Boeing and IAM agree to 4 year deal

Sorry gotta run, just squeezing this info in while I'm running out the door

From labourstarts newsfeed

• Boeing, union agree on 4-year deal

• Boeing, machinist union agree tentative deal

• Boeing, machinists in tentative deal to end strike

• Machinists in Tentative Deal with Boeing

• Boeing unions 'reach strike deal'

Finally beat Kirsten to the punch, hopefully when she writes a new story she can bring it here

TX: Lufkin Industries settles contract with IAM, IBB and GMP

NYC Iron Workers video from 1902, and Modern Day Higerise Workers->

<- Belgium: Protesting raising prices, worker's halt everything in 1 day strike

"We have some of the best employees in the state of Texas, and we're looking forward to working together with this contract for the next three years." - Paul Perez, VP Lufkin Industries



The last time they went for a contract, in 2002, there were only 700 union employees at Lufkin Industries, unfortunately there was no room for a bargain, so the workers struck for 13 days over health premiums and retirement benefits. Since then the 106 year old company has expanded widely.

Lufkin Industries[LUFK] is now one of the largest employers in Lufkin, TX., and employs roughly 1800, with about 1200 who are represented by a union 1. Cited as the the 16th. fastest growing company in the energy sector, and 39th. overall by Fortune for the year ending 20072, Lufkin Ind. is a healthy company who's wares include tractor trailer boxes, power transmissions for industrial uses and their most well known item, the giant oil pump3.

As of Friday, Oct. 10th., the union workers and Lufkin Ind. have agreed to a 3 year contract that will carry them all to 2011, according to an anonymous worker the new contract includes an 11% wage increase over the course, unfortunately that will be nullified by a 15% health care increase over the same period, a catch 22 in today's world of free market health insurers.

Taken off the table were the companies initial idea of a 4 day 12 hour per work week, with a 4 day layover till the next work day. The union workers rejected that last Sunday.

"We do have work and plenty of it and that's why the company wants us," the worker said. "I think most people are happy."1

From The Lufkin Daily News, story on 10/10/08:

Union workers have accepted the new contract offered by Lufkin Industries, ending the possibility of a strike by the employees.

Machinist Business Representative Terry Taylor announced the decision after votes were tallied Thursday evening at the Deep East Texas Council of Labor AFL-CIO building on Old Gobblers Knob Road. All union members will return to work as normal.

Taylor said the members made a three-year agreement with Lufkin Industries that includes improvements in wages and benefits. No specifics were released, but working hours were not mentioned as part of the changes.

Lufkin Industries Vice President Paul Perez said he was pleased with the results.

"Lufkin Industries is very pleased with the show of support demonstrated, and we're anxious to begin working under this three-year contract," Perez said.

Union workers had rejected an initial contract offer from Lufkin Industries on Sunday, but agreed then to continue under the previous agreement for at least another week. The extension was set to expire at midnight Sunday, Oct. 12.

Union workers easily beat that deadline with the approval of the new contract offer.

"This is a strong show of support," Perez said. "We have some of the best employees in the state of Texas, and we're looking forward to working together with this contract for the next three years."

The workers are members of the the International Association of Machinists, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, and the Glass, Molders and Potters Union.

Good luck in Texas, hope that in 2011 we will all be in a better situation, make some money and keep that manufacturing in the USA.

[1] Lufkin Daily News [2] Fortune [3] Wikipedia
worker photo by: Joel Andrews/The Lufkin Daily News | 1969 Lufkin oil rig photo: Oil Field Cartoonist at Picasaweb

Boeing strike, workers shouldn't cross picket in WA.

According to some insider information received via e-mail, some workers of other unions in Washington have been told to cross the IAM picket line at the Boeing facility. There are 2 separate entrances for workers to avoid the picket lines.

Here's whats happening so far, a little over a week ago 87% of the 27,000 IAM machinists working for Boeing voted to go on strike if their demands were not heard, one of the main reasons is the problem of outsourcing their products to non-union facilities in the US and abroad, other issues are a raise in health care premiums and copayments and the refusal to give it's workers an adequate cost of living adjustment. Just for the record, Boeing, unlike the Big 3 auto monoliths, isn't hurting, their previous 5 year net profit was $12 billion and currently they are so busy, they are 14 months behind schedule. As of midnight Sept.4th. the Machinists have put their tools down and are on strike.

According to Tom Wroblewski, president of the union’s district 751 in Seattle, “If this company wants to talk, they have my number, they can reach me on the picket line.”

If you cross the IAM picket line, shame on you. Today these workers are fighting corporate greed, tomorrow it will be you.

Boeing solidarity rally
In August, members of IAM local 751 had a solidarity rally



Your rights to honor a picket line

According to US Legal Definitions.org:

Some courts have held that a sympathy strike or walkout is not in violation of a no strike clause in an employment contract. A refusal to work by one worker or group of workers to support the efforts of another group of strikers is a sympathy strike. Honoring a picket line is the most common form of sympathy strike. A worker who honors a picket line at his or her primary place of employment has the same rights as the pickets.

Some legal considerations include:

• A worker who honors an illegal picket line is engaged in unprotected activity and may be subject to discipline by the employer.
• Workers who honor legal primary pickets at their place of employment may be replaced but not disciplined. A worker who honors a primary, economic picket may be permanently replaced.
• The rights of workers who honor "stranger" picket lines are not as clearly defined. Refusal to cross a legal picket line at a facility other than that of the worker is recognized as protected activity by the Board and courts.
• Disciplining a worker in retaliation for honoring a stranger picket line is an unfair labor practice. However, disciplinary action against a stranger sympathy striker may be upheld if the employer establishes a legitimate or compelling business justification for taking such disciplinary action.
• Workers covered by the Taft-Hartley Act who honor a picket line of exempted workers are engaged in unprotected activity.
• The right of railroad workers to honor a picket line is regulated by the Railway Labor Act, not Taft-Hartley.

In an important decision, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in 1985 that the right to engage in a sympathy strike can be waived by a general no-strike clause in a collective bargaining agreement. After the Board's position was rejected by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the Board adopted a case-by-case test requiring a more specific analysis of the no-strike clause, its relationship to the contractual arbitration clause, and the past practices of the parties to determine whether the no-strike clause protects or prohibits sympathy strikes.

You may lose your job, as in the second case above "Workers who honor legal primary pickets at their place of employment may be replaced but not disciplined. A worker who honors a primary, economic picket may be permanently replaced."

Source for info in the first paragraph: Financial Times.com

Amtrak finally cares, after PEB, which we paid for, finds in favor of the workers.

Tentative agreement is finally reached. Penn Station most likely to stay open

After 8 years of playing hardball with the 9 unions involved.

After President Bush assigned an Emergency Board which gave a report after a month of investigating which sided 100% in favor of the workers.

Amtrak has finally decided to come to terms with the unions involved. I hope they headed the Presidential Emergency Boards advice. If they did it would be a win for all parties involved and the public. This is definitely a win for all my friends and co-workers who rely on Penn Station.

Heres Amtrak's press release in abridged form, further information can be found at UnionReview (BMWED, Rail Coalition Achieve Tentative Agreement With Amtrak by Richard Negri)

Amtrak and Labor Organizations Sign Tentative Agreement, Averting a Strike

Pact Requires Rank-and-File Ratification

WASHINGTON – Amtrak and representatives of nine labor organizations that were legally free to strike January 30, 2008, today signed a tentative agreement that keeps the national passenger railroad and numerous commuter railroads that are dependent on Amtrak and its facilities in full operation. The National Mediation Board had released the parties from mediation on November 1, 2007, and a Presidential Emergency Board handed down recommended settlement terms December 30.

Details of the tentative pact will be sent to the affected union members for their ratification vote during the next several weeks and will be withheld from public release until the ratification process has begun.

Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant said, "Investing in the railroad comes in many forms, and one of the best ways is to invest in its people, which we've done with this tentative agreement. I want to thank the leadership of the labor organizations. It has not been easy for any of us, and I know they share our sense of relief and resolve to move forward in a productive and cooperative spirit to provide excellent passenger rail service. The Amtrak Board of Directors, management and labor are now united in that single purpose. By reaching these tentative agreements, we have averted a possible strike that could have had a crippling effect on the lives of millions of Americans.": More info

Yeah, good old Amtrak caring about it's workers and the people, finally hacking out an agreement after 8 years and the President assigning the PEB, which we paid for. Thanks Amtrak.

According to the Associated Press (Amtrak, unions reach tentative deal, averting possible strike
By KAREN MAHABIR):

The tentative contract includes back pay totaling more than three times what Amtrak was offering and none of the concessions on work rules that Amtrak had been seeking, said Joel Parker, a spokesman for the Transportation Communications International Union and a lead negotiator...

...Michael Troy, an Amtrak communications and signal maintainer and union representative in Downingtown, Pa., said workers have faced increasing economic hardships.

"Every Christmas got harder and harder for the workers," he said, with some forced to work overtime or take on second jobs to make house and car payments.
"Finally you can feel the morale," Troy said. "There seems to be some hope here."

Remember, when Penn Station is shut down- Blame Amtrak, not the union workers!

*Photo by classictrains at deviantART

At the end of November, President Bush avoided the possible strike by the 9 unions representing Amtrak workers by imposing an Executive Order which established a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to investigate the failed negotiations which started all the way back in January of 2000. While the unions are trying to recoup lost wages for the past eight years and try to maintain good secured union jobs for their members, it seems that Amtrak has never even bothered to attempt to negotiate this contract in good faith. Not at all, in fact according to the Transportation Communications Union

Amtrak has:

1. engaged in bad faith bargaining strategy and is solely responsible for this record-making delay in reaching agreements.In the eight years since Amtrak began stonewalling negotiations, hundreds of contracts have been reached in both the rail and airline industries covered by the Railway Labor Act.
2. purposely manipulated the bargaining process to avoid settlements by putting forward radical, take it or leave it demands and refusing to budge an inch.
3. stated that the Unions would receive no back pay no matter how long negotiations took. This has never happened before on Amtrak or on any major railroad. On every major railroad going back a hundred years, unions that settle later always received contracts that date back to the date the first union signed.
4. Amtrak insisted that any agreement must include a multitude of sweeping work rule concessions from every craft.
   
5. has demanded no limits on contracting out, even if the contracting resulted in furloughs, Amtrak has put forward more than twenty concessionary demands to the shopcraft coalition alone . (The shopcraft coalition is comprised of Carmen, Electricians and Machinists.)
6. For eight years, Amtrak has refused to remove a single work rule demand from its list of must-have concessions. In fact, a few months ago, seven years into bargaining, Amtrak added a new radical, unacceptable demand – that early retirees pay toward health insurance.

It seems that Amtrak has used to it's advantage The Railway Labor Act, which in part states that if a new contract has not been ratified, all work will continue under the existing contract until an agreement is reached. Well the nearly 10,000 workers who are involved in this dispute have gotten good news. The Presidential Emergency Board, who unfortunately cannot avert a strike, has sided squarely on the unions demands. According to the AFL-CIO WebBlog, The PEB’s recommendations include the wage increases proposed by the unions, full retroactive pay and no work rule changes. The PEB said the unions’ wage proposals were:

the most fair and equitable package of compensation after consideration of the relevant factors.

(and) In rejecting Amtrak’s proposal for dramatic work rule changes—including nearly unlimited contracting out rights, schedule changes and combining jobs and crafts—the board pointed to Amtrak workers’ increased productivity.

The evidence introduced by Amtrak in support of its claimed need for these sweeping reforms was weak, at best, and with respect to many of the proposals bordered on nonexistent.

Which led to The AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) stating that the PEB’s report is the basis for agreement. Amtrak should come to the bargaining table and reach a negotiated settlement with its unions based on the recommendations of the PEB. Rail labor has repeatedly stated its desire to settle this dispute voluntarily, without a strike.

So get ready Amtrak riders and those of us who depend on Penn Station and other affected stations, remember what you read today when the bullshit NYPost articles of "Greedy Rail Workers Crippling the City" and "Those little people who are suffering because of them" is in your hand. Because it happened recently with the "Greedy Stagehands crippling Broadway" and I'm sure it will happen again. Also add this fact to your collection, Amtrak workers are the lowest paid in the entire railway industry.

Remember if there is a strike, BLAME AMTRAK, not the union workers !

Note about Unions involved: IAM, IBEW, TCU, Railroad Signalmen, Transport Workers, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees which is an affiliate of the Teamsters, National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, and American Train Dispatchers Association.

Sources: AFL-CIO WebBlog, TCUnion.org, Stop Amtrak's Outsourcing Plan(PDF)