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IAM Attacks Its Chicago Members
By Mike Griffin
In one of the most bizarre examples of international union dictatorship, the International Association of Machinists [IAM] has taken its largest Midwest local into trusteeship. After violating the IAM constitution and the National Labor Relations Act, Thomas Buffenbarger, IAM International President, has moved to destroy what little democracy remains in the IAM.
IAM Local 701 in Chicago has for years been a well run local that has operated democratically and been the recipient of contracts most rank and file IAM members would be grateful for. Local 701 has more than 8000 members representing workers at UPS who maintain the fleet of trucks, at local car dealerships and workers at trucking lines who service trucks. 701 has been progressive in organizing by IAM standards and most certainly has been a union where members have had a decisive role in the decision making.
For the first time, the international union took over negotiations at the national level for its locals that represented workers around the country at UPS. The locals still negotiated local issues and maintained the right to vote on the contract. When local 701 members rejected the contract by a wide margin, the IAM reneged, denying local 701 the autonomy to negotiate. Business Representative Jon Baker was told to “fix It” by Buffenbarger, according to sources in local 701. It is unclear how you fix a democratic vote by the membership when the IAM constitution clearly calls for a membership vote on contracts. Apparently, Buffenbarger applies a different set of guidelines. Local 701 was then placed in trusteeship and the duly elected executive board was suspended.
The IAM then fired the Recording Secretary, Bob Feehan. The IAM brought local officers and business representatives up on charges that many in the local believe are phony and designed to intimidate local members and officers. Jon Baker and Herb Elam, Directing Business Manager have both been suspended and brought up on charges.
Local 701 members have formed the Committee to Defend Local 701 and are holding membership meetings to build support for suspended leaders and defend 701 against the trusteeship. When trustee Roger Nauyalis held a membership meeting, the committee to Defend Local 701 organized a picket of their own hall.
The Committee to Defend Local 701 has filed charges against the IAM under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act [LMRDA] to defend their right to vote on contracts and a federal lawsuit has been filed to lift the trusteeship and reinstate the suspended business representatives.
An IAM trial committee has recommended dismissal of ten of the fourteen charges filed by the international union. It would not be in the interest of the IAM to square off with the Department of Labor or a federal court with charges that are obviously bogus. Clearly, if the IAM had as much interest in battling the employers as they did their own members, the IAM would not be struggling to maintain membership. It took the international union under the leadership [and that’s stretch of the imagination], of Thomas Buffenbarger to bring chaos and reproach to this local.
Chaos is nothing new in the IAM or any other AFL-CIO affiliate these days since the “business union model” has replaced democracy and rank and file participation. The IAM has suffered huge losses in membership due mostly to the top down style of current leaders. At United Airlines, the IAM suffered a staggering decertification vote and lost more than 13,000 members to AMFA, Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. AMFA, an independent union not affiliated with the AFL-CIO, now has more than 20,000 active members in the airline industry, most of them former IAM and Transportation Workers Union members. The recent United Airlines loss by the IAM is a clear signal to Buffenbarger and the IAM International Executive Board; rank and file members have had enough. I seriously doubt they get the message, and there is absolutely no doubt they not will change their lust for top down control. It is the nature of the Business Union Beast and it is that beast that is wreaking havoc on union democracy, membership involvement, and union organizing. No employer could cause the damage to the IAM that its own leadership has inflicted. As it turns out, nearly everything the employer associations say when they rail about “union bosses” is true. Working members of most unions not only have to face hostile employers every day of their working lives, but hostile leadership in their unions as well. Most union leaders today rule by fear, intimidation, phony charges, threats of loss of work, and trusteeships. They simply lack fundamental union values, democracy, a sense of fairness, and respect for the sacrifices of those who forged our precious union.
Local 701 leadership and the members are solid on their desire to remain in the IAM and fight this battle from the inside. While AMFA has had successes, 701 remains dedicated to the IAM and have shown that dedication by their willingness to battle the injustice inflicted on them by international leaders who seem to have lost focus on real union values.
If you want to help Local 701 in this important struggle for justice, here’s what you can do. Send a contribution to the legal assistance fund to the Committee to Defend Local 701. Write a letter expressing your outrage to Thomas Buffenbarger, President, IAMAW, 9000 Machinist Place, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-2687, and send a copy to The Committee Local 701 PO Box 1218 Oak Park, IL 60304. Call the IAM International offices at: 301-967-4502. Contact the committee at their website [email protected]. You can order copies of their newsletter and handbill IAM organized facilities in your area. The more IAM members know about what their international is doing, the less likely they are to get away with it. If we can force the IAM to make this right, it will give other locals hope of achieving democracy.
From The WarZone
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