July 30, 2015
Compiled By Steve Wishnia And Neal Tepel
With Airbus almost finished with its new airliner-manufacturing plant in Mobile, Alabama, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers has opened an organizing office near the factory.
The union says its main objectives are apprenticeship programs, respect on the job, and preventing plants in an often anti-union region from undermining good jobs in the industry. “The IAM also has a responsibility to protect the pay and benefits of more than 100,000 aerospace workers it currently represents in the U.S. and Canada,” lead organizer Al Granado said in a statement. “We believe the establishment of a non-union aerospace enclave would create corrosive cost-cutting competition in an industry that has a reputation for high quality and high productivity.” The office will also “provide organizing support and information for workers employed at the dozens of area vendors which will supply the Airbus assembly line,” he added. Read more here.
