Machinists’ News

IAM continues fight for changes in Ontario labour law
Campaigns

In 2015 Minister of Labour Kevin Flynn initiated the Changing Workplaces Review to undertake the largest review of Ontario’s labour laws conducted for decades and report back to the Minister. The review was to consider issues brought about, in part, by the growth of precarious employment. The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) has made important recommendations to the Employment Standards Act and Labour Relations Act. The IAM believes that it is crucial to

Anti-Airport Privatization Campaign
Campaigns

As of June 1, 2017, the IAM will kick off our national “Anti-Airport Privatization” campaign with the support of all Local Lodges within District Lodge 140. Our preparations for this campaign began at the recent IAM Transportation Conference held on April 2017. Delegates discussed the reasons why privatizing airports is bad for our members, the flying public, and the national airlines in Canada, and developed a unified message to deliver

Organizing through Communicating
Machinists' News

Austin, TEX – The better a union communicates with the unorganized, the better its chances of growing. That idea was hammered home during the second day of the 2017 IAM Communications Conference in Austin, Texas. A panel of communicators revealed their best communication tools for organizing. The fact that surprised a lot of delegates was that 96 per cent of text messages are read! Canadian Communications Representative Frank Saptel supported

Babineaux bids communicators farewell!
Machinists' News

Austin, Tex – Outgoing IAM General Vice President Dianne Babineaux gave her final address to IAM Communicators this morning at the 2017 IAM Communications Conference. She told the 125 delegates, including 20 from Canada, that all of them are a big part of the Union’s success. “It will be tough to retire but I see only great things ahead from all of you,” she said. Adding to the conference theme

IAM 2017 Communications Conference
Machinists' News

“We do a lot of good work in a silo and nobody knows about it and we have to change that,” said IAM Canadian GVP Stan Pickthall in his address to the 2017 IAM Communications Conference in Austin, Texas. “We can do that through social media but the spoken word through face-to-face contact has proven successful in Canada and that’s expanding with every plant visit I make.”      

Texas AFL-CIO defeats anti-union senate bills
Machinists' News

       Austin, TEX – Texas has long been known as ground zero of the anti-union movement in the United States and two recent senate bills display just how low republican dominated states are willing to go to eliminate unions. In his address to the 2017 IAM Communications Conference delegates, Texas AFL-CIO President John Patrick described two particular nasty pieces of legislation aimed at eliminating unions. “In Texas, the

Site visit roadshow travels to Quebec
Machinists' News

Montréal, QC – Canadian GVP Stan Pickthall continued his mission to meet face to face with as many members as possible this week by conducting workplace site visits in  the Montréal area. Accompanied by Chief of Staff Gord Falconer, and IAM Québec coordinator David Chartrand and IAM Aerospace Coordinator Gerald Tremblay, GVP Pickthall will spend the week touring manufacturing facilities represented by the IAM. He will meet not only with

Fair Trade versus Free Trade: an Update on Free Trade Agreements
Machinists' News

By Aurélie Sarrabezolles, Research Director We thought the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) had been withdrawn, since the U.S., following the presidential election, decided to walk away from it. This is no longer the case. Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam are the countries still negotiating this harmful deal. Japan is the biggest player and has decided to go ahead without the U.S. As for

Tug of War between the House and the Senate continues over Bill C-4
Machinists' News

Ottawa, ON – On May 5th, the House of Commons considered the Senate amended Bill C-4. This       Bill was introduced in the House to repeal the shameful Conservative government Bills C-377 and C-525. When this Bill went to the Senate for deliberation and approval, the unelected Senators found it necessary to flex some muscle and proceeded to negatively amend the House Bill by including some of the ill-conceived previous Conservative

The fight for 15 gains ground and the new CLC executive is elected by electronic vote!
Machinists' News

Toronto, ON – There were many highlights at the 28th Canadian Labour Congress held in Toronto May 8-12th but two really stood out. More than 3,000 delegates took the message of the need for a $15.00 minimum wage to the financial district of Toronto on Thursday May 11th. It was a two pronged march through the streets of Toronto at noon hour culminating with a massive block party in front