Organizing

January 2006 Published Quarterly www.iamww2.org Organizing The importance of organizing should not be lost on any member in the Machinists Union. Our future contracts depend on more of our members in each industry gaining power at work. As each bargaining unit works towards an industry leading contract, each contract improvement leads to an increase in the contract at the next company, creating a constant cycle of improvement for working families. Don’t leave your friends, neighbors or community behind; organize them today. Win At Local Lodge W298 When the Company discharged a member of Local Lodge W298 for failing a drug test, after a leave that exceeded thirty (30) days, the Union filed a grievance. Through out the grievance process, the Union maintained the Company did not have a right to discharge employees on this type of drug test. During this time, the grievant successfully completed a drug rehabilitation program. The company had a policy of requiring return to work physicals, which included drug testing, for employees off work more than thirty (30) days. The Union argued there was no language in the Labor Agreement that allowed the Company to discharge an employee when tested for this reason. In his award, the arbitrator agreed with the union. The arbitrator wrote; ―… regular employees can not be disciplined for a positive drug test unless their test occurred for a reason listed in Exhibit G … A positive test permits the Company to deny the employee’s return until a negative result can be produced and, subject to the Company’s reasonable discretion, the employee presents satisfactory evidence of rehabilitation.‖ Jobs Still Hard to Find For Many Americans December 13, 2005 - President Bush has been touting the latest job numbers as evidence the U.S. economy is getting stronger, but a closer look reveals the job market in the U.S. is anything but healthy. The Labor Department’s economic indicators fail to take into account Americans who are no longer eligible for unemployment-assistance. President Bush has also failed to mention the jobs the country has picked up are not the quality, high-paying jobs Americans use to have. Read the Chicago Tribune article - ―Rosy Job News Feels Thorny in Ohio‖ for an in-depth look at communities who continue to struggle economically. The Death of American Manufacturing - JOBS! America's middle class rose on the back of massive industrial output during the 20th century. But this engine of prosperity is being hammered, and the economy is hurting as a result. For the past 50 years, American manufacturing has dominated the globe. It turned the tide in World War II, and hastened the defeat of Nazi Germany; it subsequently helped rebuild Europe and Japan; and it enabled the United States to outlast the Soviet empire in a Cold War. Concurrently, it met all the material needs of the American people. During this time period, many American icons were born. Companies like General Motors, Ford, Boeing, Maytag and Levi Strauss became household names. American manufacturing became synonymous with quality and ingenuity. On the back of this industrial output, rose America’s middle class. High-paying manufacturing jobs in turn helped spur a robust and growing economy that had little dependence on foreign nations for manufactured goods and armaments. However, manufacturing, as a share of the economy, has been plummeting. In 1965, manufacturing accounted for 53 percent of the economy. By 1988 it only accounted for 39 percent of the economy, and in 2004, it accounted for just 9 percent. In fact, economists are warning that the U.S. is facing the ―gutting, hollowing out and closing down of American manufacturing forever‖ (Benson’s Economic & Market Trends, Feb. 27, 2004). The loss of the manufacturing industry manifests itself most clearly in job losses. During the 1970s, approximately 25 percent of American workers were in manufacturing (Economist, October 1). From 1990 to present, manufacturing jobs have decreased every single year; since 1996, they have plummeted by almost one fifth. Most recently, manufacturing job losses, and the ―hollowing‖ out of American manufacturing, have been evidenced in the auto industry. Read the article go to: http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?page=article&id=1911 Labor to Press for Workers' Right to Join Unions With the nation's labor unions divided and shrinking, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. has organized 100 demonstrations nationwide to assert that the right of American workers to form unions is being systematically violated. Eleven Nobel Peace Prize winners, including the Dalai Lama and Lech Walesa, are backing the protest against violations of the right to unionize in the United States and other nations. "The right to come together in a union is a fundamental freedom that has been eroded beyond recognition," said John J. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s president. "Companies game the system - they'll do anything to prevent workers from organizing - without a penalty." The labor federation has run full-page advertisements in which the Peace Prize winners, including Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, protested infringements of the right to form independent trade unions in Burma and China. Then the Nobel laureates added, "Even the wealthiest nation in the world, the United States of America, fails to protect workers' rights to form unions and bargain collectively." Read this New York Times article at: http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/ 09/national/09labor.html&OP=702e03a7Q2FQ25ol8Q25YQ7Er2jQ7EQ 7EXmQ25mQ27Q27WQ25Q24mQ25Q27sQ25nRXdQ7EnRxQ25Q27 sxR8Q7Ej(1Xpx Congress, Cheney to Working Families: Bah, Humbug Dec. 21- In one of its final actions of 2005, the Republican-majority Senate, with the assistance of Vice President Dick Cheney, voted to slash nearly $40 billion from working family health, education, child support and other programs. Cheney, as president of the Senate, cut short an overseas trip to fly back to Washington, D.C., and cast the deciding vote (51–50) Dec. 21. Certain technical changes require another vote in the House, where working families have an opportunity to prevent its passage. The House passed the bill 212–206 at 6 a.m. Dec. 19 after an all-night session. President George W. Bush, who backs the cuts to the working family programs, will sign the bill if the House passes it again. Democrats and a small number of Republican lawmakers strongly opposed the domestic spending bill because of the cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, student loans, child support enforcement and other family programs. But a combination of back-room maneuvers and the Republican leadership’s arm-twisting of GOP members led to the narrow passage. "The vote by the United States Senate to pass budget legislation cutting Medicare, Medicaid, student loans and other working family programs by $40 billion is the latest blow in a year of skewed priorities and misdirected national leadership," says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "What kind of administration slices up vital public services while granting more tax breaks to the wealthy and doling out favors to corporate lobbyists and conservative cronies?" The holiday season votes, which closed the first session of the 109th Congress, produced ―Ebenezer Scroogelike cuts to vital programs that benefit poor and middleclass families, so they can give billions in tax breaks to the rich,‖ says AFSCME President Gerald McEntee. For more go to: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/legislativealert/ns12202005.cfm 2005 Congressional Session Caps Series of Attacks Against Working Families The latest attack on working family programs capped off a year of attacks on working families by Bush-backed Republican congressional leaders. Among its actions this year, Congress:     Refused to raise the minimum wage several times; currently $5.15 an hour, the minimum wage hasn’t been raised since 1997. Attempted to privatize Social Security with a Bush administration plan that would slash guaranteed benefits as much as $9,000 per year. Approved a jobs-killing Dominican Republic Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Confirmed several of Bush’s most extremist nominees for federal judgeships, including Janice Rogers Brown who, as a member of the California Supreme Court, authored many harsh opinions— often in dissent—that seriously would undermine civil rights, workers’ rights and the environment. Sided with Big Business against working families by passing far-reaching bankruptcy laws and limits on class-action lawsuits that target individuals while still permitting corporations to file for bankruptcy and renege on their pension and other obligations to employees. Worker Confidence in the United States is Slipping A Right Management Consultants survey of 1,000 United States workers found that nearly one of four believe they could lose their job in the coming year – a jump from 19.3 percent who said the same six months ago. In addition, a record 78.6 percent of American workers expect the unemployment rate to rise in the next year. While 26% of Canadians believe their job is in jeopardy it’s improved slightly from the 295 who felt the same in April. 