If you like the letter below, feel free to copy it and circulate it and send it in by Sept 5. The IAM Grand Lodge Convention will be voting on the dues increase the week of Sept. 7!!!!
August 23, 2008
Robert Roach
General Vice President-Transportation
9000 Machinists Place
Upper Marlboro, Maryland 20772-2687
Dear Brother Roach,
After reading your letter dated July 11, 2008 “All Air Transport and Railroad Local Lodge Presidents and Recording Secretaries,†regarding a probable dues increase at the Grand Lodge Convention, something becomes clear. There is a serious disconnect between what the union feels the union needs, compared with reality as members see it, and with what members feel – in their hearts and in their pocketbooks. We believe the good news is that this disconnect can be fixed.
We acknowledge the points addressed by the question in your letter, “Why doesn’t the IAM reduce costs instead of changing the dues structure?†What follows is not meant to deprecate those already taken actions, but rather to add to them.
Many of us have been to Grand Lodge Conventions, District Conventions, IAM headquarters, and Winpisinger Education Center. We believe costs can be cut further by evaluating what serves the membership the most. Examples:
1) Selling or renting out the land the golf course and tennis courts at the Winpisinger Education Center in Maryland. If they can’t be sold, can they be rented out to local farmers for crops or pasture? Maybe it can be sold to the boaters who have their boats berthed there for a clubhouse, lounge, restaurant, launching area, or something along that line. Even if it is only rented out, at least we save the costs on maintaining a golf course and tennis courts, which is not cheap.
2) Reducing the elaborateness of some of our printing. The Grand Lodge Convention Book (looks like and is as thick as a college catalog). The MNPL annual report book, and others are printed on high quality magazine paper and are extremely thick. How many of these are never read and recycled or just trashed? Can’t we reduce the quality of the paper, the number of pages and the number printed by making it available at the convention at check in if the member wants it? These books must cost several dollars each to produce. Some of the publications need to be high quality, but we think most appear to be extravagant and a waste of our hard earned dues dollars.
3) Consolidating conferences and elections;
a) Consolidate the district and national conferences for example, the Principal Officers Conference with the Grievance Chairperson Conference.
Set up 2 balloting days a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Have all local, district, and grand lodge elections, and anything else that requires membership voting by ballots (except contract or strike votes) done on these days. This saves money on elections mostly for the locals, but also the districts.
More broadly we encourage you to ask for input from we the members on where we can save money. We believe in the members, and we might all might be surprised at what they suggest. We know that not every suggestion will work. But asking the delegates to the Grand Lodge Convention, and the District Conventions to submit suggestion to you by e-mail, on the IAM website, and by mail or phone to a specific person makes sense. Thousands of heads are better than a few!
During the same time that Grand lodge full-time staff was reduced 15% from 2001-2007our staffing at the airlines has been reduced by 50% or more over the same time period. Based on those numbers, the 15% Grand Lodge full time staffing loss is more likely due to attrition then the forcible lay off of a sizable portion of Union Members. During the same period when the transportation department was experiencing multiple wage freezes, we were experiencing wage CUTS of up to 22%. We have had our pensions cut. We have had our holidays cut to in some cases to only 3 fixed holidays a year. We have had our vacation cut. We have had our sick-time cut. These are only a few of the CUTS we have made that have impacted our families’ welfare and us.
Inevitable questions arise. Have you and your staff had their vacations reduced? Have your holidays been cut to only 3 fixed days? Has your staffing been cut by over 50%? Have you and your staff’s wages been cuts up to 22%? Have you or any of your staff been forced out of their jobs to the unemployment line? Have you and you staff had their pensions reduced by as much as 50%? These questions may be difficult. Still it must be better to address them internally –and honestly– for the long term good of the union, rather than members coming to conclusions based on inevitable observations.
During this same period from 2001-2007, our dues have gone up each year. We grumbled about the dues increase each year, but we paid it. Now from the people who have lost the most, you expect more to support those who have lost the least? This doesn’t make sense. It raises more questions: Have you lost touch with us? Do you feel the pain we feel? The dues increase feels like the poor being asked to support the rich! This sounds like something Doug Parker at US Air would do, or Glenn Tilton at UAL would do. We ask you and the IAM leadership and staff to show solidarity and leadership with us the members by sharing the pain, and take pay cuts and holiday and vacation reductions, and not asking us to sacrifice more then we already are. We want to remind you that you, like us are a worker. You are our equals – workers like us. You are not supposed to be corporate Officers of a large corporation. We believe the dues formula currently in place, based on two hours pay, is the best system for the airline members in the current economic situation. Changing the dues structure for airline members at this time puts the Union in the same light as airline corporations by making our members and their families lives more difficult and financially taxing.
Fraternally,
August 23, 2008
Robert Roach
General Vice President-Transportation
9000 Machinists Place
Upper Marlboro, Maryland 20772-2687
Dear Brother Roach,
After reading your letter dated July 11, 2008 “All Air Transport and Railroad Local Lodge Presidents and Recording Secretaries,†regarding a probable dues increase at the Grand Lodge Convention, something becomes clear. There is a serious disconnect between what the union feels the union needs, compared with reality as members see it, and with what members feel – in their hearts and in their pocketbooks. We believe the good news is that this disconnect can be fixed.
We acknowledge the points addressed by the question in your letter, “Why doesn’t the IAM reduce costs instead of changing the dues structure?†What follows is not meant to deprecate those already taken actions, but rather to add to them.
Many of us have been to Grand Lodge Conventions, District Conventions, IAM headquarters, and Winpisinger Education Center. We believe costs can be cut further by evaluating what serves the membership the most. Examples:
1) Selling or renting out the land the golf course and tennis courts at the Winpisinger Education Center in Maryland. If they can’t be sold, can they be rented out to local farmers for crops or pasture? Maybe it can be sold to the boaters who have their boats berthed there for a clubhouse, lounge, restaurant, launching area, or something along that line. Even if it is only rented out, at least we save the costs on maintaining a golf course and tennis courts, which is not cheap.
2) Reducing the elaborateness of some of our printing. The Grand Lodge Convention Book (looks like and is as thick as a college catalog). The MNPL annual report book, and others are printed on high quality magazine paper and are extremely thick. How many of these are never read and recycled or just trashed? Can’t we reduce the quality of the paper, the number of pages and the number printed by making it available at the convention at check in if the member wants it? These books must cost several dollars each to produce. Some of the publications need to be high quality, but we think most appear to be extravagant and a waste of our hard earned dues dollars.
3) Consolidating conferences and elections;
a) Consolidate the district and national conferences for example, the Principal Officers Conference with the Grievance Chairperson Conference.
Set up 2 balloting days a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Have all local, district, and grand lodge elections, and anything else that requires membership voting by ballots (except contract or strike votes) done on these days. This saves money on elections mostly for the locals, but also the districts.
More broadly we encourage you to ask for input from we the members on where we can save money. We believe in the members, and we might all might be surprised at what they suggest. We know that not every suggestion will work. But asking the delegates to the Grand Lodge Convention, and the District Conventions to submit suggestion to you by e-mail, on the IAM website, and by mail or phone to a specific person makes sense. Thousands of heads are better than a few!
During the same time that Grand lodge full-time staff was reduced 15% from 2001-2007our staffing at the airlines has been reduced by 50% or more over the same time period. Based on those numbers, the 15% Grand Lodge full time staffing loss is more likely due to attrition then the forcible lay off of a sizable portion of Union Members. During the same period when the transportation department was experiencing multiple wage freezes, we were experiencing wage CUTS of up to 22%. We have had our pensions cut. We have had our holidays cut to in some cases to only 3 fixed holidays a year. We have had our vacation cut. We have had our sick-time cut. These are only a few of the CUTS we have made that have impacted our families’ welfare and us.
Inevitable questions arise. Have you and your staff had their vacations reduced? Have your holidays been cut to only 3 fixed days? Has your staffing been cut by over 50%? Have you and your staff’s wages been cuts up to 22%? Have you or any of your staff been forced out of their jobs to the unemployment line? Have you and you staff had their pensions reduced by as much as 50%? These questions may be difficult. Still it must be better to address them internally –and honestly– for the long term good of the union, rather than members coming to conclusions based on inevitable observations.
During this same period from 2001-2007, our dues have gone up each year. We grumbled about the dues increase each year, but we paid it. Now from the people who have lost the most, you expect more to support those who have lost the least? This doesn’t make sense. It raises more questions: Have you lost touch with us? Do you feel the pain we feel? The dues increase feels like the poor being asked to support the rich! This sounds like something Doug Parker at US Air would do, or Glenn Tilton at UAL would do. We ask you and the IAM leadership and staff to show solidarity and leadership with us the members by sharing the pain, and take pay cuts and holiday and vacation reductions, and not asking us to sacrifice more then we already are. We want to remind you that you, like us are a worker. You are our equals – workers like us. You are not supposed to be corporate Officers of a large corporation. We believe the dues formula currently in place, based on two hours pay, is the best system for the airline members in the current economic situation. Changing the dues structure for airline members at this time puts the Union in the same light as airline corporations by making our members and their families lives more difficult and financially taxing.
Fraternally,
