IAM Airline Coordinator Tim Klima was elected Vice Chair of the Ground Staff Committee of the ITF’s Civil Aviation Section at the federation’s recent conference. IAM Canadian Airline Coordinator Carlos Da Costa was appointed Chairperson of the ITF’s Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Committee.

Klima, a 33-year IAM member, has served on the IAM Transportation staff since 2000.

“Tim will bring a wealth of experience to the world stage at the ITF,” said IAM Transportation General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “The IAM continues to bea strong and respected voice in the global labor movement through our many international leadership positions.”

Da Costa was an aircraft technician with Air Canada for 24 years and has served as the Canadian Airline Coordinator for the IAM since 2006.

“The ITF needed someone with a maintenance background and was familiar with the ITF, to head up their Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Committee and Carlos was ideal for the position,” said IAM Canadian General Vice President Dave Ritchie.

Founded in 1896, the ITF is a global union federation of more than 650 trade unions in 148 countries.

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Herbert Claros, Vice-Chairman of the Metalworkers’ Union of São José dos Campos, rallies Embraer workers in October 2013. Around 10,000 workers at the Brazilian aerospace company recently struck for fair wages and better profit sharing.

Workers for Embraer in São José dos Campos, Brazil have vowed to continue their fight for fair wages after narrowly voting to suspend the largest strike at the company since the world’s third-largest airplane maker was privatized in 1994.

More than 10,000 workers participated in the five-day strike, which ended November 10. They are demanding a 10 percent wage adjustment while the company is offering only 7.4 percent, a raise far below what workers in other plants in the region have already received. The current inflation rate in Brazil stands around 7 percent.

“Embraer is in a position to make workers a better offer,” said Herbert Claros, Vice-Chairman of the Metalworkers’ Union of São José dos Campos.

Claros said the company used intimidation and bullying to convince just over half of the workers to vote against continuing the strike. Younger workers used the hashtag #TamoJunto, or “Stand Together,” to rally support on social media, said Claros.

“It was historic, the biggest strike since the privatization of Embraer in 1994, and we had a huge turnout even with all the harassment,” said Claros. “Many workers there, especially the young people, were taking part in their first strike.”

According to a balance sheet released by the company, Embraer’s order backlog reached a record $22.1 billion in the third quarter of 2014. Embraer also receives billions of dollars in tax breaks from the Brazilian government.

“We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our Brazilian brothers and sisters who are fighting for what they rightfully deserve,” said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. “We call on Embraer to bargain in good faith with the workers who have made the company profitable.”

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Newly elected Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger after signing an alliance agreement in Stockholm, Sweden, to increase cooperation between the IAM and IF Metall in 2007.

The IAM welcomed news that former welder and global trade union partner Stefan Löfven has been elected as Sweden’s next Prime Minister.

“This is a great moment for Stefan Löfven, for Sweden, and for the global trade union movement which helped propel his candidacy to victory,” said IAM International President and long-time friend Tom Buffenbarger. “It will take all his skills as a negotiator to form a government among Sweden’s many factions, but I am confident he has the ability and experience to do so.”

Löfven served as president of the 450,000-member Swedish Metalworkers’ Union (IF Metall) from 2006 to 2012, when he was elected to lead Sweden’s Social Democratic Party. In 2007, the IAM and IF Metall formed an historic trans-Atlantic union alliance to better serve union members employed by global corporations. Löfven also holds the distinction of being the first head of state to attend the IAM’s William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center in Hollywood, MD.

Owen Herrnstadt, IAM Chief of Staff and Director of Trade and Globalization also praised Löfven. “If a welder named Stefan Löfven can become Prime Minister, then our faith in common sense politics based on raising everyone’s standard of living has been reaffirmed,” said Herrnstadt. “Stefan represents the kind of strong, compassionate national leader the world so desperately needs.”

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“Stefan Löfven’s skills as a union negotiator will be invaluable as he prepares to manage one of Europe’s most successful and developed economies,” said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. “The Swedish people have set a path for Stefan to form a new government and we are confident he will do so. I congratulate Sweden’s Social Democrats and my good friend Stefan. I look forward to working as closely with him in the future as we have in the past.”

Löfven served as president of the 450,000-member Swedish Metalworkers Union (IF Metall) from 2006 to 2012, when he was elected to lead Sweden’s Social Democratic Party. In 2007, the IAM and IF Metall formed an historic trans-Atlantic union alliance to better serve union members employed by global corporations.

“The election in Sweden gives workers and their communities here in North America fresh hope for a world based on fairness, decency, and justice,” said Owen Herrnstadt, IAM Chief of Staff and Director of Trade and Globalization. “If a welder named Stefan Löfven can become Prime Minister, then our faith in common sense politics based on raising everyone’s standard of living has been reaffirmed. It also means that the cynical politics based exclusively on money and self-interest can be defeated.”  

Founded in 1888, the IAM is among the largest industrial trade unions in North America, representing nearly 600,000 active and retired members in transportation, aerospace, woodworking, shipbuilding and manufacturing sectors. For more information about the IAM, visit www.goiam.org.

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Boeing, manufacturer of the 787-9 Dreamliner (above), logged over $40 billion worth of orders at the recent Farnborough Air Show in England.

As multinational aerospace companies gathered at the Farnborough Air Show in England, the IAM and delegates from the IndustriALL Global Union met to confront challenges facing the millions of aerospace workers around the world.

The air show is a biennial pilgrimage that aerospace giants like Boeing, Airbus and Lockheed Martin, along with hundreds of smaller vendors and suppliers, use to buy and sell products to airlines and governments around the world. The week-long trade show gives industry insiders the chance to strike deals worth billions of dollars.

Collective orders at this year’s show totaled almost $168 billion.

IAM Canadian Chief of Staff Stan Pickthall explains the challenges facing aerospace workers in Canada at a meeting of IndustriALL Global Union delegates.

Also present were representatives from over a dozen U.S. states looking to woo aerospace work, many of them touting low-wage workforces and anti-union laws. The industry is expanding rapidly in Central and South America, the Middle East and Asia.

“We meet at a critical time for our members and for aerospace workers throughout the world,” said IAM Chief of Staff and Director of Trade and Globalization Owen Herrnstadt.

“In every country we’re facing a very radical anti-union agenda that has gone beyond any realm of reasonableness,” said IAM Local 709 President Perry Gulledge.

Delegates from the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Spain, Belgium, Japan and Sweden shared ideas on how aerospace workers can build union power, confront growing trends of outsourcing work and hiring contract employees, and fight attacks on retirement security.

Canadian unionists voiced concerns over an increasing push by conservative politicians there to adopt U.S.-style anti-union laws. In Europe, the restructuring of Airbus could mean thousands of lost jobs and is threatening the existing works council structure.

“Not surprisingly, companies are taking advantage of unfair trade agreements, low tariffs and woefully low wages,” said Herrnstadt. “There really is no tomorrow for us unless we get our collective action together today.”

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“For far too long our trade and tax policies have worked for the benefit of multinational corporations that pay lip service to the importance of U.S. jobs,” wrote IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger in a recent letter to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL). “In just the last decade, the U.S. has seen the loss of six million manufacturing jobs as corporate profits have soared. At a time of continued high unemployment, Congress must take action to foster domestic job growth by ending the tax incentives for offshoring and by rewarding companies that bring jobs home. Working Americans understand this common sense logic, as do our global competitors.” 

Under the “Bring Jobs Home Act,” introduced by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), companies would no longer be able to use the U.S. tax code to subsidize the export of American manufacturing jobs to countries with little or no labor protections or regard for the environment. The bill would also encourage insourcing and the growth of American jobs by rewarding businesses that bring jobs back to the U.S. with a 20 percent tax credit for the costs associated with moving operations located outside the country back to the United States. 

“The Bring Jobs Home Act begins to bring sanity to our tax policies and, coupled with a fair trade agenda that ends currency manipulation and increases enforcement, will be a real engine of job creation,” wrote Buffenbarger. 

Click here to read the full letter.

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Australian Workers’ Union member Shane Burd, right, listens to IAM Collective Bargaining Coordinator Jim Price on a recent tour of IAM Headquarters.

The IAM’s “sense of community” struck a chord with a recent visitor from Australia.

Shane Burd, a member of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) attended a week-long Leadership I course at the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center as part of an exchange program between the IAM and AWU.

“What I found [in the U.S.] was the passion and pride that people have associated with their union,” said the Chief Steward at BlueScope Steel in Western Port, Australia. “The sense of community is huge.”

As part of the Leadership I class he attended, Burd participated in a mock union meeting. He said he was struck by that sense of community – things like funds for members who are hurting financially, women’s groups, Guide Dogs of America fundraisers and union BBQs. “It made me proud to sit in the room and listen to the way they spoke about it,” said Burd.

Burd also got the opportunity to learn about the differences – and similarities – between life for working people in the U.S. and Australia.

The chief difference begins with the political system. The Australian Labor Party is descended from labor unions themselves, which gives many in the labor movement the power to vote on legislation, instead of just lobbying for or against it.

Due in large part to labor’s strong political presence, Australia has a federally-mandated 38-hour work week. Anything beyond that is considered overtime, which Burd said is paid double for most people with union contracts. Every Australian is entitled to public health care and a pension when they reach the age of 65.

“That’s our biggest advantage over the U.S. system of politics is the fact that we have a parliamentary party that is sympathetic to the working man and enacts laws specifically for them,” said Burd.

But corporate greed, Burd said, is rampant in both countries.

“I hear from my American brothers here that businesses will come to negotiate a contract and say ‘Oh yeah you know we’re really poor, we’re not doing that well, we can only give you like 15 cents more an hour,’ ” said Burd. “Give me a break. I look at CEO pay watch lists, I know what people earn.”

“You can’t go to the people that generate your income and say, ‘Sorry buddy, I only think you’re worth 15 cents more an hour.’ Can’t stomach it. Cannot stomach it.”Burd will travel to New York and Los Angeles before heading home to Australia. It takes over 23 hours to get home by plane.

“Worth it, so worth it,” said Burd.

Click here to learn more about the Australian Workers’ Union.

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U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) is among a group of House Democrats calling on the office of the U.S. Trade Representative to stop using distorted trade export data. From left, Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Tonko and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).

A group of House Democrats are calling on the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to stop using misleading export numbers when making its case for future trade agreements, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is currently being negotiated in secret.

The USTR currently recognizes “re-exports,” or goods that are imported from another country, like China, to the United States and then immediately exported to another, as authentic American exports.

“They’re playing games with the data,” said Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “We’re here calling upon USTR to provide accurate information – data that are telling us the true story. As we go forward with trade agreements, it’s appropriate to have this done correctly and appropriately.”

Tonko, along with Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and other House Democrats, have been pressuring the USTR since April to use a more accurate set of data from the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), which removes re-exports, and paints a more realistic picture of the U.S. trade balance.

According to the USTR data that includes re-exports, the U.S. had an $85 billion trade deficit in 2013. That figure balloons to $177 billion if re-exports are cut out of the data.

“These are not U.S. made goods. Why are we spinning it and fooling ourselves?” asked Rep. DeLauro. “They do not create jobs here. They inflate export numbers to make these trade deals look better for our economy.”

Click here for a Public Citizen report showing how the USTR has used faulty export numbers to defend the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement, which has swelled the U.S. trade deficit with Korea by 50 percent in its first two years.

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ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton meets with Delta Air Lines Flight Attendants to let them know the ITF fully supports their efforts to gain IAM representation. Left to right, Cotton and Delta Flight Attendants, Dawn Peterson, Don McBryde, Masayo Tyner and Marianne Bicksler.

Illustrating the global reach of the IAM’s Delta Flight Attendant organizing campaign, IAM Delta organizers this week were greeted with tremendous support as campaign activities expanded to London.

Dozens of Delta Flight Attendants on layover signed election authorization cards at IAM visibility events far away from Delta management’s intimidating eyes. Unionized Flight Attendants from American Airlines, Air France and Iberia Regional also stopped by to offer their support and encouragement to Delta Flight Attendants.

“Delta has a history of surveilling their employees interested in unions,” said IAM Transportation General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “Hosting unannounced card-signing events outside the United States has proven very successful and is helping propel our campaign toward an election.”??

Representatives from the London-based International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), a global federation of 700 unions representing over 4.5 million transportation workers, also met with Delta Flight Attendants to show their support for the IAM’s campaign.

“Delta is the largest anti-union airline in the U.S. and in the global aviation industry,” said ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton, who attended one of the IAM’s events. “Airline workers everywhere will benefit when Delta employees are unionized.”

	UNITE, a British ITF affiliate, was on hand to show support for the IAM Delta campaign. Left to right, John Pigotti, British Airways Flight Attendant; Julianna Helminski, Delta Flight Attendant; Sue Kimber, Thompson Airways Branch Chair; Ashley Hawkins, Virgin Atlantic Reps Committee and Gaynor Worrell, Virgin Atlantic Reps Committee.

The ITF’s Cabin Crew Committee recently passed a resolution supporting the IAM’s campaign.

“This is the second IAM Delta event in which we participated,” added ITF Civil Aviation Secretary Gabriel Mocho. “We are eager to welcome Delta Ground Staff and Cabin Crew into the global union community.”

IAM Delta activists were invited to discuss their global campaign with national civil aviation leaders from UNITE, the U.K.’s largest union with more than 1.42 million members. UNITE is also Europe’s largest Flight Attendant union, representing more than 30,000 Flight Attendants at British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook, easyJet and others.

“We fully support Delta Cabin Crew in their goal to have a voice in setting their wages, benefits and working conditions,” said UNITE Civil Aviation National Officer Oliver Richardson. “Delta Cabin Crew deserve the same advantages of a collective bargaining agreement that Flight Attendants across the globe enjoy.”

“More Delta Flight Attendants have signed election authorization cards during this campaign than in any previous campaign,” said Pantoja. “I am confident that we will soon be moving from card collection to voting so Delta Flight Attendants can finally have the voice and protections that come from being part of the IAM family.”

The IAM is the world’s largest airline union. More information about the IAM’s campaign to organize Delta Air Lines’ 20,000 Flight Attendants is available at iamdelta.net. Updates about the IAM’s campaign for Delta’s Fleet Service employees are available here.

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LAN Peru aviation mechanics are responsible for the security of the flights of LAN and TAM Airlines (the LATAM Airline Group), and their function is fundamental to the maintenance of the aircraft and the safety of flights.

On June 26th and 27th a strike is likely to take place, called by the SITALANPE trade union, which represents 70 percent of all LAN Peru mechanics. The strike is expected to result in cancellations and delays across the region.

“We are the ones that review the planes each time that they land and if we do not sign the logbook of the aircraft, they do not leave,” said Juan Carlos Talavera, a LAN Peru aviation mechanic and press secretary of SITALANPE. “Without our approval, no plane will be able to fly and therefore the whole company will stop.”

Lima, Peru is the central hub for maintenance work for the LATAM airline network. The Peruvian mechanics maintain the cargo and passenger aircraft for LAN Argentina, LAN Chile, LAN Ecuador, LAN Peru, and TAM and LAN Cargo.

“The IAM stands firmly with our ITF-affiliated aviation technician and flight attendant sisters and brothers in their struggle to be treated fairly and without discrimination,” said IAM Transportation General Vice President and ITF Executive Board member Sito Pantoja. “The LATAM network should stop stonewalling and discriminating against these workers and offer them what’s fair.”

“Our mechanics’ union is supporting the Peruvian workers and is ready to express its solidarity and support,” said Dario Castillo Alfaro, the leader of the LAN Chile mechanics’ union. “As Chileans, we are depending on our Peruvian co-workers to protect the aviation sector in Latin America from the kind of cost cutting in operations that threatens the security of our passengers. As LAN and TAM workers we know that on behalf of passengers and aviation workers, it is our obligation to inform customers of potential problems and risks. The future of aviation in South America is being threatened by the company’s refusal to negotiate in Peru and Argentina.”

LAN Peru aviation mechanics say they have not received a salary increase in over 10 years and are paid half of what Chileans and Argentineans receive for doing the same work in the same company. Rather than resolve this problem the company has terminated seven mechanics, given forced leave to their most experienced technicians and hired inexperienced temporary mechanics.

Meanwhile, flight attendants at LAN Argentina have been working without a legal collective bargaining agreement since the start of the Argentinean subsidiary in 2005. Argentinian aviation workers report that, prior to the 2014 World Cup, TAM Airlines fired pilots and cabin crews and cut routes in Brazil in order to increase profits. This has generated worries that they will not be prepared for the avalanche of visitors to Brazil. Some 80 percent of TAM’s management are reportedly new. Cabin crew members point out that if they do not have decent working conditions and adequate rest, their ability to carry out their vital safety functions may be impaired.

The company’s inability to provide a stable working environment could lead to unnecessary delays and cancellations of flights, and may even put the high standard of operational safety at risk.

LAN Peru is the central hub for mechanical work on LAN and TAM, while attendants from LAN Argentina fly daily to Miami, Punta Cana, San Paulo, Lima and Santiago. Many of the increased LAN and TAM flights to Brazil for the World Cup have been routed through Argentina.

Click here to tell LAN and TAM Airlines to provide a fair and stable working environment for their workers, ensure the safety of passengers, and return the fired mechanics to work.

View videos of concerned passengers here.

Check out the ITF’s LATAM Network Facebook page.

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