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by Metal Trades Staff | Jan 10, 2019 | Congress, News
Text of letter sent to all U.S. Senators regarding the shutdown from President Hart:
On behalf of the Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO, its 17 international affiliated union and its more than 100,000 member, we are deeply concerned that approximately 800,000 Federal Government employees are working without pay or temporarily furloughed because of the current government shutdown. A crisis not of their own making, this jeopardizes the livelihoods of their families and undermines the economic well-being of their communities, which rely on their steady paychecks — as well as members of the broader public who depend upon their services.
The Department respectfully calls upon Senator Mitch McConnell and all members of the Senate to bring the Consolidated Appropriations Bill of 2019 to a vote without partisan delay, and vote in favor of this bill, ending this unconscionable interruption in the nation’s business.
President, Metal Trades Department
by Metal Trades Staff | Jun 15, 2018 | Congress, Federal Employees, News
On June 11, 2018 the following letter was sent to President Trump signed by 21 members of Congress objecting to his recent Executive Orders regarding federal employees.
See the full text of the letter below. Or download a pdf here.
June 11,2018
The Honorable Donald Trump
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania A venue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Trump:
We are writing to express our objections to the recent Executive Orders issued on May 25, 2018, providing guidance to all federal agencies involving employee representation rights, collective bargaining, and due process.
As Members representing a significant number of hard working federal employees and retirees, we urge you to uphold the current law and long-standing federal labor statutes that protect America’s civil service from discrimination, unfair treatment, and sexual harassment.
Federal employees work to secure our borders, keep our airways safe, support our military, and maintain order by policing our communities. In fact, we are proud that more than 30 percent of the federal workforce is comprised of veterans who have also served our country through military service. Federal workers have taken an oath of service to our great nation, and we take very seriously their duty to provide the American public with quality services. That is why we believe that now, more than ever, it is important to uphold and strengthen the working relationships between federal workers and agency leadership.
Management and labor must work collaboratively to ensure that the workplace is safe, fair, and productive. The federal government is most efficient when these two entities can work together to address challenges and improve the delivery of public services. When such a system exists, the result is agency cost savings. Tax payers deserve a government they can trust to provide important public services, and they also expect a just and fair government.
As one of the largest employers in the nation, and as stewards of taxpayer dollars we must ensure that the federal government strives to be a model employer that provides stellar services to the American public. We are concerned that the recent Executive Orders embark upon a path that will undo many of the longstanding principles protected by law, which establish checks and balances not only in the federal workplace, but for the American public.
We believe that the three Executive Orders undermine existing labor laws and we ask that you rescind them.
by Metal Trades Staff | May 31, 2018 | Congress, Federal Employees, News
Dear Speaker Ryan, Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leaders Pelosi and Schumer:
This past Friday, May 25, 2018, President Trump usurped Congressional authority as well as undermined settled policy and law when he issued three executive orders denying the rights of federal workers contained within Title 5 governing civilian personnel matters.
Title 5 is the driving factor that ensures that corruption, patronage, and politics do not influence the federal workforce. However, President Trump disregarded the constraints on his constitutional powers, and unilaterally proclaimed what amounts to be new law — despite the fact that bipartisan majorities of both houses of Congress have consistently supported Title 5.
The Metal Trades Department, and its 17 affiliated International Unions, have one simple request, stand with the federal workforce and take legal action to block the implementation of the President’s unlawful actions.
America’s workers are counting on you to transcend the banality of partisan politics that threaten the core of our democratic institutions. The workers that comprise the Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO, respectfully and forcefully request that you confront, and stop, the President’s illegal actions.
by Metal Trades Staff | May 15, 2018 | Congress, News, Shipbuilding, The Jones Act
The Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO strongly supports the Energizing American Shipbuilding Act. We urge Congress to move forward on Congressman John Garamendi’s legislation.
View Rep. Garamendi’s whitepaper on “The Energizing American Shipbuilding Act: A Plan to Create Good Middle Class Jobs, Maintain Critical National Security Assets, Enhance Public Safety, and Strengthen the American Shipbuilding Industry” to learn more.
From the Whitepaper: The U.S. Merchant Marine and shipbuilding industries are strategic national assets critical to national security, with the Department of Defense relying on our U.S.-flag fleet and its pool of trained and credentialed mariners for over 95 percent of national sealift needs in times of war or emergency. Yet this fleet is in a state of precipitous decline: the number of privately-owned U.S.-flag vessels engaged in foreign trade has dropped from 249 in the 1980s to just 78 as of October 1, 2016.
This signals not only the erosion of our sealift capabilities, but also the outsourcing of security and control over the supply chain that underpins our entire economy. The world relies on maritime transportation to move ninety percent of its global trade, but very little of that travels on U.S.-flag ships. Of the 1.4 billion tons of goods that are imported and exported through U.S. ports each year, 98 percent travel on foreign-flag vessels operated by foreign mariners.
The erosion of our ability to build and operate ocean-going vessels at competitive rates is also a threat to our industrial base. Good manufacturing jobs in shipyards and shipbuilding supplier companies have been outsourced oversees at alarming rates, and with them the invaluable technical skill and shipyard infrastructure that once kept costs down for both commercial and naval shipbuilding.
Inertia and bad public policy precipitated this decline, but Congress can turn the ship around by passing the Energizing American Shipbuilding Act.
Contact Congress and tell them to move on the Energizing American Shipbuilding Act
Contact Congress today and tell them to move on H.R. 1240, the Energizing American Maritime Act. Unless Congress takes action, ALL exported American crude oil and LNG traveling by ship will go on foreign-built and foreign-flag vessels operated by foreign crews, outsourcing ALL of the associated jobs and technical skills to foreign competitors. This bill would expand our U.S.-flag fleet, create over 2,000 new mariner jobs, and create thousands of additional jobs in shipyards and throughout the shipbuilding supply chain. I hope we can count on your support.
The Act Will Support Good Middle Class Jobs
Tens of thousands of American mariner and manufacturing jobs aboard vessels, in shipyards, and throughout the U.S. supply chain depend on the strength of the maritime industry. There are currently 117 active shipyards in the U.S. spread across 26 states, and another 200 shipyards engaged in repairs or capable of building ships. In 2011, the U.S. private shipbuilding and repair industry directly provided 107,240 jobs, $7.9 billion in labor income, and $9.8 billion in gross domestic product to the national economy. Including direct, indirect, and induced impacts, on a nationwide basis, total economic activity associated with the industry reached 402,010 jobs across all 50 states, $23.9 billion of labor income, and $36 billion in GDP in 2011. Each job in the private shipbuilding and repair industry supports another 2.7 jobs nationally, including increased revenue for small – businesses serving maritime workers and their families. Each dollar of labor income in the shipyard sector leads to another $2.03 in labor income in other parts of the economy.
The Energizing American Shipbuilding Act would:
- Immediately launch an LNG shipbuilding program in the U.S., ramping up over time so that by 2040, 15% of exported American LNG travels on U.S.-built and –flagged vessels;
- Immediately launch a crude oil shipbuilding program in the U.S., ramping up over time so that by 2032, 10% of exported crude oil travels on U.S.-built and –flagged vessels;
- Require that a significant portion of the iron, steel, and manufactured components be U.S.-sourced and U.S.-constructed, good U.S. manufacturing jobs in addition to mariner jobs;
- Require that exporters immediately create training opportunities for American mariners aboard export vessels so they can earn the credentialing required to assume these jobs.
