Tom Buffenbarger, the retired International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to sound the alarm on two fronts simultaneously threatening union workers and the American public.
At the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Mo., IAM Union members who produce munitions for the U.S. Armed Forces are on strike against Olin Corporation, which Buffenbarger said is refusing to share the profits from a booming government contract with the workers who make the ammunition. At the same time, Buffenbarger warned that a potential merger between United and American Airlines — the two largest carriers in the country — could eliminate 25 percent of the jobs across both carriers and hand control of more than half of all daily U.S. air traffic to a single entity.
Tom Buffenbarger knows the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant well. The retired international president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers — the IAM Union — spent years representing the workers there, and when he describes what they do and what they are fighting for, it is with the authority of someone who understands both the danger of the work and the stakes of the current dispute.
IAM Local 778 members in Independence, Mo., are on strike against the Olin Corporation, the contractor that operates the facility. The plant produces ammunition used by the U.S. Armed Forces, and is doing so at a time of heightened operational demand. Buffenbarger noted that the country has drawn down its strategic ammunition stockpile to support ongoing military commitments, making the facility's output directly relevant to national defense. Olin Corporation, he said, is under contract with the government to ramp up production — and is receiving the revenue that comes with it. What it has not done is share that revenue with the workers on the floor.
The conditions driving the strike extend beyond wages. Buffenbarger described an operation in which workers are logging 12-hour days, seven days a week, to keep pace with production demand. The nature of ammunition manufacturing makes that level of fatigue particularly dangerous. The plant's buildings are deliberately spread across a large area of acreage precisely because the materials involved are highly explosive — a single accident can have catastrophic consequences. Experienced, rested workers are not a luxury at a facility like this. They are a safety requirement.
High turnover, Buffenbarger said, compounds the problem. Workers who are treated poorly leave. Replacing them means training new employees to safely handle explosive materials, a process that takes time and introduces additional risk.
The facility has received $53 million in state and local subsidies. Olin Corporation has returned to the bargaining table after its last offer was rejected, but the two sides remain apart on the key issues. Buffenbarger was critical of Olin, a corporation he said is profiting from government contracts funded by taxpayers during active military operations. Further, it refuses to provide its workforce with a fair contract. He called on listeners to contact their members of Congress and senators to pressure the Olin Corporation to reach a fair agreement.
The second major issue Buffenbarger addressed was the airline industry, and he referenced events that occurred nearly five decades earlier. When Congress deregulated the airline industry in 1979, the public was promised more choices, lower fares, better aircraft and expanded airport access. What followed, Buffenbarger said, was the opposite: fewer airlines, higher prices, closed airports and a flying experience that has steadily deteriorated for the traveling public.
The consolidation enabled by deregulation has continued ever since, and now discussions of a potential merger between United Airlines and American Airlines — the two largest carriers in the country — have raised the prospect of a single entity controlling more than 50 percent of all daily U.S. air traffic. Buffenbarger said the implications for workers, communities and the public are severe.
When airlines merge, jobs disappear. Buffenbarger estimated that a United-American combination could eliminate as many as 25 percent of the combined workforce — and with each carrier employing 40,000 to 50,000 people, that figure represents a significant loss of good-paying jobs affecting both union and non-union workers alike.
Further, when airlines consolidate and reduce operations, airports lose traffic. Airport operations funded and supported by the public contract, along with the airlines, pull economic activity out of the communities those airports serve.
The proposed federal bailout of Spirit Airlines drew a separate warning. Spirit, a low-cost carrier that has struggled through multiple survival attempts now faces extinction in part because of the dramatic increase in jet fuel prices. The government's proposed response is a $500 million bailout that would give the federal government up to 90 percent ownership of the carrier.
Buffenbarger said he has seen this story before. When Eastern Airlines collapsed, its popular East Coast shuttle service was purchased with promises to save jobs and restore service. The new owner, he said, quickly discovered that maintaining aircraft requires expertise, planning and sustained investment — and when the first maintenance bills arrived, the operation folded. His concern about the Spirit bailout is similar: government ownership without a coherent operational plan has not historically produced the outcomes that workers or the flying public need.
IAM Union members across the aviation and munitions industries are counting on elected officials and the public to understand what is at stake in both disputes. More information on the Lake City strike is available at goiam.org.
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