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Report from the
IAMAW Women's Conference on October 10, 2007 in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
The theme was "Machinists
Women - Visions and Values in the Pursuit of Victories".
Conference delegates represented all five territories in the
IAMAW- Canadian, Eastern, Midwestern, Southern and
Transportation.
After receiving welcoming
comments from Lea Pearson, GVP of the Western Territory,
Cheryl Eastburn, Director of Women's Department, Diane
Babineaux, Executive Assistant to the IP and Charlotte Sund,
Director of the Human Rights Department addressed the
conference delegates. They stressed the importance of women
playing a major role in organizing and inspired the
delegates to stay involved in Union activities.
Larry Washam, Director of
the Organizing Department reported that the IAM's 61.5%
success rate in organizing drives was the highest in the
AFL-CIO in elections held and winning percentages.
Allison Beck, General
Counsel of IAM, presented a perspective on winning campaigns
with legal leverage.
Heather Kelley, GLR and
Cheryl's counterpart in Canada presented interesting
statistics such as women make up approximately 50% of the
American workforce and for the first time, over 50% of the
Canadian Union workforce are women. Heather led our
organizing activity and put us to the task of identifying
roadblocks in organizing. In particular, some of the things
that keep women from being involved in organizing drives as
well as being organized. We were assigned to groups based
on our territory. It was a great exchange of ideas and
interesting to note the similarity of comments from each
region.
Hasan Solomon, Assistant
Director of Legislative and Political Action reminded us
that politics affects every aspect of our life in this
country. He reported that we are making some gains in
legislation since labor friendly candidates have taken over
the Congress, but there is still much to be done. Labor
needs to continue its momentum and elect more labor friendly
candidates in the '08 elections.
IP Tom Buffenbarger, fresh
off the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton in Iowa, was
enthusiastic and inspiring as ever. He noted that
everywhere Hillary went, people wanted to talk with her, not
just shake her hand. He said you could feel and see
momentum building at each stop as she included the
conversations from one town to the next. He had ample
opportunity to express the "Machinists" position on such
topics as healthcare, worker rights, jobs, NAFTA and CAFTA
with her. He also made a point of saying that all of our
lodge meetings, conferences and conventions are open by
pledging the flag and wondered if there is any corporate
boardroom that does the same. As you know we were one of
the first unions to endorse Hillary Clinton for President.
Afterward, I spoke with Tom about endorsing Republican Mike
Huckabee in the primaries. He stated that 35% of our
membership votes Republican and that it was important to
acknowledge a candidate that was willing to express his
views on labor issues. We agreed it was a good decision.
Thank you for the
opportunity to represent LL 912 at this conference. It was
great to meet members including Elizabeth Brill-Salz, an
IAMAW Sister from GE Albuquque (in photo below) and to
network again with my sisters and brothers throughout the
IAMAW.
Respectfully submitted,
Rainey Rohrmeier
LL 912 Women's Committee Chair
 Report from the Coalition of Labor
Union Women Convention October 10-13, 2007 in Las Vegas,
Nevada
The theme was "A New Direction for Working
Women". This was the first CLUW convention I have
attended. CLUW President Marsha Zakowski ran a very well
organized, energizing and entertaining convention while
completing the passage of 16 resolutions and other
business. Nearly 800 sisters and brothers from various
unions attended. The IAMAW had one of the largest and
loudest delegations. CLUW is the one and only National
organization for Union women, with more than 37 years of
achievements. We were treated to a wide range of speakers
including the recently retired Linda Chavez Thompson, Former
Executive Vice President, AFL-CIO.
The greetings from dignitaries were quite
informative. For instance, UNITE HERE Culinary Union Local
226 has 60,000 members working in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a
proud union town. The Venetian is the only hotel on the
strip not organized.
All delegates were given a lead-test kit
complete with instructions given by Marilyn Furer, the
Whistle-Blowing Grandma. She spoke about how she proved
there was lead in baby bibs. The delegation proceeded to
pass Resolution#5 to support the "Protect Our Kids - Stop
Toxic Imports" campaign by calling on our government
officials to fix our nation's unfair trade policies that
discourage American manufacturing.
We heard from April Medlin, representing
Military Families Speak Out, (MFSO). 3700 military
families have joined MFSO. MFSO will hold peace rallies in
11 cities across the nation on October 27. She challenged
us to end the war by making it a topic of discussion at
neighborhood meetings, Union activities, faith and community
events and schools. She also noted the difference of
supporting our troops without supporting the policies of
this war. The delegation passed Resolution #6 to End
Bush's Iraq Folly and Debacle Now.
Dr. Evelyn Murphy, the author of
Getting Even: Why Women Don't Get Paid Like Men and What to
do About It, spoke about the gender wage gap. Her
research illustrates women still make $.77 for every dollar
earned by men resulting in a lifetime difference in pay of
$700,000 for a high school diploma, $1,200,000 for a college
degree and $2,000,000 for a MBA. She noted the comparisons
are based on year round full time working men vs. full time
working women. The delegation passed Resolution #2 in
support the Fair Pay Restoration Act.
A panel discussion included
representatives from the A. Philip Randolph Institute,
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Asian Pacific American
Labor Alliance and Pride at Work. The discussion focused on
the increasingly diverse membership of the American Labor
movement and its lack of representation in leadership
positions throughout the AFL-CIO. The delegation passed
Resolution #3 to support the aggressive implementation of
the AFL-CIO diversity resolutions that were passed at its
2005 National Convention.
We heard from HR John Conyers, (D-14th MI)
co-sponsor of House Bill 676 calling for a Universal Health
Care Plan. He noted that Medicare has a 2-3% overhead
compared to 25-30% overhead for private health plans and he
believes that healthcare is not a privilege, but a human
right. The delegation passed resolution #4 supporting his
plan.
CLUW's commitment to women's health
includes cervical cancer prevention and the contraceptive
equality law. The sister's project, where women whose
sisters have succumbed to breast cancer are involved in the
largest research project to be undertaken, spanning the next
10 years, in hopes of eliminating breast cancer.
Resolutions were passed to address these
health care issues of cervical cancer and breast cancer
early detection, screening and cure, along with expanding
the FMLA to include paid parental leave, reducing the risk
of HIV/AIDS and ending discrimination associated with
HIV/AIDS.
Presidential candidates John Edwards and
Hillary Clinton addressed the delegation via video. Both
are strong supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act and
Universal Health Care.
The organizing and economic resolutions
dealing with the Employee Free Choice Act, Made in the USA,
Stop Sweatshops, and Make International Trade Fair were
overwhelmingly passed.
The delegation discussed and passed
controversial resolutions such as supporting civil marriage
and opposing healthcare discrimination based on gender
identity or expression.
And finally, we passed a resolution
endorsing the "Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front
National Historic Park" as a tribute to the 6 million women
who were the manufacturing backbone of WWII. The park is at
the site of the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, CA.
There was a common theme throughout the
convention that encouraged our participation in political
action, organizing and spreading the word of union
benefits.
Please contact me for additional
information and materials on the above mentioned topics.
Respectfully submitted,
Rainey Rohrmeier
IAMAW LL912 Women's Committee Chair
513-366-7406 (pager) |