...Union vote at Precision Castpart falls short for IAM
(From Page 1)
gave union representatives no equiva-
lent access, and when union volunteers
and staff visited workers at home, anti-
union fliers called that “privacy viola-
tion” while displaying a picture of a
man trying to get in a door as a fright-
ened-looking woman, and her dog, try
to close it.
Precision Castparts also publicized
Boeing layoffs of Machinists members
in Washington, and contrasted that
with Boeing’s expansion of its non-
union operations in South Carolina.
PCC had purchased land in Idaho, it
was said. The suggestion was veiled,
but clear enough: Unionize, and the
company might just shut down and
move elsewhere.
But in the next breath, managers
would make elaborate apologies, and
plead for another chance.
“We failed to listen enough and we
failed to communicate enough with
our employees,” said PCC Structurals
president Kevin Stein in a personal let-
ter to employees. “We have learned a
valuable lesson during the past couple
months, and I commit to you that we
will work hard to make sure it doesn’t
happen again.”
“We have heard you!” said a flier
signed by all company managers. “We
JUNE 21, 2013
are sorry we put you in this position!”
Other fliers described fat union staff
salaries, low strike benefits, and fines
against union members who crossed
picket lines during a strike.
The union is only after your dues
money, said PCC — a company that
cut off its pension for new hires at a
time of record-breaking profits. PCC’s
stock is at its all-time high on the New
York Stock Exchange, and the com-
pany reported $1.2 billion profit on
$7.2 billion in sales its most recent fis-
cal year.
It’s that kind of contrast that drove
the interest in unionization, Larkin
said: “Given the financial success that
the company is currently enjoying,
what excuse is there, really, for taking
away defined benefit pensions or ag-
gressive forced overtime? If this is how
they behave when they’re making
money, what’s going to happen when
they’re not doing so well?”
In spite of allegations of company
labor law violations, IAM has no plans
to file charges with the National Labor
Relations Board.
“However, if there is any evidence
of retaliation or harassment or discrim-
ination among organizers or support-
ers, we would file charges immedi-
ately,” Larkin said.
Going forward, IAM plans to main-
tain contact with PCC workers. By
law, workers can try again in a year’s
time.
“It was a hard campaign, and a hard
one to lose, but I feel we’re closer to
where we’re trying to get,” Larkin said.
“It’s not unusual for a successful cam-
paign to have two or even three elec-
tions before they get to the bargaining
table.”
Secret Pacific Rim trade deal on track to completion
A NAFTA-style trade agreement
with 11 Pacific Rim nations is en route
to completion. Talks on the agreement
known as the Trans Pacific Partnership
(TPP) were initiated by President
George W. Bush in 2008 and have pro-
gressed, largely in secret, under the
Obama administration.
At the end of a May 15-24 session
in Peru, trade negotiators said they ex-
pect the treaty to be concluded in Oc-
tober. The next meeting will take place
July 15-25 in Malaysia, with a final
meeting slated for September some-
where in North America.
The participating countries are Aus-
tralia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia,
Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore,
the United States, and Vietnam. About
half the countries already have trade
agreements with the United States.
Some of the countries are advanced
industrial democracies with high wages
and established workers rights protec-
tions. Others, like Vietnam and Brunei,
are low-wage platforms where workers
lack independent unions. Lowering
barriers to trade and investment in such
cases can lead to a race to the bottom.
“Broadly speaking, it’s a corporate
power grab,” said Arthur Stamoulis,
executive director of the Citizens Trade
Campaign — a national coalition of la-
bor, environmental, consumer, family
farm, religious, and other civil society
groups.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Stamoulis said the United States has
made some effort to include enforce-
able workers rights standards in the
agreement. But workers rights haven’t
been a priority for U.S. negotiators on
par with “investor rights” and “intel-
lectual property rights.”
Trade negotiators haven’t released
details of the agreement to the public.
Nor are the U.S. negotiating positions
being released, though as many as 600
corporate lobbyists and other stake-
holders have access to them. One of
those stakeholders is the national AFL-
CIO. AFL-CIO trade policy expert
Thea Lee says she knows what the
U.S. is proposing, but isn’t allowed to
divulge it.
But what has been made public
about the negotiations so far is grounds
for deep concern, the AFL-CIO execu-
tive council declared in February, be-
cause it relies on NAFTA as a template.
“The NAFTA-based model pro-
motes a race to the bottom in workers’
rights, wages, pensions and working
conditions; resource conservation;
food safety; and consumer protec-
tions,” said the executive council in an
official statement. “It actively under-
cuts the public policies that helped
bring about the rise of the middle class
in the first place. … The United States
cannot afford another trade agreement
that hollows out our industrial base and
adds to our substantial trade deficit.”
PAGE 3