|
Home
IAM Featured on Wheel of Fortune
TRCP Union Sportsmen's Alliance
To showcase the pride and skill of Machinists union
members, the IAM is sharing sponsorship of Wheel of Fortune TV
episodes later this year. Not only will contestants compete to win some
products manufactured by IAM members, but up to 47 million viewers per
week will learn about the Machinists union through a series of
commercials that will air periodically.
Look for IAM spots and products on shows aired between April 23 and May
18 and then again from August 27 through September 7 (including Labor
Day).
"We want America to know about the Machinists union and the products our
members proudly manufacture," said IP Tom Buffenbarger. "As the
number-one syndicated show in America, Wheel of Fortune is a
great way to get our message out about the Machinists union and the
benefits of union membership."
TRCP's Union Sportsmen's Alliance
The goal of the USA is to create an outdoor hunting and
fishing club exclusively for union members and their families with the
purpose of actively engaging union sportsmen and women in the ongoing
fight to create a better future for hunting and fishing while helping to
create their own outdoor community that will extend union member
benefits beyond the workplace, into the woods and onto the water. Check
out these websites:
At 8:30 Eastern on Friday evenings and again at 10:30 am
Sundays you can join us on the VERSUS network (formerly OLN) for Escape
to the Wild, a new show dedicated to taking American workers on dream
sporting adventures.
----------------(back to top)
America's Union Members
America's 16.1 million union members include a wider range of people
than ever before. They work in hospitals and nursing homes, schools,
auto assembly plants. They work on construction sites, trains, buses,
and air planes. They are doctors, nurses, poultry workers, graduate
employees, home health care aides, wireless communication workers,
engineers, security guards, musicians, electricians, high-tech workers,
machinists, teachers, postal workers, janitors and many more.
Union membership is important to all of these people, helping them to
gain decent wages and working conditions and being able to have a voice
in their jobs.
Good union jobs mean stronger communities. Union workers earn 25% more
than nonunion workers and are more likely to receive health care and
pension benefits than those without a union. Unions lead the fight today
for better lives for working people.
----------------(back to top)
Tax Dollars Fund Wal-Mart
Empire
Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, used more than $1 billion in
taxpayer money to build its stores and warehouses, according to a study
by Good Jobs First, a non-profit research group.
"Shopping for Subsides: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer money to Finance it's
Never Ending Growth" examines Wal-Mart's shameless use of taxpayer
dollars to build their empire, as well as the company's tendency to
create poverty-wage jobs and kill good jobs elsewhere.
The report was the first study to highlight deals made by state and
local officials that subsidize Wal-Mart through property tax abatements
and sales tax rebates.
Good Jobs First found that since the early 1980's taxpayers have helped
fund 84 Wal-Mart distribution centers at an average subsidy of $7.4
million. Additionally, 160 Wal-Mart retail stores received an average
subsidy of $2.8 million
----------------(back to top)
Winpisinger Named to Labor Hall of Fame
Former IAM International President William W. Winpisinger has join a
list of labor legends that includes John L. Lewis, Mother Jones, Walter
Reuther, A. Phillip Randolph, and Cesar Chavez when he was inducted into
Labor's International Hall of Fame April 30, 2004 in Madison Heights, MI
In addition to Winpisinger, who led the IAM from 1977 to 1989, this
year's Hall of Fame inductees include Olga Marie Madar, the first woman
elected to the Union Auto Workers' executive board and five members of
the United Farm Workers of American who were slain while trying to
organize farm workers.
This year's induction ceremony was held at United Food and Commercial
Workers Local 876's union hall in Madison Heights. Last year, the
induction ceremony was held in New York City and drew about 200 people.
----------------(back to top)
Local 1725 Member Dies in Heroic Rescue
Funeral services were held in June in Charlotte NC for Local 1724 member
Kent Edward Sandefur, who perished while rescuing two small children
from the waters off Tybee Island, Georgia.
According to the police, Sandefur was walking along the beach with a
group that included his minister's children, ages 9 and 6, when all
three were swept into deep water by what witnesses described as a rogue
wave.
The 36-year old utility worker at US Airways in Charlotte, NC
successfully fought waves and currents to bring both children back to
safety. At one point, Sandefur held one child over his head while urging
the other to keep going toward the shore. Bystanders helped pull the
children the remaining yards to safety, but Sandefur never made it back.
A search by police, lifeguards and the US Coast Guard for Sandefur's
body was called off the following morning.
Fellow union members had nothing buy praise for their co-worker, who
rarely took vacations and worked hard to support his family. "He was
always talking about his little boy," said Rich Buschel, editor of Local
1725 Victory News. "He worked so hard he once fell asleep at the wheel
going home and wrecked his truck." Kent Sandefur is survived by his wife
and three sons, ages 5, 14 and 17.
|
