International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO District 70

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Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (S. 2123)
May 12th, 2008 Wichita’s aerospace community will be closely monitoring the progress of talks between Local 839 and Spirit AeroSystems, which opened this week on behalf of 6,200 workers at the former Boeing facility. The trend-setting IAM contract with Spirit, which delivered a $240 million payout to members in 2006, also provided for early negotiation on economic issues. “We fully expect the next contract with Spirit to reflect the skills and contributions our members have made to the success of this company,” said Southern Territory GVP Bob Martinez, who joined the Local 839 Negotiating Committee for the initial meeting with Spirit representatives. “I have no doubt this negotiating committee will fully relay the concerns of the membership throughout the course of these negotiations.” Key issues included pensions, improved health care, regularly scheduled cost-of-living increases and general wage increases. Any changes negotiated and ratified in the current round of talks would remain in force until the contract expires in June 2010. In preparation for the talks with Spirit, the Local 839 Negotiating Committee took part in one of the Winpisinger Center’s most innovative training opportunities; a week-long class that included bargaining simulations using real financial data and actual contract proposals. “This committee has already demonstrated how serious they are about these negotiations,” said Aerospace Coordinator Ron Eldridge, who helped guide the training sessions and will take part in the talks with Spirit. Home Top of Page
Money Talks for 6,200 at Spirit AeroSystems
May 6th, 2008 Seated on the left for LL839 (l to r) Gary Cochran LL839 Pres., Michael Burleigh DL70 BR, Mark Love DL70 BR, Steve Rooney DL70 DBR, Bob Martinez GVP, Ron Eldridge GLR Aerospace Coordinator, Don Barker GLR, David Eagle LL839 In-Plant Rep., Kathy Petersen LL839 VP Wichita’s aerospace community will be closely monitoring the progress of talks between Local 839 and Spirit AeroSystems, which opened this week on behalf of 6,200 workers at the former Boeing facility. The trend-setting IAM contract with Spirit, which delivered a $240 million payout to members in 2006, also provided for early negotiation on economic issues. “We fully expect the next contract with Spirit to reflect the skills and contributions our members have made to the success of this company,” said Southern Territory GVP Bob Martinez, who joined the Local 839 Negotiating Committee for the initial meeting with Spirit representatives. “I have no doubt this negotiating committee will fully relay the concerns of the membership throughout the course of these negotiations.” Key issues included pensions, improved health care, regularly scheduled cost-of-living increases and general wage increases. Any changes negotiated and ratified in the current round of talks would remain in force until the contract expires in June 2010. In preparation for the talks with Spirit, the Local 839 Negotiating Committee took part in one of the Winpisinger Center’s most innovative training opportunities; a week-long class that included bargaining simulations using real financial data and actual contract proposals. “This committee has already demonstrated how serious they are about these negotiations,” said Aerospace Coordinator Ron Eldridge, who helped guide the training sessions and will take part in the talks with Spirit. Home Top of Page
CLOCK TICKING ON TANKER DECISION
April 29th., 2008 With less than two months remaining before the Government Accountability Office is set to rule on a formal objection filed by Boeing, opponents of the U.S. Air Force’s decision to award a $40 billion tanker contract to Airbus and Northrop Grumman are stepping up the pressure. Boeing, which has been supplying tankers to the Air Force for nearly half a century, took out a full page ad in the Washington Post stressing the importance of experience and expertise in securing the tanker contract. “Designing, building, certifying and delivering tanker aircraft and booms is a complex, high-risk process,” the ad states. “Boeing’s track record of superior management of complex military programs is unsurpassed.” Union members, meanwhile, continue to flood lawmakers with petitions protesting the deal. You can send a message to Congress telling them “U.S. Forces Deserve U.S. Tankers” by clicking here. Lawmakers also continue to remain active in their opposition. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), along with seven other Senators, recently sent a letter to President Bush questioning the decision. Home Top of Page
JOBS WIN IN WICHITA
April 24nd., 2008 Steve Rooney, DBR District 70; Steve Groom, BR District 70, Mark Love, President Kansas AFL-CIO and BR for District 70; Ron Eldridge, Aerospace Coordinator; Will Leiker, Executive VP Kansas AFL-CIO. Kathleen Sebelius, Governer, Kansas (seated). Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius signed HB 2006, which provides $33 million in bonds for Wichita plane maker Cessna Aircraft to build the new transcontinental wide-bodied Citation Columbus Business Jet, the largest ever by Cessna, in Wichita, KS. The IAM worked with Gov. Sebelius, state legislators and Cessna to pass the legislation. Cessna has already announced that it will build the jet in a new 80,000-foot assembly plant at its Mid-Continent facility in west Wichita. “Governor Sebelius has shown time and time again she is committed to ensuring working families in her state prosper,” said International President Tom Buffenbarger. “Signing this legislation will greatly benefit Wichita’s aerospace industry and its workers.” “Over half the general aviation airplanes flown in the world are manufactured in Kansas, and Wichita is rightly called ‘the Air Capital of the world,’” said Southern Territory General Vice President Bob Martinez. “This is about growing well-paying union jobs that fuel a strong economy and good communities. Other states should take lessons from the public / private/labor coalition we’ve forged in Kansas. Kansas has been the home of the aircraft industry for over one hundred years, and the IAM is committed to making sure it stays that way. I’m proud of the leadership and our members in Wichita for their hard work to make this happen.” Home Top of Page
GAO: Bush Violates Federal Law on SCHIP
April 22nd., 2008 By limiting individual states’ ability to provide health coverage to moderate-income children, the Bush administration is violating federal law, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last week. Despite many working families struggling with skyrocketing health care costs, President Bush twice last year vetoed legislation expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). As a result, many state officials have stepped up efforts to provide more children with health insurance. The Bush administration, however, went one step further and blocked states from using money for to cover children whose parents make above 250 percent of the poverty level, which is $44,000 for a family of three. While the Bush administration will not be forced to rescind their directive, the decision provides much needed support to multiple states looking to expand health insurance to more children and reduces the chances the new policy can be put into effect before Bush leaves office. Home Top of Page
Battle Continues over Columbia Trade Agreement
April 17th., 2008 House Democrats voted last week to take the U.S. Columbia Free Trade Agreement out of “Fast Track” status, postponing a vote on the trade agreement indefinitely. The 224 to 195 vote was a blow to the Bush administration, who submitted the trade pact to Congress last week in an effort to hastily push the bill through within the standard 90 day limit. Columbia’s woeful human rights record and its harsh treatment of workers and trade union leaders have brought the Bush administration’s flawed trade deal under extreme fire since its proposal. There have been approximately 2,550 trade unionists murdered in Columbia since 1986, including 17 this year. House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), also harshly criticized the Bush administration for trying to force a vote on the Columbia Trade Agreement while economic conditions in the U.S are still deteriorating. “This bill has been around for a while, and matters have only gotten worse in our economy,” said Pelosi. “When the cost of groceries, gasoline, health care, education, and other staples continue to go up, and the purchasing power of the income that people have is either stagnant or going down, they have concerns about their economic security.” Click here to help keep the pressure on Congress to stop the flawed Columbian Free Trade Agreement Home Top of Page
Unions Urge Congress to De-fund Tanker Contract
The list of unions calling on Congress to withhold funding for the $40 billion tanker contract grows larger each week. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) this week issued a letter to House and Senate members calling for Congress to defund the Airbus/EADS tanker contract, calling it an “insult” to U.S. workers and taxpayers to outsource such an important strategic defense contract. “We at IFPTE believe that Congress should defund the Airbus/EADS Tanker contract, hold hearings to bring transparency to the process by which this contract award has come about, and ultimately re-compete it,” said IFPTE President Gregory J. Junemann. Additional unions joining the IAM in calling for the tanker contract to be defunded include the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which sharply questioned the use of waivers allowing the Department of Defense (DoD) to bypass the Buy American Act and award the tanker contract to a foreign consortium. “It is clear the bidding process for this contract was unfair,” said IBEW President Edwin D. Hill in a letter to lawmakers. “American companies were disadvantaged and our own government is complicit.” Click here to send a message to Congress that “U.S. Forces Deserve U.S. Tankers.” Home Top of Page
Bush Flogs Trade Pact With Columbia
Ignoring a blood-soaked record of human rights violations that includes murder, kidnapping and torture of trade union leaders, President George Bush is urging Congress to approve a free trade agreement with Columbia, calling it essential to America’s national security interests. The bid by the Bush administration to secure yet another free trade deal was immediately attacked by lawmakers, labor leaders and human rights activists across the hemisphere. “The IAM strongly opposes the U.S. Columbia Free Trade Act (FTA) and will continue to work tirelessly to ensure its defeat,” declared IAM President Tom Buffenbarger. “Forcing consideration of this NAFTA-style trade agreement is especially outrageous given the hundreds of murders that have been committed against trade unionists over the past few years. Moreover, this trade deal comes at a time when record numbers of U.S. workers are losing their jobs as more and more corporations relocate outside our country.” The chances for the legislation to win Congressional approval appear slim, with Rep. Mike Michaud (D-ME), co-founder of the House Trade Working Group, declaring the Columbia FTA dead on arrival. “If the Bush administration really believes this agreement is vital to national security interests, it would not send it to certain defeat,” said Michaud. “They would work with Democrats to stop labor leader assassinations and address forced displacement and murder of Afro-Columbians.” Click here to send a message to your legislator to oppose the flawed Columbian Free Trade Agreement. Home Top of Page
Boeing Tanker Battle Continues
The fight to reverse the $40 billion tanker decision enters its third week with union members contacting lawmakers and demanding hearings on the process that allowed Europe’s Airbus and its U.S. front company, Northrop Grumman, to walk away with one of the largest U.S. defense contracts in history. The face-to-face lobbying effort is being buttressed by a public relations campaign that includes full page advertisements in local and national newspapers across the country. Click here to view the latest ad in the Wall Street Journal, where Boeing outlines its objections to the process that resulted in the selection of a much larger, more vulnerable, less capable and ultimately more costly aircraft than was originally requested by the Air Force. The stakes in this fight are extremely high. In addition to 44,000 U.S. jobs that could be impacted, as many as 300 U.S. companies in over a dozen states stand to lose significant contract and sub-contract work if the massive tanker deal is outsourced. In an analysis of Mission Capability, the most important evaluation factor in the bidding process, Boeing’s KC-767 received the highest possible rating, meeting or exceeding all key parameters. The Boeing tanker bested the Airbus offering in numerous other areas as well. Boeing is also questioning numerous changes to bid requirements and evaluation criteria that resulted in a decision that cheats U.S. taxpayers, rewards a foreign company and would require the U.S. military to operate with one eye on a dubious foreign supply chain. IAM members should contact their legislators immediately and ask them to support a full investigation of the circumstances that led to this outrageous decision. Click here for additional information and instructions about how to send a message to lawmakers. Home Top of Page
Colombia Free Trade Agreement
Colombia FTA. The Bush Administration has announced that it will send to Congress the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in early April. Under Fast Track procedures, Congress may have to vote up or down on the agreement before the August break. The AFL - CIO remains strongly opposed to the Colombia FTA, and we will mobilize all of our resources to defeat it. Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world in which to be a union member-39 trade unionists were murdered in 2007, and another eleven to date in 2008. Of the more than 2,500 murders of trade unionists since 1986, only about 80 cases-around 3 percent-have resulted in convictions. But beyond the violence and the impunity, Colombian unionists face equally daunting daily legal challenges to their rights to organize and bargain collectively-challenges that threaten the very existence of the Colombian labor movement. Mass firings and privatization of large segments of the public sector have put bargaining rights out of reach for most workers. This is the worst collective bargaining coverage in the western hemisphere - even worse than the dismal record of the United States . This is a critical time: Urge your Senators and Representatives to speak out forcefully against passage of the Colombia FTA and commit to voting against it if it comes up for a vote. Home Top of Page
Energy
The legislation to allow the construction of (2) additional units at the Holcomb Power Plant continues to dominate the 2008 state legislative session. Although a conference committee has hammered out a compromise that ultimately passed both the House (33-7) and the Senate (77-45), a Governor's veto is expected. It is still uncertain whether enough votes are there to override the veto, as it takes a 2/3 vote in each chamber to do so. That is 84 votes in the House! It has become very political and some issues have been shoved aside until energy legislation is passed. Some lawmakers are unwilling to give their support to the energy bill for any number of reasons including an inability to deal with environmental concerns, problems with the regulatory processes and, well, just an inability to commit when there appears to be an inability to address what they see as the important issues of the session. Some might say, their own pet projects. The energy bill hit the Governor's desk on March 12th and she has until March 22nd to sign it, let it become law without a signature, or veto the bill. Home Top of Page
Workers Compensation
Worker's Compensation is one of the pieces of legislation caught in the log jam mentioned above. If you'll remember, last spring the Kansas Supreme Court handed down a decision that undid 75 years of case law regarding workers compensation benefits in what is known as the CASCO case. The Kansas AFL-CIO has made it a 2008 legislative priority to undo the precedence set by this case. The CASCO case altered the way benefits are figured for one of the most vulnerable sectors of society, injured workers. It made it more difficult for injured workers in Kansas to qualify for workers compensation disability benefits and removed the incentive for employers to accommodate injured workers. An important vote took place on March 14th in the House (HB 2937) to bypass the Republican controlled committees where we could not get a hearing on work comp bills. The vote failed on a vote of 50-72. Remember, Kansas' work comp benefits are already amongst the lowest in the nation. Home Top of Page
State Minimum Wage
There is a virtual smorgasbord of minimum wage bills. The Senate Commerce Committee actually had a hearing this year to raise the state minimum wage from the lowest in the nation $2.65 per hour. There was no enthusiasm to actually work the bill and move it out of committee. Senator Karen Brownlee is the Chairperson of that committee. There may still may be some opportunities to amend the intent of some of these bills. It being an election year should be incentive enough to get a recorded vote, but time may be running out. Home Top of Page
Immigration
The quest by some lawmakers to fix the problem of illegal immigrants in Kansas took a detour this week when a senate committee chose to remove most of the penalties for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. SB 458 will be advanced to the Senate floor for a vote, but legislators responded immediately to complaints by business to remove the incentive for businesses to comply with such a law. While some legislators were backpedaling something fierce, others who authored or sponsored the bill were upset by their colleagues for tossing in the towel to hold the business industry responsible for their hiring practices. This is primarily a federal issue, but states have taken it upon themselves for a Congress that was unwilling to address this issue. The legislation proposed in both chambers of the legislature went too many different directions and simply tried to do too much. This left the bill wide open for easy picking apart, and apart at the seams it came. The bill looks quite different than what people went on record as supporting. This was a poor attempt at public policy that should come from the federal government, because most Americans do not hate or blame the people coming here to find work. The crux and root of the problem is to patrol our borders and prevent those coming in the country illegally in the first place. The House bill remains below the line at this writing but on the House Calendar. The Senate bill is Senate Substitute for SB 458 and is on General Orders of their calendar, which means it could be debated any time. This issue is very controversial even cutting across party lines, but the key will be that our Republican dominated legislature will not want to penalize business. Home Top of Page
Airbus Distorts Tanker Job Numbers
Union members in Washington state held a spontaneous protest in the wake of the Air Force decision to award a $40 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers to Airbus/EADS. Less than a week after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) launched a review of the controversial $40 billion tanker contract, comes news that Airbus is grossly exaggerating the number of U.S. jobs that would be created. As part of a full-court public relations blitz, the Toulouse-based plane maker and European parent company EADS are claiming their tanker, based on the Airbus A330, will create 48,000 jobs in the U.S., nearly double their original estimate. In a letter to the editor at the Sacramento Bee, Western Territory GVP Lee Pearson ripped into Airbus for a history of false claims and distortions. “Earlier in the decade, Airbus claimed that it had created 100,000 jobs in the U.S., but a study by the U.S. Under Secretary for Trade, Grant Aldonas, could only find 500,” wrote Pearson in response to an article that cited the bogus Airbus numbers. “Last year, Airbus made the claim that U.S. companies would build half of the A380, yet at the same time the French press reported that production from all of North America would only amount to 21 percent.” Even the British, who will be making the wings for the Airbus tanker, have experienced Airbus parent EADS’ outrageous distortions. In 2006, a British government agency banned as untruthful an ad that claimed, “I am British” in reference to the A330 tanker.“Given this history of gross distortions, it strains credibility to believe even the original EADS/Northrop Grumman job creation numbers and claims of 60 percent domestic content, could be true,” said Pearson. “To believe that the EADS/Northrop Grumman European Airbus tanker will create 48,000 American jobs is a fairy tale akin to the notion that NAFTA is a source of good paying U.S. manufacturing jobs.” Home Top of Page
GAO to Investigate $40 Billion Tanker Contract
If the Air Force officials who awarded a $40 billion contract to Airbus and EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.) were betting the outrage over the deal would die out quickly, they gambled wrong. A formal protest filed today by the Boeing Co. will be considered by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to determine if the multi-billion contract was properly awarded. From Seattle, WA and Wichita, KS to Washington, D.C., elected officials are going ballistic over the Air Force’s decision to outsource an entire fleet of U.S. military aircraft to a consortium that is heavily subsidized by European governments. “This is one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen,” said Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), who echoed the sentiments of many lawmakers in the House and Senate who were stunned by the decision to bypass Boeing, a U.S. company that has been supplying the Air Force with refueling tankers for nearly 50 years. The controversy gained fresh legs when Air Force officials admitted the impact on American jobs was not one of their criteria for awarding the contract, which could eventually be worth as much as $100 billion. Boeing officials also claim the Air Force changed its criteria after the bidding was underway, further favoring Airbus. Leading the charge to give Airbus a leg up on the historic contract was none other than presidential aspirant John McCain (R-AZ), who prodded the Pentagon in 2006 to develop bidding procedures that did not exclude Airbus. “Awarding this contract to Boeing would support at least 44,000 U.S. jobs in 40 states,” said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. “Instead, billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars will be used to create jobs in Toulouse, France, and give European countries the potential to influence U.S. foreign policy to an unprecedented degree.” Click here to view a letter sent by IP Buffenbarger to members of Congress and click here to send a message to your representatives, urging them to overturn this decision. Home Top of Page
Machinists Union Blasts Tanker Decision
Machinists across the country are calling for congressional action following the decision by Air Force officials to award a $40 billion aerial refueling tanker contract to a team led by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS), parent company of Airbus. �The Air Force's decision is a serious blow to a key American industry,� said IAM GVP Rich Michalski. �President Bush and his administration have denied real economic stimulus to the American people and chosen instead to create jobs in Toulouse, France.� The tanker competition was mandated in 2003, allowing a heavily subsidized European manufacturer, EADS, to bid against Boeing, a U.S. firm that received no subsidies. �This decision means billions of taxpayer dollars will be used to create jobs in foreign countries, rather than here in the United States,� said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. �Giving this contract to EADS further hollows out America�s industrial base and rewards a company that has already used $100 million in European government subsidies to grab nearly 50 percent of the U.S. commercial aircraft market.� The IAM represents nearly 35,000 Boeing employees in Washington State, Oregon, Kansas and locations across the country. Home Top of Page