Check Out Our New Collective Bargaining Site

by Mike Hall, Jun 17, 2011

This morning, we launched a new website—Collective Bargaining: Real people. Real Impact—that serves up facts, fun and real-world stories about what the power to bargain means to working people. The site features a trio of videos we produced with Laughing Liberally to convey the importance of collective bargaining with humor, showing just how bad things can get if workers don’t have a voice at the bargaining table. Pay cuts, benefit attacks and “Paid Child Fun Time” are just some of the schemes hatched by bosses who have the table to themselves—and not even a pizza party makes those any easier to swallow.

Until Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Republican politicians in a dozen other states set out to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees, the public didn’t hear much about that bedrock of unionism. Now there is a growing movement to defend this fundamental right, and Collective Bargaining: Real People. Real Impact helps spread the message.

Collective bargaining enables working people who are union members to negotiate with their employers to determine their terms of employment, including pay, benefits, hours, leave, health and safety policies, ways to balance work and family and more. Bottom line: It gives working people a voice at the table.

On the website, working men and women tell what collective bargaining means to them in another series of videos. AFGE member Michael Gravinese says collective bargaining is important because:

It provides a vehicle in the workplace for fairness and equity for all. What I’ve gained from collective bargaining is the ability to have a voice in the workplace, a structured voice. Without that, a collective bargaining agreement, in essence management dictates.

There’s an old saying that says a rising tide lifts all boats and that’s what happens when you have a collective bargaining agreement. All workers, members, nonmembers, they benefit from that collective bargaining agreement, it lifts all of them.

Virgilio Aran and Linda Oalican talk about how collective action can improve the lives of domestic workers and Racine, Wis., firefighter Mike DeGarmo discusses the fight against Walker’s assault on collective bargaining.

The attack on workers and collective bargaining has been so outlandish this year, sometimes it’s hard to figure out if what you are hearing is real or not. Find out with our “Real or Not” quiz.

Click here to explore the new site at CollectiveBargainingFacts.com and be sure to share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

IAM Charges GOP Senator with Ethics Violations in Boeing Case

Fri. June 17, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, D.C., June 17, 2011 – The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today released a letter sent to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics calling for an investigation into South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s conduct and statements regarding the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) pending complaint against the Boeing Company.

The IAM letter cites potentially unethical efforts by Sen. Graham and others to pressure NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon to drop the law enforcement proceeding against Boeing.

“I believe that prior to the issuance of the Boeing complaint on April 20th, Senator Lindsey Graham communicated with NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon in one or more attempts to pressure him not to do so,” said IAM General Counsel Chris Corson. “I also believe that these communications included threats that the Senator would seek to defund or otherwise adversely affect the funding of the NLRB if the Boeing complaint were pursued.”

The IAM letter also cites a letter from Sen. Graham to President Obama, in which Graham declares he will pursue sanctions against Solomon and the NLRB even if it turns out that the NLRB’s law enforcement action against Boeing is upheld.

“I don’t believe that a Senator or any other politician should be trying to interfere with and prevent a law enforcement trial,” said Corson, who cited possible violation of Senate Rule 43. “Americans expect law enforcement to be there for them when they are victimized by discrimination or other unlawful behavior. When politicians intervene on behalf of a rich businessman or corporation in order to stop law enforcement from doing its job, our Constitution and rule of law are put in jeopardy.”

To view full text of the IAM letter, click here.

The IAM represents more than 25,000 Boeing workers and is among the largest industrial trade unions in North America, with nearly 700,000 active and retired members in dozens of industries. For more information about the IAM, visit www.goiam.org.