Last Updated  10/21/2003

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Maytag Meltdown Makes Nightly News

The devastating impact of Maytag CEO Ralph Hake’s decision to close the company’s profitable
Galesburg, IL facility was featured in a recent NBC Nightly News segment that reached millions of
viewers.

The prime-time news program examined the economic damage to a nine-county region surrounding
Galesburg and reported on waves of layoffs expected to hit banks, schools and restaurants in
addition to 1,600 Maytag employees.

The report also focused on supplier plants throughout the Midwest where jobs will be lost and
operations substantially reduced due to Maytag’s Galesburg closing. According to Ludington, MI,
Mayor John Henderson, the economic impact in his area will be significant when Maytag decamps
for a low-wage facility in Reynosa, Mexico. “It’s $4 million out of wages that will no longer be spent
here,” said Henderson.

Closing the news segment was 36-yr old Jim McGovern Jr., a Maytag employee, IAM member and
Army Reservist recently called to active duty in Iraq. Asked about his concerns and expectations,
McGovern, whose wife Sandy recently lost her job at Maytag, said he expected to return safely from
the war zone, but that he had little hope of ever finding work in his hometown again.

George Hooper
1942-2003

Thursday, July 3, 2003 

IAM Mourns Vice President George Hooper
“The trade union movement and working families around the world lost
a tireless advocate and a fierce champion for workers’ rights,” said IP
Tom Buffenbarger as he paid tribute to General Vice President
George Hooper, 61, who died early this morning in an Austin, Texas
hospital.

“George Hooper was truly a respected and much-beloved officer of our
union and, at all times, exemplified the highest ideals of a trade
unionist,” he added. Buffenbarger recalled that his keen sense of
humor and joy of living made him a treasured personal friend as well as
a colleague in union affairs. “He had a zest for living that made him a
pleasure to be around,” he said. “He will be greatly missed by all of us.”

“George Hooper was the tough but gentle giant of the Machinists
Union,” explained Charlotte Sund, the IAM Director of Human Rights.
“He was passionate about his life’s work – protecting the little guy and
gal. He loved this union, and drew strength from its members.”

“But what was truly remarkable,” continued Sund, “was the way he
fought for ‘his folks’ at the bargaining table and within the labor
movement. He pushed hard for the advancement of women and
minorities into positions of real responsibility, and he gave them and all
his staff his unwavering support. His legacy of real solidarity will live on
in the men and women he fought for all these years.” 

George Hooper was nominated and elected as IAM General Vice
President in 1997 and assigned to direct IAM programs and activities
in the union’s Southern Territory, headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

He is survived by his wife, Shirley, two sons, Michael and Darrell,
daughter, Michele, and her husband Chris, and their children, Micaela
and Geoffrey, as well as his mother, Orene Hooper. "The entire
membership of the IAM extends its deepest love and condolences to
Shirley and the family at this sad occasion," Buffenbarger said.

Hooper joined the IAM in 1966, when he was initiated into Local 126 in
Freeport, Texas. He began as a Machinist apprentice and advanced to
journeyman status three years later. He quickly became active in union
affairs, serving as shop steward and holding almost every other union
office in his local. In 1974, he became business representative in
District 37. During those years, he served as vice president and
executive board member of the Texas State Council of Machinists.

In 1981, he became an IAM special representative and was named a
Grand Lodge representative two years later. In that role, Hooper
efficiently carried out a numerous assignments, including Southern
Territory automotive coordinator, General Dynamics coordinator, Light
Aircraft coordinator and Boeing coordinator.

As a political activist, Hooper served several terms as Democratic
Party precinct chair and attended numerous Democratic conventions.

George Hooper Biography

Hooper voted into Texas
Labor-Management Hall of Fame


Funeral Arrangements for
George Hooper:
Viewing Sunday, 
July 6, 6-8 PM

Cook-Walden Funeral Home
6100 Lamar Blvd.
Austin, TX 78752
512-454-5611

Funeral:
Monday July 7
1 PM

Redeemer Lutheran Church
1500 W. Anderson Ln.
Austin TX 78757
512-459-1500

Memorial contributions may
be made to:
Guide Dogs of America
13445 Glenoaks Boulevard
Sylmar, CA 91342

Phone: 818-362-5834
Fax: 818-362-6870
Email:
mail@guidedogsofamerica.org

Maytag job moves spark talk of boycott


The Machinists union, angered by Maytag Corp.'s decision to close an Illinois factory and move jobs to Mexico, is planning a nationwide boycott of Maytag products made outside the United States. 
A Maytag executive said a boycott could have unintended consequences, such as a layoffs of workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and others, if consumers bought fewer Maytag appliances.
The boycott threat, and union comments likening the plant closing to an act of terrorism, could prompt Newton-based Maytag to "rethink its entire labor relations strategies" with the Machinists union, including plans for new production at its Amana refrigerator plant, Mark Krivoruchka, Maytag's senior vice president of human resources, said in a letter to the union. The union released a copy of the letter.
The Machinists union represents production workers at the 2,100-employee Amana factory and the 1,600-employee Maytag refrigerator plant in Galesburg, Ill., targeted by the company for closing late next year. Maytag announced plans last October to close the Galesburg factory. Production would be moved to Amana, a new plant being built in Mexico, or contracted out to South Korean manufacturer Daewoo Electronics. The Machinists union has responded with a full-court press designed to save the jobs. The latest effort is a letter sent to Maytag's board of directors asking for a reversal of the decision to close the plant. Machinists spokesman Mike King said the union had received no response. Maytag spokesman Kevin Waetke said Tuesday that the company was going ahead with plans to close the
Galesburg plant. Maytag's plans to transfer some Galesburg production to Amana are unchanged, he said. King said a boycott would not be aimed at Maytag appliances produced at U.S. plants such as those in Amana and Herrin, Ill., where production workers are represented by the Machinists union, or in Newton, where factory workers are represented by the United Auto Workers. King said he didn't know when the boycott might begin. Its start could be tied to the beginning of production at the new Mexican refrigerator plant or other foreign locations. Waetke said all of Maytag's large appliances currently are made in the United States, although some components are made in Mexico. Maytag's Hoover division makes some vacuum cleaners in Mexico. 
The Machinists union has about 730,000 members, including retirees and workers on layoff. Consumers would be asked to join the boycott, King said. Dave Meyer, associate professor of management at the University of Akron, said boycotts aren't used often in labor
disputes because they're expensive and take a long time to produce results. In the case of a plant closing, Meyer said, there are few other alternatives.
The United Steelworkers of America used a boycott against Bridgestone/Firestone in the 1990s after the tire company hired replacement workers in a lengthy strike that included the Firestone agricultural tire plant in Des Moines. The campaign played at least a small role in resolving the dispute, Meyer said. The boycott affected sales only slightly, but tactics such as protest rallies were bad public relations for the company. The Machinists union and Maytag exchanged sharp words in two letters written in May. Maytag's Krivoruchka wrote Thomas Buffenbarger, international president of the Machinists union, on May 13, complaining of comments attributed to Buffenbarger at a union protest rally outside the Maytag annual shareholders meeting May 8 in Newton. Krivoruchka cited news reports in which Buffenbarger suggested a possible boycott, likening the transfer of American jobs to Mexico to terrorism and referring to Maytag as the "American Taliban." In a news release issued
after the shareholders meeting, the union urged the Maytag board to remove Ralph Hake as company chairman and chief executive. Krivoruchka's letter said, "We have worked hard to develop good working relations at the local and regional levels of the (Machinists union), and I am disturbed by these comments attributed by you."
Buffenbarger responded with a letter to Hake, saying, "You may have found my remarks 'offensive.' I find the conduct of your company despicable." 
The latest union letter to the board of directors takes a different tone, promising union cooperation to make the Galesburg plant successful if the company keeps it open. 

Unions Notch Overtime Win
A coalition of labor sensitive Democrats and
Republicans took their cue from more than 200,000 letter
writing union activists and forced the House Republican
leadership to cancel a vote on the latest comp time bill,
cynically named the “Family Time Flexibility Act.”

“After pushing the bill for months, the Republican
leadership finally realized that not all of their members
would blindly go along with unraveling the basic right to
overtime pay, which could literally take billions out of the
paychecks of working families,” said AFL-CIO President
John J. Sweeney.

The victory marks the second time in recent weeks that
House Republicans were forced to pull the comp time bill
just before a vote. 

“We won an important battle, but the far right’s war on
workers rights is far from over,” said IP Tom
Buffenbarger. “Until there is a fundamental change in
personnel and policy in Washington, we will continue to
measure victory by what we prevent rather that by what
we achieve.”

Federal Employees Face Crackdown
If Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gets his way,
nearly 620,000 civilian employees at the Department of
Defense (DoD) would lose the right to appeal disciplinary
actions at work and face a new system where
supervisors arbitrarily decide pay and promotions.

Additionally, the Rumsfeld Plan would take away
employees’ right to bargain collectively and remove rules
preventing managers from hiring family members and
political cronies.

“The proposed legislation gives the Defense Secretary
unprecedented powers over civilian employees and all
but eliminates the role of the Congress, the Office of
Personnel Management or labor unions,” said Frank
Carelli, director of IAM Government Employees
Department. “Federal employees need to contact their
representatives immediately and oppose this thinly
disguised power grab by administration officials and the
Department of Defense.” 

Click on the following link to send message to your
federal legislators to "Stop Defense Dept. Plan to Erode
Collective Bargaining Rights."

Buffenbarger Scorches Flawed Trade
Pacts
In a blistering speech to the Council of the Americas, a
business group that promotes free trade, IP Tom
Buffenbarger pointed out the devastation brought about
to North America’s workers by flawed trade policies such
as NAFTA and the proposed Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA).

Over its 10-year history, NAFTA “has cost workers in the
United States more than 700,000 jobs…virtually every
state in this country has lost jobs,” Buffenbarger told the
Council of the Americas at its conference in Washington,
DC.

None of the benefits that were promised have yet
appeared, Buffenbarger noted. “New markets that were
promised by those who supported NAFTA have not
appeared.” At the same time, “the small trade surplus the
U.S. had with Mexico before NAFTA has ballooned into a
$30 billion annual deficit.”

Instead of following this same corrosive trade path,
Buffenbarger urged a broader perspective: “We must
craft a new trade policy based on vision: fairness,
inclusion and democracy.

“Workers in the U.S—together with all workers of the
America’s—deserve no less.”

For the full text of the speech, click here.

UFCW Local 538 Battles Corporate Greed

April 28, 2003 - This weekend Union members from all over the Midwest responded to the needs of our UFCW
brothers and sisters on strike at Tyson Foods in Jefferson, WI. Thousands of dollars were donated to help support
the strikers including a check for over $1,000 dollars from IAM Local 1266 in Janesville, WI.

We all celebrated union solidarity. Not one member of Local 538 has crossed the picket line. They are all saying,
"We would rather bleed to death on the street, than bleed to death at work." They all intend to hold out "1 day longer"
than Tyson.

The Machinists Union had a large presence with members in attendance from the IAM Midwest Territory, IAM
District 10 in Milwaukee and IAM District 121 in Sun Prairie, WI. There were UFCW members from all over the
Midwest and United States in attendance. Almost all other unions were represented in large numbers at the event. 

The event included speeches from various union leaders, politicians and activist groups from all over Wisconsin. 
Food and refreshments were served with all proceeds going to UFCW Local 538 to help out the striking workers. 
Music was provided by Anne Feeney - union maid, hell raiser and labor singer. The event ended with hundreds of
union members marching to the plant gates where the enthusiastic crowd showed support for the striking workers
and their distain for Tyson's corporate greed.

NAFTA: The Sequel
Here we go again. A new trade plan proposed by the
Bush administration holds new threats for American
workers. The proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA), this new jobs-stealing plan creates the world’s
largest free trade zone by eliminating tariffs in every
country in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba.

“It’s NAFTA all over again—but 10 times bigger,” warned
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. By spreading
NAFTA’s shortcomings to 34 countries, the new trade
proposal could affect the lives of more than 800 million
people.

At last count, 766,030 actual and potential jobs in the
United States have been lost since NAFTA went into
effect in 1994 because of skyrocketing trade deficits with
Canada and Mexico, according to the Economic Policy
Institute. For more information, visit
www.aflcio.org/stopftaa.

VP Cheney Reaps Rich Dividend
Vice President Dick Cheney left his Undisclosed
Location for a brief visit to Capitol Hill last week. It was
well worth the trip. Cheney cast the tie-breaking vote on a
GOP budget resolution that preserves the President’s
huge tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers.

Cheney’s vote earned him an estimated $107,000 tax
cut; a tax cut that dwarfs the meager savings working
families are slated to receive from the Bush tax plan. Had
the President’s original $726 billion tax cut won
congressional passage, Cheney’s benefit would have
ballooned to $220,000.

With CEO pay soaring, America’s corporate elite salivate
over those numbers. The AFL-CIO’s Executive PayWatch
shows that the average CEO’s pay package totaled more
than $10.8 million last year. That’s 441 times the average
pay of regular workers.

Working families don’t fare quite as well. The nation lost
more than 2.6 million private sector jobs in the past two
years and 75 million Americans had no health insurance
at some period during the past two years.

While doling out billions of dollars to the wealthiest
Americans, the President’s so-called “Jobs and Growth”
budget plan cuts spending for schools, veterans’ benefits
and other programs that benefit working Americans.