IAM Transportation News

Read the latest news on the IAM Transportation Terriroty.

OSHA Launches New Whistleblower Protection Site

by Mike Hall, Jul 16, 2010

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says that workers who blow the whistle on safety violations and other unlawful practices “play an important role in assuring compliance with federal laws.”

But, say workplace safety advocates, too many times workers don’t speak up about safety and health problems on the job because they fear retaliation from their employers, even though it’s illegal.


OSHA now has a new website specifically dedicated to its whistleblower protection program, www.whistleblowers.gov. The site is designed to provide workers, employers and the public with easily accessible information about the 18 federal whistleblower protection statutes that OSHA currently administers. OSHA chief David Michaels says:

Dr. Donald Berwick: The Leader We Need for Health Medicare and Medicaid

John August, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents 90,000 health care workers, describes why Dr. Donald Berwick is a good choice to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

President Obama appointed Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week.

The decision was lauded by the New York Times. “Dr. Berwick’s major credential for the job is that he leads the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), a consulting group that promotes measures to improve the quality and safety of health care while reducing its costs. He has been enormously successful at getting health care professionals and institutions to work together to reform their practices—exactly what the agency needs.” (New York Times editorial, July 8, 2010.)

Happy 75th, Social Security, Watch Out for Deficit Scam

by Mike Hall, Jul 15, 2010

Seventy-five years ago this August, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Social Security into law. Today, the nation’s most successful safety net, a program that has provided retirement security and kept hundreds of millions of seniors out of poverty, is under attack.

Politicians like House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) want to raise the retirement age to 70, and leading members of the federal budget deficit commission are trial-ballooning benefit cuts

Social Security Cuts Eyed by Deficit Commission ‘Especially Painful,’ Report Finds

by Mike Hall, Jul 15, 2010

Next month, Social Security, one of the nation’s most successful and important government programs, turns 75. It is the cornerstone of retirement security for tens of millions of Americans.

(Today, the U.S. House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security will examine the success of Social Security 75 years after President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law. We’ll be covering the hearing.)

‘Off With Their Heads’ Says Queen Meg in Attack on California Nurses

by Mike Hall, Jul 14, 2010

Meg Whitman, Republican candidate for California governor and billionaire former CEO of eBay has picked a fight with the California Nurses Association (CNA) that political observers think may backfire and energize nurses across the Golden State to work even harder to defeat Whitman in November. Meanwhile, the California Labor Federation launched a new online video and video game (left) that highlights Whitman’s job-slashing corporate history.

Some Real Questions for Chamber’s ‘Jobs Summit’

by James Parks, Jul 14, 2010

When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce kicks off its “Jobs for America: Summit 2010” this afternoon in Washington, D.C., the question workers most want participants to answer is: Will the Chamber help create good jobs at home or will it just keep backing corporations who chase the bottom line by sending jobs overseas?

Rather than straight talk about how corporate greed created the jobs crisis, Chamber leaders are expected to raise the same tired blather that too much regulation is strangling business. (Let’s see. There was SO much regulation of the financial industry in recent years that Big Banks didn’t run wild and wreck the economy. Oh, wait….)


Here are three questions the AFL-CIO and working people would like to ask the Chamber:

Netroots Nation: Tell Us Your Ideas for the Labor Caucus

by Tula Connell, Jul 13, 2010

Netroots Nation, the annual gathering of some 2,000 progressive bloggers and activists, is coming up fast—July 22–25—and we need your input on topics we should focus on at the Labor Caucus we hold there every year.

Labor communicators from the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and independent unions take part in the Labor Caucus, as well as allies from groups such as Jobs with Justice. This year, Matt Browner-Hamlin from SEIU and I are co-hosting it, and we want your input to help frame the agenda.


Participants in the Labor Caucus focus on issues affecting our work as labor communicators—how we can improve what we do and effectively reach union members and the public. Last year, we explored how to build our own online union community, connecting labor to the progressive blog world and utilizing our resources to make changes at the state and local levels, to support union members and campaigns

Netroots Nation: Vote on a Union Beer

by Laura Clawson, Jul 13, 2010

By popular demand, Working America and the AFL-CIO are bringing back last year’s “Raise a glass for the working class” booth—otherwise known as the beer booth—at Netroots Nation. If you come by our booth anytime the exhibit hall is open and take an action for working families, you’re entitled to come back and sample union beer during the happy hours we’ll be holding next week on Thursday and Friday of the convention.

We’ll have updates coming soon about what actions you can take and exactly when beer will be served. (Last year the actions included writing to your members of Congress about health care reform or the Employee Free Choice Act, or joining Working America.) But right now, the big question is: What beer should we serve?

WWW Center Hosts Historic Merger Summit

United Airlines Senior VP of Labor Relations Doug McKeen (left) and Continental Airlines Human Relations & Labor Relations Senior VP Mike Bonds (right) visited the Winpisinger Center and answered questions from IAM representatives and members regarding the proposed United-Continental merger.

Thu July 8, 2010

The prospect of a greatly consolidated airline industry is responsible for an unprecedented conference taking place at the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center in Southern Maryland.

More than 100 IAM representatives and members from Districts 141, 142 and 143 are taking part in the first-ever Transportation Merger Summit, designed to coordinate resources for upcoming representation elections at Delta Air Lines and to consider implications of the pending United-Continental merger.

As the largest union in the airline industry, the IAM represents employees at each of the carriers involved in this latest round of consolidation. District 141 represents more than 16,000 employees at United Airlines; District 142 represents about 11,000 Flight Attendants at Continental Airlines, Continental Micronesia and Express Jet; and District 143 represents 12,500 employees at the former Northwest Airlines.