2012 is Full of Opportunities

The coming year will be “full of opportunities” according to Jim Rivers, Legislative Director for Communications Workers of America Local 6201 in Fort Worth. He spoke at Local 848’s retiree luncheon on December 8th. Rivers began with a brief look at the world situation. He said that there were strikes and protests going on all over the world, and that they were caused by the same problems that we have in America. Among those problems are efforts to undermine or get rid of retiree benefits.

Rivers said that the main problem in America is jobs. If people don’t have jobs, then payroll taxes won’t be collected and social programs like Social Security and Medicare will face tough times. But on our side of the fight, we have the numbers, Rivers said. “Look at Egypt! Look at the size of their mass outpourings,” he told the retirees. Rivers said that big American corporations are sitting on $2 trillion that could be invested in important projects and good jobs. “If corporations won’t do it,” Rivers said, “the government should step in!”

The Communications Workers leader then went over the last couple of national elections. Americans won big in 2008, eh said, and excellent pro-labor legislation resulted. In 2010, we lost mightily, and working people have been under attack since then. The upcoming election year holds great promise, but people need to get involved and then work on getting everyone else involved, he said. Retirees responded to Brother Rivers with a few piercing questions and then a mighty round of applause.

At the same meeting, retirees decided to start having stretching opportunities before our 11 AM starting time. We also decided to make name tags available to everyone when they come in so that we can get to know one another more easily. By a big majority, the retirees decided that 11:15 AM is the cutoff to get tickets for door prizes. We welcome latecomers, but they won’[t get a ticket for prizes.

As a special treat arranged by Financial Secretary Dale Johns, Christmas poinsettias were added to our usual door prizes. Also thanks to the Financial Secretary, the main courses of ham and turkey were delicious!

Lupe Gomez with her poinsettia

Retiree Meeting - November 10, 2011

Retiree Meetings Just Get Better

Local 848's retirees continued to improve their attendance at the November 10th luncheon. They were especially glad to welcome their Sergeant at ARms, James Lambert back after an injury had kept him away for several months.

Former State Legislator Chris Turner spoke on the importance of Veterans' Day. During the Q&A session, he also filled the retirees in on important developments concerning Voter ID laws and redistricting.

Chaplain Gene Cates led a special presentation on Veterans' Day, then our many veterans came forward to receive the local's new sew-on patches and statements honoring veterans. Because there were too many veterans to fit in one picture, they were photographed as World War II veterans, Korean era veterans, and then all the more recent veterans.

             
Retiree meeting in progress                                                        Veterans - Korea                                                                        Veterans - WWII

Retiree Meeting - October 13, 2011

Vought Retirees Get Flu Shots

The October 13th retiree luncheon happily acknowledged the success of the Vought Negotiating Committee on getting the company to offer free flu shots to retirees for the first time in several years. Retirees can go in the Flagpole Gate, where the guards will tell them where to park and issue a temporary badge. Then they go into the medical clinic to get their free shot.

The retirees were inspired by the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and decided to explore the possibility of creating their own banner that would proudly proclaim "We are 99%." The "99%" indicates those of us who are not bankers nor wall street speculators.

Brother Joe Silva said he was glad to hear that Local 848 is keeping up with the auto companies on collecting retiree dues and V-CAP donations, but he believes we can do much better. Local 848 retirees encourages all retirees to make sure they their monthly pension statements reflect a $2 donation for union dues. If not, they should contact the local at 972-264-2431 and get a card sent out to them.

Brother Gene Cates volunteered to get us a benefits expert for our November meeting. The Medicare open enrollment period runs until December 7th, and the Alliance for Retired Americans offers a way to evaluate plans at this wet site: http://bit.ly/raCkB3. Hopefully, we will be able to unsnarl all the changes in government health care benefits. In November, we will celebrate Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. Turkey and ham will be the main dishes. A big turnout is wanted and expected.

After the meeting, several of the retiree activists gathered in our conference room for a conference call with the Alliance for Retired Americans in Washington DC. They decided on a press conference defending Social Security at Congressman Jeb Hensarling's Dallas office on October 27.

Below is a picture of the banner:

Retiree Meeting - August 11, 2011

Retirees Support V-CAP

Local 848’s retirees heard V-CAP rep Billy Brown at our regular 2nd Thursday retiree luncheon. Brown said that Local 848 is the top political fund raiser in UAW aerospace, and that the retirees have helped tremendously. We are the only aerospace union that has negotiated the ability to have small donations taken out of our pensions by Vought. Even though most of the donors only give $2 or $3 per month, it adds up very well. Of course, the two retirees who give $25/month help even more!

Brown went over the origin of the Volunteer Community Action (V-CAP) program. It came about after the government prohibited unions from participating in politics. They had to set up political committees that raised and spent their own money, so that no dues money ever goes to candidates, no matter how much they may help us or how badly we may need their help. Locals raise money by selling raffle tickets, but the biggest and most reliable source of political funds comes from payroll or pension deductions.

Since the pension deductions program is so vital, retiree activists agreed to meet at the hall at 10 AM on August 18 to do a mailing to all our retirees. Everybody is invited.

Local 848 activists will be selling V-CAP “Cruise” raffle tickets everywhere over the next few months. Retirees started in July!

Retiree Meeting - July 14, 2011

Retirees Take Action!

At our July 14 luncheon, Local 848’s retirees held a rousing discussion of the attacks against Social Security and other retiree benefits, but we didn’t stop at talking!

Wallace Manuel sold V-CAP cruise tickets. Local 848 retirees have an edge on all the other aerospace locals because we are the only ones that get small donations taken out of their pension checks. Consequently, we tend to raise more money for union political action than other locals. Manuel told the retirees, “We in America know that money talks and the other stuff walks.” An effort will be made to reach out to retirees by U.S. mail before the first of September, because many more retirees might be helping us raise political money.

Joe Silva pointed out that unscrupulous politicians are calling our Social Security an “entitlement” instead of what it is, our money that we deposited out of our own paychecks. “Our trust fund for Social Security is not any part of the federal problem,” he said. He added that politicians who call it an “entitlement” are guilty of a “bald faced bold lie!”

During the discussion, retirees refuted the “entitlement” lie and several other nonsensical excuses that politicians are using to try to take away the workers’ rightful benefits. Social Security is not insolvent. Even if it were, it would be easy to fix by requiring rich people to pay on it beyond the present “cap” of about their first $106,200 of annual earnings. Under today’s production methods, there is more than enough wealth being produced to provide for decent retirements. This country, despite all the lies, is not poor.

Neal Sloan encouraged everybody to participate in telephoning their Senators. He actually helped several retirees make the calls from our hall. Ed Reach brought pen and paper to every retiree, and a good number of them finished two letters, one for each Senator, before leaving.

Some of the letters were short and hard-hitting, such as this one from Mable Jones: “I ask you not to raid our Social Security to give others a tax break.”

Gene Cates wrote longer letters, and included this: “I am a lifelong Texan. 76 years old. I was one year old when they created Social Security. Have never seen a Senate that has had enough guts to try to remake the Social Security fund. We haven’t had a raise in two years. Make no doubt about this -- the Social Security fund is solvent.”

After a good period of discussion, socializing, and political action, we chowed down on fried chicken and delicious covered dishes brought from our homes.

Unionists Spreads the Word on Fair Trade vs "Free Trade!"

The President of the Dallas AFL-CIO, Nancy Hall, expects to come to Local 848's September 21 meeting to explain why everybody must oppose the so-called "Colombia Free Trade agreement."  She recently returned from a fact-finding trip there sponsored by the National AFL-CIO. More about the trip

President Bush is hoping to pass yet another "free trade" pact, this one with Colombia, before he leaves office. Nancy Hall can explain exactly why all legitimate U.S. and Colombian workers' organizations are dead set against it. She also drives home the importance of political activity by workers in the United States if anything good is going to happen.

On August 20, Hall took her message to the airwaves on the "Workers Beat" program that is presented 8-9 AM every Wednesday on KNON radio, 89.3 FM and www.knon.org.