Above photo: Jay Cronk (in blue down vest) is working to replace Tom Buffenberger as President of the International Association of Machinists.
**Note: You may have seen the recent stories about the International Association of Machinists Union vote in Seattle that was undermined by the leadership at the very top. These three stories were sent to show that this is a long pattern of behavior. It’s time to democratize the unions!**
Maine shipbuilders protest vs. IAM trusteeship
(From the May-June 2008 issue of Union Democracy Review #173)
Thomas Buffenbarger, Machinists international president, dispatched his deputy to Bath, Maine on March 17 to change the locks on the hall of Local S6, then put the local under trusteeship, ousted the local officers, and took over negotiating a new contract. It was the culminating act in a long campaign to try to get this independent local under control. Routine. At worst, Buffenbarger might have anticipated the usual ineffective protest; but he could not have expected what followed: continued mass protest picket lines, an unfavorable local press, and powerful resistance in federal court.
This 3,400-member local represents workers at the Bath Iron Works which builds and repairs boats for the military and is owned by General Dynamics. The local is not easily quelled; its members know their popular president, Mike Keenan, — just removed by Buffenbarger’s trustee — as independent-minded, outspoken, and an occasional critic of the IAM district officialdom. He was elected in 2001 and has been reelected every three years since.
The international’s obvious drive to get rid of Keenan began when it supported an opposing slate against him in the October 2007 local elections. That first attempt failed when Keenan was reelected, along with Troy Osgood for vice president, and Michael Cyr for chief steward. Nevertheless, the international simply voided the 2007 election and ordered a rerun for February 12, 2008. This time, the rerun election was under total control of the international itself. Nevertheless, its second attempt to dump Keenan fizzled badly when his slate did even better than before. Nothing else worked against Keenan. The trusteeship followed on March 17.
To justify the trusteeship, the international obviously fished through the local’s books and records over the years to assemble a mishmash of alleged misdeeds: accounting errors, questionable payments to staff, late payments to suppliers, a presumed backlog of grievances, a dispute over payments for pizza. The local was charged with running a voided election in 2007, which could hardly justify a trusteeship: any defect was corrected by the new election.
One charge, oozing with lurid juice, was based on an alleged finding of child pornography on some local computers. What it was, no one would say but, in any event, it later came out that whatever it was, it was on some computer in Alabama.
When trusteeing a local, the international goes further; it makes it impossible for the removed local officers to defend their own rights in court or to defend the rights of the local membership during the period of trusteeship, because the international trustee takes control of all the local assets; and the local loses access to its own money. If the removed local officers, or any individual members, want to sue in defense of their legal rights, they must hire their own attorney, which is almost always prohibitively expensive for any normal human being.
But this case turned out to be different because with the assistance of the Association for Union Democracy, the local officers are represented by attorney Leon Rosenblatt, who is an expert on union democracy law, an AUD advisor, and serves on a contingency fee basis. With his help, they have been able to prepare an effective defense at internal union hearings and in federal court. (This account is based upon their formal statements, verified by newspaper accounts.)
Now in federal court, Keenan, Osgood, Cyr, and London charge that the IAM has violated their free speech rights protected by LMRDA Title I, that it has illegally imposed a trusteeship over the local in violation of Title III, and that it has defamed and harmed them in violation of state law.
They are represented by AUD Advisory Board member Leon Rosenblatt. Trial is expected in April 2009. Keenan claims under the trusteeship, the local is actually being run by the slate rejected by the membership. Meanwhile, 1,743 members have signed a “no confidence” petition objecting to the trusteeship.
IAM Local 2339N: Nasty aftermath to a Trusteeship
(From the November – December 2008 issue of Union Democracy Review #176)
RE: Buffenbarger imposing an international trusteeship over Local 2339N, the union which represents airline stewards in Newark, NJ
A year ago, in November 2007, Bob Korzuch, an IAM member for 16 years and Local 2339N president back in 2005, had opened what he called a “campaign” website. On November 4, 2008, about three weeks after the trustee showed up, Korzuch formally announced that he was a candidate for international president against Buffenbarger. The ax fell swiftly. On November 24, Korzuch received a short (22 lines) certified letter from Warren L. Mart, IAM General Secretary Treasurer.
Mart informed Korzuch that an IAM auditor had reported that, back then, when Korzuch had been local president, the books revealed a “shortage” of $24,114.72, and that “in order to secure and preserve the remaining assets of the lodge, you are hereby permanently disqualified from holding any office or representing members of the IAM in any capacity….” If Korzuch objected, he could ask for a hearing before a representative appointed by Mart who obviously had already passed sentence.
As an explanation or justification of the swift draconian fall of the guillotine, Mart’s letter makes no sense. Korzuch had been defeated for local president back in 2005; no one had detected any old “shortage,” whatever it may have been, in those three years. Moreover, he no longer had control over local money, so that peremptory disqualification to “preserve the remaining assets” was an absurdity. There was plenty of time for leisurely due process, charges, trial, and sentence.
But there is another possible explanation: The process of electing IAM international officers begins on January 1, 2009. The IAM obviously had to act promptly if it wanted to stop Korzuch from campaigning for international president against the administration. Only in that context does Mart’s letter make sense.
The IAM elects international officers by direct membership vote. To be eligible for a spot on the final ballot, candidates must be nominated by a least 25 locals; the two who receive most nominations are submitted for vote at membership meetings. Local nomination meetings begin in January 2009. The IAM had no time to fool around with extended due process. To keep Korzuch from exercising his LMRDA right to campaign, he had to be disqualified quickly.
After open hearings, the investigating committee (official title: “trial committee”) reported that the local was in disarray: the top officers had resigned, the books were messy, mail not picked up, bills paid late, no newsletter, and more, including the now familiar charge of pornography on computers. (The IAM seems to be keeping a fascinated eagle eye out for pornography. It’s not clear whether the trial committee actually verified the charge by a close scrutiny of the computer contents.) And so on October 10, International President R.Thomas Buffenbarger dispatched a trustee to take over. So far, a normal kind of trusteeship. But then things got IAM-normally nasty.
LaborNet – Global online communication for a democratic, independent labor movement .
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003
From The WarZone
International Association of Machinists Attacks Its Members in Chicago
IN ONE OF THE MOST bizarre examples of international union dictatorship, the International Association of Machinists [IAM] has taken its largest Midwest local into trusteeship. After violating the IAM constitution and the National Labor Relations Act, Thomas Buffenbarger, IAM International President, has moved to destroy what little democracy remains in the IAM.
IAM Local 701 in Chicago IL has for years been a well run local that has operated democratically and been the recipient of contracts most rank and file IAM members would be grateful for. Local 701 has more than 8000 members representing workers at UPS who maintain the fleet of trucks, at local car dealerships and workers at trucking lines who service trucks. 701 has been progressive in organizing by IAM standards and most certainly has been a union where members have had a decisive role in the decision making.
For the first time, the international union took over negotiations at the national level for its locals that represented workers around the country at UPS. The locals still negotiated local issues and maintained the right to vote on the contract. When local 701 members rejected the contract by a wide margin, the IAM reneged, denying local 701 the autonomy to negotiate.
Business Representative Jon Baker was told to “fix It” by Buffenbarger, according to sources in local 701. It is unclear how you fix a democratic vote by the membership when the IAM constitution clearly calls for a membership vote on contracts. Apparently, Buffenbarger applies a different set of guidelines. Local 701 was then placed in trusteeship and the duly elected executive board was suspended.
The IAM then fired the Recording Secretary, Bob Feehan. The IAM brought local officers and business representatives up on charges that many in the local believe are phony and designed to intimidate local members and officers. Jon Baker and Herb Elam, Directing Business Manager have both been suspended and brought up on charges.
Local 701 members have formed the Committee to Defend Local 701 and are holding membership meetings to build support for suspended leaders and defend 701 against the trusteeship. When trustee Roger Nauyalis held a membership meeting, the committee to Defend Local 701 organized a picket of their own hall.
The Committee to Defend Local 701 has filed charges against the IAM under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act [LMRDA] to defend their right to vote on contracts and a federal lawsuit has been filed to lift the trusteeship and reinstate the suspended business representatives.
An IAM trial committee has recommended dismissal of ten of the fourteen charges filed by the international union. It would not be in the interest of the IAM to square off with the Department of Labor or a federal court with charges that are obviously bogus. Clearly, if the IAM had as much interest in battling the employers as they did their own members, the IAM would not be struggling to maintain membership. It took the international union under the leadership [and that’s stretch of the imagination], of Thomas Buffenbarger to bring chaos and reproach to this local.
Chaos is nothing new in the IAM or any other AFL-CIO affiliate these days since the “business union model” has replaced democracy and rank and file participation. The IAM has suffered huge losses in membership due mostly to the top down style of current leaders. At United Airlines, the IAM suffered a staggering decertification vote and lost more than 13,000 members to AMFA, Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. AMFA, an independent union not affiliated with the AFL-CIO, now has more than 20,000 active members in the airline industry, most of them former IAM and Transportation Workers Union members. The recent United Airlines loss by the IAM is a clear signal to Buffenbarger and the IAM International Executive Board; rank and file members have had enough. I seriously doubt they get the message and there is absolutely no doubt they not will change their lust for top down control.
It is the nature of the Business Union Beast and it is that beast that is wreaking havoc on union democracy, membership involvement, and union organizing. No employer could cause the damage to the IAM that its own leadership has inflicted. As it turns out, nearly everything the employer associations say when they rail about “union bosses” is true. Working members of most unions not only have to face hostile employers every day of their working lives, but hostile leadership in their unions as well. Most union leaders today rule by fear, intimidation, phony charges, threats of loss of work, and trusteeships. They simply lack fundamental union values, democracy, a sense of fairness, and respect for the sacrifices of those who
forged our precious union.
Local 701 leadership and the members are solid on their desire to remain in the IAM and fight this battle from the inside. While AMFA has had successes, 701 remains dedicated to the IAM and have shown that dedication by their willingness to battle the injustice inflicted on them by international leaders who seem to have lost focus on real union values.
Court to IAM: Inform members of their rights
On September 21, 2000 Federal District Judge Peter J. Messitte in Maryland issued a final order prescribing precisely how the International Association of Machinists must comply with section 105 of the LMRDA, the federal law which is intended to protect the democratic rights of members in their unions. The full text of section 105 reads: “Every labor organization shall inform its members concerning the provisions of this Act.”
The union is required to do the following:
• Provide every new member with a summary of the act in a form mandated by the court. [Available from AUD]
• Publish the summary in three issues of the IAM Journal, beginning in March, 2001 and then once each in 2004 and 2008.
• Post the summary permanently and prominently on its web site under the title “Union Member Rights and Officer
Responsibilities Under the LMRDA.”
The full text of the law provides free speech in unions, assurances of fair elections, due process in trials, limits on trusteeships, and spells out the fiscal responsibilities of officers. Enforcement procedures for the various provisions differ. Section 105, the provision involved in this lawsuit, is enforceable only by private suit of union members themselves.
In this case, suit was brought in 1997 by three IAM members: Keith Thomas, David Smith, and Kelly Vandegrift. They were represented, pro bono, in the three years of burdensome litigation by attorney Andrew Rotstein.
