1 min read

Season 4, Episode 42

Buffenbarger: Get involved, stay involved, and always get back up

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Guest Name:


Tom Buffenbarger

Guest Website:


https://awf.labortools.com/ 

Guest Social Media:


Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

LinkedIn

Supportive Documents:


Tom Buffenbarger, America’s Work Force Union Podcast’s independent labor voice, joined the AWF Union podcast to discuss his time with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)

Buffenbarger shared a story from when he first realized he would be a machinist and tool and die maker. Growing up with a father who was a machinist, it didn’t take long for Buffenbarger to learn his passion for tool and die making. Being able to craft tools with his own hands fascinated him.

Buffenbarger recalled joining IAM as an apprentice working at General Electric. Starting as a steward to the apprentices, after 4 years, he moved on to the steward of his local before eventually moving on to become president of his Local in Cincinnati. Buffenbarger then moved to Washington, D.C., as an Executive Assistant to IAM International President William Whippersinger. After serving under Whippersinger and his successor George Kourpias, Buffenbarger became IAM’s youngest international president. 

Buffenbarger shared a story about the time he called out then President George W. Bush during a Day of Action Rally in 2007. According to Buffenbarger, together with his executive team, they led the way for a greater focus on diversity and inclusion within the IAM membership.

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about these topics.


America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

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