Thousands Tell Whirlpool: Keep It Made in America

by James Parks, Feb 26, 2010

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (far right) rallies with workers at the Whirlpool plant in Evansville, Ind.

Nearly 5,000 workers, community and religious activists from at least six states converged in front of the Whirlpool plant in Evansville, Ind., to say with a unified and loud voice: “Keep It Made in America.”

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka along with 40 people, including children and grandchildren of workers, clergy and retirees, used a Whirlpool refrigerator to wheel petitions with 65,000 signatures to the plant’s locked front gate. The petitions urged Whirlpool executives to reconsider their decision to shutter the Evansville plant, laying off 1,100 people and moving jobs to Mexico. Union members also made more than 1,700 phone calls today alone to Whirlpool headquarters in Benton Harbor, Mich., and the Evansville offices with the same message.

Employment and Earnings - January 2010

The unemployment rate fell from 10.0% to 9.7% in January. Employment in manufacturing increased by 11,000 over the month.

Average hourly earnings in the U.S. for all employees in the private sector rose by 0.2% in January, and there was a 2.0% improvement over wages from one year ago. With the softened labor market, workers share lost bargaining power since the Clinton-era economic expansion.

UCubed Message Gains Traction

With a new video, editorial and a growing list of partners, the IAM community service project known as Ur Union of Unemployed, nicknamed UCubed, is beginning to resonate among labor organizations and unemployed workers, who have created more than 40 individual “cubes” to share their experiences and gain the benefits of collective action.

Using social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, the word about UCubed is spreading from city to city, worker to worker and from organization to organization. The AFL-CIO has joined the effort as a supporting partner, as have AFSCME, AFT, NEA, IUPAT, CWA and others. For more information about joining the partnership, contact UCubed@iamaw.org.

UCubed Catching Hold and Gaining Momentum

Ur Union of Unemployed, or UCubed, generated record-breaking numbers over the last 24 hours, with membership jumping from almost 480 job activists yesterday to well over 800 today. Ninety-six new cubes were created within the same time period, adding to the 84 cubes already created (six people within the same zip code make one cube). UCubed is now up-and-running in 48 states and the District of Columbia.

Voting Rules, Interference Stymie Delta Workers

Despite a high number of votes for the IAM, the election for 91 flight simulator technicians at the recently merged Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines was declared invalid by the NMB when fewer than 50 percent plus one of eligible employees participated in the Internet and telephone voting. The Machinists Union received 40 of the 43 valid votes cast.

IAM Supports Bankruptcy Reform

IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger has sent a letter to Congress requesting support for thousands of IAM members and retirees who have seen their wages, benefits and pensions shredded as airlines and manufacturing companies use bankruptcy to gut union contracts, while at the same time rewarding executives with big bonuses.