurs.”
The center reopened in August with several Covid-19 protocols such as room capacity limits, constant sanitizing by facility staff, a Covid-19 vaccine requirement and mask mandates.
The first class held at the William W. Winpisinger Center since the facility temporarily closed its doors in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bradley’s comments echoed among other participants in the inaugural class of resumed in-person learning.
Veronica Guzman, Local 66 Shop Steward
Veronica Guzman, an IAM Local 66 shop steward at the Milwaukee Art Museum, summed up her week-long experience at the Winpisinger Center as “very nice and eye-opening for me.”
Guzman, who moved from Puerto Rico to Wisconsin three years ago, said she was nervous when she arrived at the Winpisinger Center, but that quickly faded.
“I didn’t know what to expect when there were people from all over the place coming there,” she said. “But, when it comes down to it, we are a union with a lot members who put aside the cultural and political differences as we are working toward the same goal.”
Guzman recently wrote about her experience in the Local 66 newsletter, adding that the week’s lessons helped her to push away from growing up “constantly hearing that the unions are all a bad thing. It is bad for companies who abuse their employees.”
“Having the opportunity, thanks to the union community, to attend classes at the Winpisinger Center has given me the tools to become a better shop steward,” she wrote. “I feel much confident and able to guard over employees’ rights and enforce employers to comply with what is stipulated in their contracts.”
The reopening of the Winpisinger Center comes at a great time as the center is such a key piece in shaping the IAM’s current and future leaders.
The center has been touted with even shaping the IAM’s top leaders like Martinez and IAM General Secretary-Treasurer Dora Cervantes. Both Cervantes and Martinez have been taking classes at the Winpisinger Center for years, including the leadership training.
“The lessons at the center always prove very beneficial. Education is such an important investment to helping our members organize workplaces, strengthening collective bargaining and gaining the workplace protections they deserve,” Cervantes said. “I speak as someone who has taken many classes at the Winpisinger Center and treasure the leadership skills and institutional knowledge that has helped me be the person I am today – a proud unionist.”
As for Bradley, he’s already excited for the more classes on his schedule in the coming months.
“I have plans to keep coming back and take as many classes as I can,” he said.
Approximately 280 IAM Local 588 (District 65) members from Garlock Sealing Technologies in Palmyra, NY went on strike Monday, November 1 after voting against ratifying a four-year contract. Members, who are now on the picket line outside Garlock’s entrances, voted overwhelmingly to reject the company’s offer and go on strike. The company’s proposal included concessions, such as a freeze to the company pension and a change to the attendance policy.
“On Saturday, October 30, IAM Local 588 (District 65) members from Garlock Sealing Technologies turned down a contract offer and called for a strike,” said IAM District 65 Directing Business Representative Ron Warner. “Members of IAM Local 588 are currently at the negotiating table with Garlock. We are communicating with the company about issues surrounding the workplace and our members. Hopefully, the renewed talks will allow us to agree on how to resolve any problems.”
“The entire Machinists Union family stands in solidarity with our members on strike at Garlock,” said IAM Eastern Territory General Vice President Brian Bryant. “The IAM will utilize all of our resources to help them achieve a fair and just contract.”
Local 588 members were working under an extension of a collective bargaining agreement approved in December 2020 that extended until October 31.
New Jersey and Virginia are the only gubernatorial races this year, and both could shape the future of the labor movement. Please hit the polls today to vote for pro-labor candidates, Governor Phil Murphy in New Jersey and Terry McAuliffe in Virginia,
In addition to gubernatorial races, there are important elections for other statewide offices and the state legislature.
New Jersey residents can click here to find their polling location.
Virginia residents can click here to find their polling location.
Polls are open in New Jersey until 8 p.m. and in Virginia until 7 p.m.
