Tom Buffenbarger on Skilled Trades, Lockheed and First Contracts

Tom Buffenbarger, retired International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast as the independent labor voice to cover three significant labor stories.

Buffenbarger discussed a Washington Post report on the skilled trades workforce crisis — including a study finding that the United States spends an average of $4,000 to train a skilled tradesperson, when the true cost is closer to $50,000, and that a $9 billion investment in trades training programs is required now.

Buffenbarger also addressed the IAM District 776 contract ratification at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth facility, covering 5,000 members who build the nation's most advanced fighter aircrafts. And he weighed in on the Faster Labor Contracts Act, which has passed the House, drawing on the IAM's own experience organizing Apple stores, only to watch Apple close its unionized locations after a years-long contract fight.

• A recent study highlighted by the Washington Post found that AI will create significant job opportunities for skilled tradespeople. Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, machinists and tool and die makers will be needed to build and maintain the infrastructure that powers AI systems. However, the United States currently spends an average of $4,000 per worker on skilled trades training, when an investment of approximately $50,000 per worker is needed. Buffenbarger traced the collapse of apprenticeship programs to a Jack Welch-era corporate philosophy that treated offshore production as preferable to domestic workforce development, calling it anti-worker regardless of union status.
• IAM District 776 members at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth facility, where workers build the F-16, F-35 and F-22 fighter aircraft, ratified a new contract after a difficult fight that required intervention from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. The contract delivers historic wage increases, a $6,000 ratification bonus and retirement improvements, Buffenbarger said. The deal reflects the value of workers the country depends on during active military conflicts across the globe.
• The Faster Labor Contracts Act, which has passed the House and draws strong opposition from the Wall Street Journal editorial board, would require employers and unions to enter mediation if no contract is reached within 120 days, with arbitration as a backstop. Buffenbarger cited the IAM's multi-year Apple store contract fight, which ended with Apple closing its unionized stores, and Amazon's Staten Island workers, who organized in 2022 and still have no contract, as the type of situations the legislation is designed to prevent.

The Skilled Trades Crisis Is Not New — But the Alarm Is Getting Louder

Tom Buffenbarger has been making the case for investment in skilled trades for nearly 50 years. Now, the Washington Post has reported on a study claiming the rise in artificial intelligence will create a surge in demand for electricians, plumbers, carpenters, painters and other building trades workers needed to construct and maintain the data centers, power infrastructure and physical systems that AI requires. Buffenbarger noted, with some wry satisfaction, that the study did not mention the machinists and tool and die makers who actually design and build the machine tools that manufacture all the components for those systems. But the broader point stood.

The study claimed the United States spends an average of $4,000 to train a skilled tradesperson. The actual investment needed is approximately $50,000, Buffenbarger said. The gap between those two numbers is the reason there are not enough trained workers to fill the jobs that exist today, let alone the ones AI-driven infrastructure expansion will create. The study called for a $9 billion investment in existing and new skilled trades training programs. Buffenbarger called it a start, but expressed doubt that it will get the traction it deserves.

He traced the collapse of apprenticeship programs to a specific moment. Jack Welch, the CEO who became the model for a generation of corporate management philosophy, eliminated GE's apprenticeship programs across the country. He claimed the work could be sent to Taiwan, China or Japan at a lower cost. Welch's vision of the ideal factory — a barge moored to the shores of the cheapest labor market in the world — was never just about offshore production. It was, Buffenbarger said, anti-worker in its core logic, union or not. As a result, numerous trade schools closed, and apprenticeship programs shrank. And now, facing a national infrastructure build-out that requires exactly the workers those programs produced, the country is starting to reckon with what it lost.

Lockheed Martin District 776: A Contract Worth Fighting For

Five thousand IAM District 776 members at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Texas facility — where the F-16, F-35 and F-22 are built — recently ratified a new contract after a fight that required intervention from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. The United States is engaged in conflicts across the globe, including an active war with Iran, Buffenbarger explained. The workers at that Fort Worth facility are the people the country depends on to build the technology and weaponry required for those conflicts, he added. Getting them a fair contract should not be difficult, but it was.

The ratified agreement delivers historic wage increases: 6 percent, 4.5 percent, 4.5 percent and 4 percent over the contract term, along with a $6,000 ratification bonus and improvements to retirement benefits. Buffenbarger credited strong union advocacy and the willingness of elected officials — including Republicans — to push back when the process stalled. The workers at that facility represent the best of the defense manufacturing workforce and deserve to be treated accordingly, he said.

The Faster Labor Contracts Act and the Wall Street Journal's Objection

The Faster Labor Contracts Act has passed the House. The Wall Street Journal editorial board has objected strenuously, arguing that it shifts the balance of power toward labor by introducing the threat of arbitration after 120 days of bargaining without a contract. Workers wait years for their first contracts, not because negotiations are genuinely complex, but because delays are a deliberate strategy, Buffenbarger said. The longer a company can drag out bargaining, the more likely workers are to lose hope, turn over and eventually see an organizing victory hollowed out.

The IAM's own experience at Apple's Towson, Md. store — one of the first Apple stores organized in the country — proves the claim. Getting to a contract took close to two years against sustained resistance from Apple. Apple then announced it was closing all its unionized stores. Similarly, the Amazon workers who organized on Staten Island in 2022 still have no contract four years later. Buffenbarger questioned why the Wall Street Journal thinks it is acceptable for the company to stop delivering its produce the moment a subscription goes unpaid, while workers are expected to wait years for the economic justice they rightfully earned.

The Faster Labor Contracts Act is now in the Senate. Buffenbarger said the conversation about it needs to continue — loudly, persistently and with examples that illustrate what the current system allows employers to do to workers who have already done the hard work of organizing.

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