What's New?
August 26, 2008
From the Metal Trades Department (AFL-CIO)
Metal Trades Department President Ron Ault issued the following comments following the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Gene Pratter in the Metal Trades Department’s suit against the U.S. Coast Guard:
The Metal Trades Department is disappointed in the decision of District Court Judge Gene E. K. Pratter, finding that the Coast Guard’s acted “reasonably” in its determination permitting Aker Philadelphia Shipyard to construct foreign kit ships. We have asked our attorneys to analyze the decision to see if there are adequate grounds for a reversal on appeal.
On the other hand, we are encouraged to see in Judge Pratter’s decision an allusion to the fact that there can be “reasonable” interpretations other than the one at issue here, given the same facts.
August 18, 2008
Strategic Industrial Base
Ron Ault
President
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
This week I was up on Capital Hill as part of a panel discussion sponsored by the Foundation for Nuclear Studies and the American Nuclear Society, titled “Is the U.S. Workforce Ready for the Nuclear Renaissance?” My question was-: “What Nuclear Renaissance?” The industry now projects building just eight new nuclear power plants with peak employment of maybe 4,000 skilled trades per plant…That’s hardly what I would term a “Nuclear Renaissance.”
August 11, 2008
Personality vs. Policy
Ron Ault,
President
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
I am a Vietnam veteran and I can tell you I have the greatest respect for John McCain’s service to our nation, just as I honor the service of my former commanding officer in the Navy, Commander Walter E. Wilber who was also a POW in the Hanoi “Hilton” along with McCain. When hostilities ceased in Vietnam, Commander Wilber, Lt. McCain and some 800 American POWs were returned by North Vietnam. All suffered extreme torture and mistreatment at the hands of their captors in violation of the Geneva Treaty. All are heroes and deserve the gratitude of our nation. However the experiences of those 800 brave Americans are not sufficient to qualify them as President, nor for any other political office for that matter.
August 6, 2008
Hogs at the Feeding Trough
Ron Ault,
President
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
The Metal Trades Department is the only labor organization that has a charter/constitutional responsibility to lobby for the American shipbuilding industry. One hundred years ago our founders wrote that into our constitution as one of our principle goals. When I was sworn in as the eighth President of this 100 year old labor organization, I swore to uphold the constitution. That is what I am trying to do in this article.
July 24, 2008
Whiners? Imaginary Recession?
Ron Ault, President
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
If you have never personally experienced poverty, you really have no idea about what it is all about. Multi-millionaire former Texas Republican Senator Phil Gramm, who until a few days ago, served as the chief economic policy advisor to Republican Presidential candidate and fellow multi-millionaire John McCain, never experienced anything remotely akin to being poor. He never had to choose between eating or buying prescription drugs; or having to choose between paying the rent or the electric bill. Phil Gramm thinks our recession is imaginary and those hurting from it are “whiners”. Why? Because he doesn’t know anyone it affects. The super rich don’t associate with common people like us. They think we are going through a slight economic downturn…because that is the way it affects them.
July 9, 2008
What Does ‘Victory’ in Iraq Mean?
Ron Ault,
President
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
Let’s close our eyes and imagine this news story: The Iraq government today announced the end of all hostilities in Iraq, asserting that violence had subsided to “pre-war levels.” Marking the end of the U.S.-led “war of liberation,” the Iraq and U.S. governments signed normal relations treaties and Iraq formally re-opened its embassy in Washington, D.C. The Iraqis also announced that they had re-joined the strategic Saudi/UAE alliance and OPEC. Additionally, Iraq’s Oil Minister announced today that he had signed an agreement for a cooperative partnership with state-run oil companies in China, Brazil, Russia and Iran to fully fund and jointly develop new refineries and oil production facilities in Iraq.
June 26, 2008
AFL-CIO Endorses Obama
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Today, the AFL-CIO officially endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president in his race for the White House against Bush third term stand-in John McCain. The endorsement throws the weight of the federation's massive national grassroots mobilization capacity--with more than 13 million union voters in 24 priority states--to the Illinois senator. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says Obama "has proven from his days as an organizer, to his time in the Senate and his historic run for the presidency, that he's leading the fight to turn around America."
Photo Credit: Joe Kekeris, AFL-CIO
6/24/08
One plus One Equals Three
Ron Ault, President,
Metal Trades Department
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Energy supply and demand is very fragile. Social unrest in Nigeria or a hurricane in the gulf and oil prices hit a new record…some say that America did this to the entire world. They blame America for the oil crisis and the resultant world wide recession. Yep, they believe it was us that did it. And they say we are still doing it. $4.00 a gallon for gas? Yes, they believe America is the cause of the record prices of gasoline.
6/10/08
Sick Nuclear Weapons Workers Rally
When:
- June 25, 2008-- 11:30 am and 12:30 pm
Where:
- Department of Labor's Cleveland District Office 1001 Lakeside Ave.;
- Denver, Co District office 1999 Broadway;
- Espanola, NM District office 412 Paseo De Onate, Suite D;
- Oak Ridge, TN 800 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Suite C-103;
- Las Vegas, NV--Flamingo Executive Park, 1050 E. Flamingo Rd, W-156
Contact:
- Terrie Barrie, Alliance of Nuclear Workers Advocacy Groups, for more information 970-824-2260, tbarrie@yahoo.com
Who:
Claimants under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICPA) are forming a united front to make Congress and the public aware of the desperate need for legislative reforms to the compensation program.
In honor of Ed Walker the founder of the Bethlehem Steel Action Group, the local AFL-CIO passed a resolution calling for change EEOICA. The Bethlehem Action Group will travel to the Department of Labor's Cleveland District Office and hold a rally asking for reforms.
Claimants from the Oak Ridge, Nevada Test Site, Rocky Flats, and Los Alamos to rally in support of the Bethlehem Steel Action Group initiative and call attention to the reasons EEOICPA needs to be reformed.
We Need Your Support:
We need the nation to insist that Congress make the Departments of Labor, Energy and Health and Human Services obey the letter and the intent of the law. We need claimants (approved and denied), family members and friends to attend these rallies. We need more sites to hold similar rallies. There IS strength in numbers.
Can We Count on You?
6/9/08
When does Ignorance become Stupidity?
by Ron Ault, President
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
Many people are ignorant of facts and statistics…but when politicians are fully aware of the facts and statistics and still keep uttering the phrase…”I am a free trader,” that is stupid, because they know better. Free trade doesn’t exist….it is a lie. Not only is it a lie, but it is a damn lie.
6/5/08
June 15, 1908—June 15, 2008
A Century of Service to the Working Men and Women of the Metal Trades
Looking at the rich history of the birth and development of the Metal Trades Department, we are struck by the similarities between the circumstances that faced the pioneering leaders of our movement a century ago and those we confront today. AFL President Samuel Gompers and the Metal Trades Charter President James O’Connell (also then president of the International Association of Machinists) struggled mightily against the powerful forces of wealthy and greedy employers and their allies who dominated Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court. A century ago, the major political parties had already taken on the philosophies that still guide them today. In 1908, Republicans gathered in Chicago to anoint their presidential candidate—Howard Taft—and crafted a platform that was strikingly similar to their present-day preference for profit over people. The Democrats, who, ironically, met in Denver to select William Jennings Bryan acceded to a number of concerns brought to their convention by labor delegates, including:
- A call for an eight-hour work day;
- Establishment of a federal Labor Department;
- Liability for employers who abuse workers;
- Relief for unions from the application of anti-trust rules; and
- Restrictions against the use of injunctions to break strikes.
Cynics might say that we haven’t traveled very far in this struggle for justice. Workers and their unions still confront the mighty forces of wealth, power and greed. Although we enjoy a slim margin of support within Congress today, the prevailing philosophy within the White House and the federal government it controls remains virtually identical to the attitudes embraced by the Republicans of the Taft era.
I prefer the optimistic approach of Sam Gompers and his crusading spirit, when he wrote: “In our labor movement lies the hope and the power of the future.” That is the underpinning that guides this Department’s mission even today.
In Solidarity, Ron Ault
See more on the history of the Metal Trades Department >
5/29/08
Annual Tri-Cities Charity Golf Tournament
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The Metal Trades and Building Trades Unions will hold its annual Tri-Cities Charity Golf Tournament on September 8, 2008 at the Horn Rapids Golf Course in Richland. All proceeds from this charity tournament will benefit the Tri-City Union Gospel Mission.
The Tri-City Gospel Union Mission is a non-profit, Christian organization committed to caring for the hungry, hurting and homeless in the Columbia Basin since 1954. Because of the generosity of so many individuals, organizations, and business, each year the Mission is able to serve over 50,000 meals, provide 21,000 nights of safe shelter for men, women and children, and distribute 182,000 articles of clothing to those in need. The Mission provides an important and vital service in time of need to our area and one that is worth helping.
We would like to also give my thanks to CH2M HILL for its corporate support as our prime sponsor.
Please contact Fred McClure (509-947-0287), Ed Carter (509-430-6429) or
Bill Engel (509-521-7626) with any questions, donations, and sponsorships.
Want to:
- Become a Sponsor--click here (word doc) (pdf)
- Enter the Tournament--click here (word doc) (pdf)
- Help us promote the Tournament--click here (printable pdf) (web jpg file 250 x 312)
4/30/08
Protectionist Legislation,
The Jones Act
By Ron Ault, President
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
Sometime I feel like Don Quixote, tilting at windmills. Fighting against the U.S. federal government, the combined might of four giant, multi-national corporations, the Maritime Labor Organizations, the U.S. Ship owners and a lot of heavy political hitters in the Philadelphia region could make you feel slightly paranoid. My wife tells me she wants me to increase my life insurance policy…such was the case last Thursday, April 17, 2008, when we appeared in Philadelphia federal district court in our lawsuit (PMTC v. Allen, et al.) against the U.S. Coast Guard whacky interpretation of the Jones Act that reverses the original intent of Congress and is plainly at odds with the requirements of the law. This is our third consecutive federal lawsuit against the Bush Administration on behalf of America’s workers.
4/30/08
Federal Court Rebukes Coast Guard In Case Challenging Jones Act Rights Seabulk Trader Was Refitted in China
A U.S. District Court Judge in Alexandria, VA, has found the Coast Guard failed to properly enforce the Jones Act when it granted coastwise trade authorization for a tanker vessel owned and operated by Seabulk systems because the ship had been refitted with an inner hull and new ballast tanks in China. “This decision is a powerful precedent in support of our position in the Metal Trades case challenging kit ships that the Coast Guard authorized at Aker’s Philadelphia Shipyard,” declared Metal Trades Department President Ron Ault. Ault pointed out that the Coast Guard used some of the same “circular logic and unsubstantiated claims to justify its actions in the Aker decision.”
- See the Court Decision (pdf)
3/28/08
“A Job No American Will Do”
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
Employers justify hiring immigrant workers by saying it is a job no American will do….
On March 27th, more than 100 Indian H-2B visa immigration workers staged a press conference at DuPont Circle in Washington, D.C. to draw attention to their claims of exploitation by Signal International, a Mississippi based Shipyard Corporation. The following day they staged a protest at the White House.
3/3/08
Let Freedom Ring
On March 1, 2008, the U.S.S. New York, LPD-21, will be commissioned in an elaborate, traditional Naval ceremony capped by a bottle of champagne breaking across her expansive bow at Northrop Grumman Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans, Louisiana. 7.5 tons of steel taken from the World Trade Center wreckage is cast into her majestic bow. The image of that cowardly terrorist attack is forever superimposed into the American psyche. It is poetic justice that an avenging United States Naval warship should contain as part of its soul, a portion of the destroyed World Trade Center structure that took more than 3,000 innocent lives. READ ON >
2/14/08
“Pop A Top Again”
“Pop a top again
I just got time for one more round
Sit em up my friends
Then I'll be gone
Then you can let some other fool sit down”
Country/Western artist Alan Jackson sings a song about drinking….pretty much a standard C & W signature theme…why is this a topic I am writing about? Let me ask you an important question. Would you give an alcoholic another drink to help his recovery from alcoholism? That is exactly the solution President Bush has proposed for the ailing economy and is pushing through Congress…and not one member of Congress has the guts to stand up and say no to serving this drink to some estimated 200,000,000 voting alcoholics in an election year. What member of Congress wants to be the one that takes the blame for taking away your $600.00 tax rebate?
Metal Trades Department Jobs Line
2/13/08
The Metal Trades Department has added new listings to the Jobs Line for Pascagoula, Avondale, Gulfport and Tallulah.
