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IAM&AW LL2339N News
Saturday Sept 4th, 2010 |
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Greetings!
I want to start off by wishing everyone an enjoyable but most of all
safe labor day weekend whether you are at home relaxing with family and friends or flying the line with your IAM brothers and sisters. As this holiday weekend passes your union continues working to
protect your interests. We have completed our second merger summit,
finished another round of negotiations at Continental, and developed proposals for ExpressJet contract negotiations.
The finalization of the Continental/United merger has a fast approaching date of October 1st if there are no other road blocks. Although, we are working hard we still
remember our community. We will be looking to partner with an
elementary school(s) in the greater Newark area to reach out to the students needs as school gets back into the swing of things. We encourage
you to come to our Local Lodge meeting and bring in supplies that kids
need for the school year. Some recommendations would be hand
sanitizer, backpacks, pens, pencils, etc. These are times that we as a
Union can give back to the community we reside and work in.
Don't forget to attend our Local Lodge Monthly Business Meeting on Tuesday September 14th at 3pm Renaissance Hotel. Snacks and beverages will be served.
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ExpressJet Negotiation/Merger Update
Your negotiating committee met at the Union's William W.
Winpisinger training center in Hollywood, Maryland from August 26 - 29,
2010, to finalize contract proposals which will be presented to
ExpressJet management in Houston on September 20, 2010. Your committee
is well prepared to begin negotiations and achieve another industry
leading contract for our members.
On August 30, 2010 the committee joined with Executive Board
members and Communicators from all four Local Lodges as well as all
ExpressJet grievance representatives, for a second Merger Summit during
which we developed a Strategic Plan to preserve the rights and
seniority of our members during the unsettling acquisition/merger
process.
Please click here and take a moment to complete the negotiations survey to let your union representative know the issues that are most important to you.
In early October, President-Directing General Chairperson Tom
Higginbotham and General Chairperson's, Kate Romanausky and Randy
Hatfield will meet ASA President Brad Holt and Vice President of In-Flight Brandee Reynolds in Atlanta to discuss the implications of the merger regarding ExpressJet flight attendants. |
Merger Summit II
 Your union representatives met once again at the IAM's Winpisinger Education and Technology Center. The main concern of these Merger Summits are to protect the interests of flight attendants and ensure their voices will be heard in the merger process. Your Local Lodge representatives were there building on what we had put in progress at the first Merger Summit. We developed goals and formed plans of action in order to achieve those goals to best represent the flight attendants of Continental and ExpressJet Airlines.
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Sept 11th Memorial Service 
Memorial Service remembering and honoring the flight crew and all who gave their lives on September 11th, 2001.
All crew members who would like to attend please come in full uniform.
Memorial service is at Eagle Rock Reservation located at Prospect Ave. & Eagle Rock Ave, West Orange, NJ. Memorial Service begins at 8am on Saturday Sept 11th 2010. We ask you to please be early to meet with your IAM brothers and sisters.
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Labor Day and Its IAM History
One hundred and twenty-four years after it was first observed in New York City, most Americans regard Labor Day as the gateway between carefree summer and business-as-usual autumn, one last chance to toss frisbees in the park and fire up the barbecue.
It's a shame that the holiday's purpose - to celebrate the working American men and women who built the strongest and wealthiest civilization in the history of the world - attracts so little attention in the mass media.
Perhaps it is because the big corporations that control so much of the media don't feel comfortable with the day's pro-union message.
Whatever the reason, most Americans are oblivious to the fact that labor unions made it possible for them to enjoy sunny afternoons - or any afternoons, for that matter - with their families and friends.
After all, unions lobbied for laws that set the five-day, 40-hour work week as the standard for all Americans, not just union members. We also fought for vacations, holidays and pensions to enable millions to appreciate their lives outside of the context of their jobs.
It's up to us as union people to provide our fellow Americans with some remedial education about the labor movement. That's certainly what Matthew Maguire, a member of the IAM, had in mind when he conceived of Labor Day in 1882.
Maguire envisioned a holiday that would celebrate those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."
The resulting parade and picnic on Tuesday, Sept. 5, was a huge success. Participants, who had to give up a day's pay in order to attend, cheered speakers who demanded establishment of the eight-hour work day.
Labor Day soon became an annual event, switching to the first Monday in September in 1884. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
City governments first endorsed these celebrations with municipal resolutions passed in 1885 and 1886.
The first bill to establish Labor Day as a state holiday was introduced into the New York legislature, but Oregon became the first state to pass such a law on Feb. 21, 1887. Later that year, four more states - Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York - also enacted Labor Day holidays. Connecticut, Nebraska and Pennsylvania followed suit by the end of the decade.
In 1894, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the Pullman railroad strike. President Grover Cleveland signed the law immediately because he wanted to reconcile with Organized Labor after the deaths of strikers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals.
Since then, all 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday.
Labor Day remembers those who have labored for our country since its founding. It also commemorates the growth of the modern American Labor Movement, one that has grown from its roots in the colonial craft guilds to today's strong, vital union movement with membership numbering in the millions.
The work done by the American worker has contributed to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known. It has brought our country closer to the traditional American ideals of economic and political democracy.
I am proud that a day has been set aside to honor the men and women who have has been responsible for so much of the nation's strength, freedom and leadership -- the American workers. I hope you are too.
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Sincerely,
E-Board
IAM&AW LL2339N
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