Want to help UAW Local 848 get a good contract with Triumph? Sign our petition by clicking here. Tell your friends. We need all the help we can get!   You Are Needed! Your Dallas AFL-CIO will need a lot of help between now and November 2. It is crucial that we maximize our impact, and you can make a big difference! Please fill out the information below and return it to Janet Shaw, C/O Dallas AFL-CIO, 1408 N Washington#240, Dallas, TX 75204. If you want, just fill it out in this e-mail and return it to janetshaw@swbell.net. INVITE YOUR FRIENDS to volunteer on our web site: http://tx.aflcio.org/dallasclc/. Dallas AFL-CIO Volunteer Sign-Up               I will volunteer 5 times a year and will commit myself to the following activities.  I can be contacted for the areas checked below. ( )  I will make telephone calls to Union members. ( )  I will participate in door-door-membership GOTV     activities in Union neighborhoods. ( )  I will sign and mail cards to Union members. ( )  I will distribute yard signs after work on weekdays or     on Saturday. ( )  I will distribute Election Day polling signs on the way     to work. ( )  I will volunteer to serve committees such as on the Texas      AFL-CIO Scholarship Screening Committee. ( )  I will volunteer for membership GOTV activities in my     neighborhood. ( )  I agree to participate in leafleting, informational picketing     or other peaceful group actions. ( )  I will help in registering members to vote. NAME____________________________________ ADDRESS_____________________________________ LOCAL UNION________________  PRECINCT #_________ PHONE  (h)__________________ (cell)__________________ EMAIL__________________________ :js PCW #2348 IUPAT/afl-cio   Vought Employees of Building 16 Global Hawk Assembly show Support for Our Troops by wearing red shirts on Friday     Election Results for Steward Zone 2, District 21 UAW LOCAL 848   Special Election   July 7, 2010   Steward Zone 2, District 21             G.W. "Mo" Morrison 4     George Aslinger 31*     Robert E. Thomas 10     D.W. Howie Long 6         * Denotes Winner   International Reps tour Vought-Jefferson Street and Marshall Street   Black History Month: Celebrating 50 Years of Black History Martin Luther King Jr Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron Michael Jackson Nelson Mandela President Barack Obama For more information please check the link: http://specials.msn.com/A-List/Black-history-month.aspx?cp-documentid=20782545&imageindex=1 Haiti Relief Organizations recommended by International Union Oxfam America- www.oxfamamerica.org Doctors Without Borders- www.doctorswithoutborders.org Grassroots International- www.grassrootsonline.org America Red Cross- www.redcross.org UAW Local 848 Donates to Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) in support of families of fallen service members President Romeo Munoz hands check for $214 to TAPS Run and Remember Director Marie Campbell Union families attend meetings together Committeeman Frankie McIntire, daughter, and wife attend UAW Local 848's June Membership Meeting Committeeman Frankie McIntire's daughter draws raffle ticket winners at the June Membership Meeting pictured with Financial Secretary Dale Johns Steward Phil Alley, wife, and daughter attend UAW Local 848's May Membership Meeting In Memory of UAW Local 848 President Ron Cohagan                      (January 3, 1957 - April 5, 2009) Memorial Service held at the Union Hall . Celebrating the Life and Work of Labor & Civil Rights Leader Cesar E. Chavez . For 2009 Scholarship Application and Information please click on the link below 2009 Scholarship Information Local 848 members lobbied State Representatives Alonzo and Miklos, among many others, in early February UAW Members cooking lunch at the Can Do Food Drive

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Soldier Visits 848

Soldier Trung Pham has one important message that he sincerely wants to get to the members of Local 848:

“Tell them how much I appreciate their support!”

Trung, son of Brother Henry Trung, an assembler on the G-5 at Vought, was injured during an 18-month combat tour of Iraq. He was sent back for another 12 month second tour. While home on September 11, his father and Local 848 Steward Brett Buie took him into the Jefferson Street plant for introductions. Afterward, they came to Local 848.

Henry Trung is a Vietnam veteran who served in the South Vietnamese Navy. He points out, “My whole family is in the military.” After two long tours in Iraq, Trung hopes to be able to stay stateside and continue his college career, but he can’t be certain. He is skeptical of President Bush’s announcement that troops will be withdrawn from Iraq  some months after he leaves office, because Trung knows of another large group of soldiers presently mobilizing for deployment in Iraq.

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 The softball team bid farewell to Henry Stovall (left) who retired

from the company on April 25^th. Fernando Argumaniz (right)

manned the grill and former player Scott Mueller joined the party.

The softball team lost the UAW State championship 14-11 to

Local 276 on May 4^th , the loss has given the team cause to

re-focus on the upcoming Region 5 tournament.

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Workers Getting the American Ax!

One of the most important labor developments of the present has largely been hidden from view. United Auto Workers’ members in Michigan and New York locals were forced out on strike February 26 by the American Axle Company. Management wants to halve their wages and slash their other job benefits, not because the company is bankrupt, but just because they want to add to the millions they are already raking in!

The UAW International has called for an April 18 rally at 11:30 AM CST at Hart Plaza in Detroit. Members of Local 235, 262, 2093, 424, and 826 will be there to publicize the need for solidarity against American Axle management.

Chapters of the long and dreadful story of how this disastrous state of events came about is partially familiar to everyone who has watched the anti-worker team of government and corporate management over the past 28 years. Before this ugly period began, General Motors and most big corporations manufactured their own parts. As the assault on workers grew, they began “spinning off” satellite corporations which could attack smaller groups of workers rather than having to take on the entire UAW. North Texans have had an up-close view of the problems that former GM employees had at Mackie, Lear, and Delphi. Those parts suppliers have ripped more concessions than they could have under the umbrella of a large General Motors contract.

In the recent case of Delphi, which used the handy bankruptcy laws supplied by the Reagan/Bush era to slash their workers, General Motors actually had to step in to settle the overall dispute. American Axle, unlike Delphi, isn’t even hiding behind the convenient bankruptcy laws. According to Automotive News, American Axle CEO Richard E. Dauch is sitting on a $344 million pile of cash.

As American strikers refuse to make axles for GM autos, management is increasing production at their Mexican plant. That is not enough, and a number of General Motors fabrication plants are already idled because they can’t get parts. Automobile fabrication parts have gone to “just in time” inventory management, which means that they don’t stockpile a lot of parts in advance. It is entirely likely that even more GM cars will not be made.

 The GM plant in Arlington, Texas, is being idled. Management told the Dallas News reporters that they were shutting down just to even out their inventory of finished autos, but the article pointed out that the axles for Arlington would be shifted to other plants. Texas UAW members have a special problem that is unique to this state and is directly connected to the anti-worker policies of government. When he was Governor of Texas, George W. Bush’s state government ruled that no union man or woman could draw unemployment even though laid off through no fault of their own but because of a strike somewhere else. Just to make the Texas ruling especially rancid, they allowed any nonmember scabs at the General Motors plant to draw unemployment while prohibiting the union members! That practice continues today, and weighs heavily on our brothers and sisters at UAW 276 in Arlington!

Although the American Axle strike is nearly three months old, few Americans know about it. Because of an article on www.aflcio.org, UAW Local 848 learned some of the gory details and quickly passed a resolution in support of the strikers at UAW Local 2093, the only local mentioned in the AFL-CIO article. Even though they are aerospace, not auto workers, they took up a cash collection at their union meeting on March 16. On April 10, UAW 848’s Retiree Club passed the same short solidarity resolution.

Hopefully, the UAW’s Detroit rally on April 18 will generate some realization that this situation is tremendously important for all American workers. Hopefully, the old union slogan, “An injury to one is the concern of all,” will come into play and we will unite with American Axle’s victims and win this one before the rest of us, too, feel the sharpness of the American Ax!

--Gene Lantz