Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) met for a day-long conference on Oct. 16 at the downtown Marriott hotel.
The IAMAW is one of North America’s largest trade unions with nearly 600,000 active and retired members.
According to James Clements, president of the Georgia State Council of Machinists, right now the biggest issue the organization faces is the current drive to push Delta Air Lines to allow its workers to organize.
The IAMAW is working with the Teamsters Union and Association of Flight Attendants to prevent “trust busting” by Delta. According to members of the unions, Delta is in violation of federal law by threatening termination of anyone taking part in trying to form a union.
Recently, Delta shareholders rejected a proposal in which the company would agree to remain neutral during and allow workers to decide if they want a union organizing drive.
Georgia is one of 27 states in the nation that are “right to work,” that is workers have less protection than other states and can be fired for virtually any reason.
However, the National Labor Relations Act forbids employers from “interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in the exercise of rights relating to organizing, forming, joining or assisting a labor organization.”
Federal law prohibits companies from firing workers who want to unionize and it also prohibits promising benefits to employees to discourage any union support.
While most trade unions are more associated with the Democrat political party, Clements says that the IAMAW in Georgia works down the middle of the aisle to lobby for worker’s rights.
Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff spoke to the group by ZOOM and the Chairman of the Richmond County Republican Party, Steve Sanders, also attended the conference and spoke as well.
“We have made it a point to work with the rank and file of both parties. We have made it a point that trade union issues are kitchen table and checkbook issues, not partisan issues,” Clements said.
Sanders says that he was pleasantly surprised to be offered the chance to speak at the convention.
“I had the opportunity to speak on how our goals as a community should be to get good people to step up and run for office. We also discussed the need for more students to take the path into technical school and learn a trade, those are things we can all agree on,” Sanders said.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
