The bureau’s annual report also shows that union workers got bigger weekly pay raises than non-union workers in 2011.

Overall, union workers were paid 29 percent more than their non-union counterparts last year, according to the report, which was released Jan. 27.

“We often say it pays to be union, and this report shows that it’s literally true,” said Machinists Union District Lodge 751 President Tom Wroblewski. “That’s the union advantage.”

According to the new data, union workers had average take-home pay of $938 a week in 2011, which equals $48,776 a year. That figure was up 2.3 percent from 2010.

On the other hand, non-union workers were paid on average only $729 a week, or $37,908 a year, which was a scant 1.7 percent increase compared to 2010.

The difference — $10,868 – is great enough to make a real difference in the lives of working Americans, said Wroblewski.

“For most families, $11,000 a year means it’s easier to buy a car or a home, save for a child’s education or take a family vacation,” he said. “These are the basic components of an American middle-class lifestyle, and each one is easier to achieve if you’ve got a union contract.”

For manufacturing workers who produce durable goods – like airplanes or airplane parts — average pay for union workers is 10 percent greater than pay for non-union workers doing similar jobs, the report says. But for workers in maintenance and repair occupations – like aircraft, truck or bus mechanics – pay for union workers is a whopping 35 percent greater.

Washington state has the nation’s fourth-highest union density rate, with 19 percent of all workers belonging to a union last year, the federal report said.

That helps Washington’s overall economy, Wroblewski said.

“Good union paychecks support local economies, because our members have more money to spend with local businesses,” he said. “That’s one reason why we talk about how District 751 helps build better communities.”

A separate federal report last fall also showed the union members typically have far better benefit packages to go with their superior pay.

That study found that as of May 2011, 93 percent of union workers had employer-provided health care benefits, 93 percent had retirement benefits and 85 percent had life insurance benefits.

On the other hand, only 69 percent of non-union workers had health care benefits through their employer, only 64 percent had some kind of retirement plan, and only 57 percent had life insurance.

In addition:

• 84 percent of union members receive paid sick leave from their employers, compared to 64 percent of non-union workers; and
• 59 percent of union members receive paid personal leave days, compared to 38 percent of non-union workers.

“Having good benefits means you aren’t paying huge sums out of pocket for things like routine medical expenses,” said Wroblewski. “Good retirement benefits mean you’ll be able to live comfortably after you decide to quit working. These things are important to our members, and they’re priorities for us when we negotiate contracts.”

Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at the Boeing Co., District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers now represents more than 31,000 working men and women at 45 employers across Washington, Oregon and California. In December, District 751 members used collective bargaining to reach an agreement that ensures Boeing’s new 737 MAX will be built in Puget Sound.

To contact a District 751 officer for information on how a union contract could help you, click here. 

Mark B. Johnson will be a Grand Lodge representative for the union’s new Aerospace Territory, said International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers International President Tom Buffenbarger.

In his new role, Johnson will help lead a new department of the IAM&AW that’s focused on the needs of aerospace industry workers across the United States and Canada.

Johnson has been a Business Representative for Machinists Union District Lodge 751 in Seattle since 2004, representing Machinists working for Boeing at the company’s Renton and Auburn sites.

The IAM’s Aerospace Territory is headed by Mark Blondin, a former District 751 president who was recently named general vice president overseeing the department.

Blondin said Johnson is joining a team of IAM aerospace coordinators that  contains “some of the most capable, talented and formidable union representatives the IAM has to offer.

“Our industry is beset by extraordinary challenges, but there are also real opportunities for growth,” Blondin continued. “We intend to be very aggressive in pursuing organizing leads and just as aggressive protecting the hard-won pay, benefits and pensions of our existing members.”

He became a union steward, then an officer of Local Lodge 751-C, where he was lodge president prior to becoming a business rep. He also served on the district’s executive board and legislative committee.

As a District 751 business representative,  Johnson has taken part in the union’s last three rounds of contract talks with Boeing, including the recently concluded negotiations for a four-year contract extension, where he helped lead talks over wages and incentives. He has also been part of the District 751 bargaining team for contract talks at aerospace suppliers Triumph Composites and GKN.

District 751 President Tom Wroblewski called Johnson’s promotion “another proud moment” for his lodge. “I wish Mark much success on his new assignment and look forward to working with him in his new role,” Wroblewski said.

“I’m very excited,” Johnson said. “Being a Grand Lodge Rep means I’ll have even more opportunity to help our membership, both at District 751 and at all other Boeing sites.”

Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at Boeing, District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers now represents more than 31,000 working men and women at 45 employers across Washington, Oregon and California. In December, District 751 members used collective bargaining to reach an agreement that ensures Boeing’s new 737 MAX will be built in Puget Sound.

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With the ratified agreement, “Boeing and the Machinists Union have agreed to a common set of goals and a new framework for achieving them,” said Tom Wroblewski, the president of Machinists Union District Lodge 751. “We’ve committed to working toward the mutual success of both labor and management.”

Wroblewski’s comments are in his monthly letter to union members, which is printed in the current edition of the AeroMechanic newsletter. It’s now available online.

Boeing’s decision to work together with its largest union – rather than continue to fight it — represents a significant break in the last 30 years of union and management relations in America, Wroblewski said

For the past generation, Wall Street and its political allies have assumed the only way to grow profits was to crush unions, strip away pay and benefits and send work overseas, he said. The result is that poverty in America is at an all-time high, and companies are afraid to invest here, because no one can afford to buy their products.

“Boeing is choosing another path,” Wroblewski said. “It is committing to the Machinists Union that one of its top goals is to sustain and grow good-paying jobs with benefits.”

Boeing has been rewarded for that decision, Wroblewski continued, by Wall Street investors who have pushed stock values higher, and by customers who have placed tens of billions of dollars worth of orders.

“Boeing’s commitment to building the 737 MAX here in Puget Sound grabbed all the headlines, but it was the pledge to work together that I feel will bring the longest-lasting benefits,” he said.

Also in this month’s AeroMechanic, you’ll find:

• More coverage of the historic vote on the four-year contract extension with Boeing;
• A report on how 350 military contractors working for URS Corp. at Joint Base Lewis-McChord have voted to join the Machinists Union, plus information on four labor agreements ratified by workers employed by other contractors at JBLM;
• An update on December’s strike sanction vote by Machinists Union members at Hytek Finishes in Kent;
• A report on how Machinists Union members who operate Washington’s largest landfill have approved a new contract.
• A story about how a selfless act by a Machinists Union member saved the life of his granddaughter; and
• Reports on the union’s December community service activities, including its support for KING-TV’s annual Home Team Harvest food drive, fundraising for Guide Dogs of America and efforts by local lodges across Eastern Washington.

Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at Boeing, District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers now represents nearly 31,000 working men and women at 45 employers across Washington, Oregon and California. In December, District 751 members used collective bargaining to reach an agreement that ensures Boeing’s new 737 MAX will be built in Puget Sound.

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David Robinson, a Machinists Union member from Lake Stevens, was crossing U.S. Highway 2 at a crosswalk, holding his then-3-year-old granddaughter in his arms. A sports utility vehicle made a right turn and came through the crosswalk.

With only a split second to react, Robinson lifted his granddaughter, named Angel, over his head to protect her from the blow.

“I just remember pushing her up and out of the way,” he said later. “I knew there was no stopping that vehicle from hitting me.”

For his quick thinking and selflessness, Robinson was honored by the Snohomish County Red Cross in December as one the recipients of its annual Real Heroes awards.

The accident, which occurred last April, left Robinson hospitalized for nearly a week, and in a wheelchair for more than a month. He still walks with a limp, after sustaining a fractured skull, two broken legs, a broken bone around his right eye socket and internal injuries.

The union member, who works as a functional test mechanic for the Boeing Co. in Everett, was off work for more than four months.

Yet his effort to spare his granddaughter succeeded. She landed on top of her grandfather, breaking her fall. She was taken to the hospital for observation, but her only injury was “a little bruise on her bottom,” Robinson said.

“Angel is a pretty special little girl,” he said.

Robinson is a member of District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers. Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at Boeing, District 751 now represents more than 31,000 working men and women across Washington, Oregon and California.

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newspaper on Dec. 24:

This year, 2011, will loom large in aviation history. It’s the year the first 787 was delivered, as well as the first of the new 747-8s. It’s the year the U.S. Air Force finally settled the long-running dispute over who would build its next-generation aerial refueling tanker: the Boeing Co., which is poised to begin building them here in Everett over the next couple of years. And it’s the year Boeing decided to extend the life of the most successful airliner in history, by deciding to build the 737 MAX in Renton.

All these events, of course, have generated big headlines, here in The Herald and everywhere else people turn for information about Boeing and the aerospace industry.

But when the historians, years in the future, write this chapter on the major events of 2011, I believe they’ll focus on something else that happened this year that got overshadowed by the headlines and ignored by the TV talking heads: Boeing and the Machinists Union have agreed to a common set of goals, and a new framework for achieving them, and we’ve committed to working toward the mutual success of both labor and management.

All this was part of the four-year contract extension that our Machinists Union members voted to ratify earlier this month. As we all know, Boeing’s commitment to building the 737 MAX here in Puget Sound grabbed all the headlines, but it was the pledge to work together that I feel will bring the longest-lasting benefits.

We all know the story of how we got here, of how relations between Boeing and its union workers have deteriorated over the past decade or more. We’ve gotten good — very good — at fighting each other.

But even as we engaged in very public arguments, Boeing and the Machinists Union have continued to find ways to work together, quietly but effectively, to win new business and to improve on old processes. There is no better example of this than the fact that for nearly a decade, Boeing and the Machinists fought side-by-side to ensure that America’s military would get an American-made refueling tanker.

Working together — Machinists, engineers and managers — we were able to find ways to reduce costs and improve productivity, and that’s what allowed Boeing to submit the winning bid for the Air Force’s KC-46 tanker, which means we’ll be building 767s here in Everett for years to come.

Think of what that meant: Instead of fighting our unions in hopes of squeezing 1 or 2 percent cost savings through drastic wage and benefit cuts, Boeing management worked with us to improve processes and efficiencies, and together we were able to slice more than 20 percent off the asking price. And because of that, Boeing won a huge order.

This will be the example for how Boeing and the Machinists will work together in the future, for the benefit of everyone.

I say “everyone” because the contract extension is good news for Washington state, and especially for Everett.

The agreement secures the jobs of thousands of men and women across the region, by ensuring that they’ll get to continue doing the work they do on current-model 737s on the next version. This includes all the people working on 737 parts in the Everett Wire and Interiors shops, as well as scores of Snohomish County suppliers who provide parts and services for the 737 program.

These are jobs with above-average wages and good benefits. This means that aerospace workers will have money to buy cars and houses and computers, to take their families to the movies or out to dinner. In short, they’ll have money to support all the other businesses in Snohomish County.

The significance of this agreement to work toward the mutual success of both labor and management goes beyond Boeing and Puget Sound, however.

For the past generation, the thinking in American business has been dominated by the notion that success is a zero-sum game. By that, I mean that Wall Street and its political allies decided that there was only so much money to go around, and the only way that they could increase their share was to take it away from workers, by crushing the unions here at home and outsourcing as much work as possible to overseas nations desperate for jobs and business investment. Labor has responded with a desperate fight to hold on to what is left of America’s shrinking middle class.

After 30 years of this, we now see the result: This month, the Census Bureau reported that nearly half of all Americans are living in poverty, or are just one missed paycheck or emergency room visit away from it. In the meantime, U.S. corporations are sitting on record piles of cash that they’re afraid to invest in America, because with poverty at an all-time high, no one here can afford to buy their products.

With this contract extension, Boeing is choosing another path. It is committing to the Machinists Union that one of its top goals is to sustain and grow good-paying jobs with benefits: health care that means a sudden illness won’t bankrupt a family, pensions that will allow our seniors to contribute to our communities in their retirement.

And it has been rewarded for it. Since we announced our tentative deal with Boeing, shares of the company’s stock have jumped up by as much as $3 a share, which means the company’s valuation jumped by more than $2 billion. Boeing customers have responded to the news by ordering more than 250 planes with a list price of close to $30 billion. And these amazing financial gains have come even though the company has committed to keeping work in the United States, has given its workers pay raises and agreed to keep providing pensions — which is the opposite of what the Wall Street types have been urging companies to do.

At the same time, our union has agreed to a new road map, using our skills, experience and knowledge to help Boeing lower costs and raise productivity, so that together we can better fight our competitors in Europe, Asia and South America. We’ll be meeting every month to look for new opportunities and to resolve issues before they become problems.

We also have been rewarded for our actions, with stronger written commitments than we’ve ever had to ensure a new generation of workers will find jobs at Boeing.

Boeing and the Machinists Union have jointly pledged to work closely together to achieve these goals, and to meet other objectives that are central to the mutual success of both the company and its people.

To me, that could be the greatest legacy of our contract extension with the Boeing Co., and the most important achievement of 2011, a year that has seen more than its share of groundbreaking successes.

Tom Wroblewski is president and directing business representative of District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers. District 751 represents more than 31,000 working men and women across Washington, Oregon and California, including nearly 29,000 employees of the Boeing Co.

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Union District President Tom Wroblewski presented a check for that amount to Guide Dogs of America leaders during the California-based charity’s annual meeting in November.

“Our members do amazing things on the job every day, but the volunteer work they do in the community never ceases to impress me,” Wroblewski said. “Their contributions to Guide Dogs this year will directly improve the lives of people most of us will never meet.”

District 751 volunteers raised the money at a variety of events throughout the year, including:

• The district’s annual Guide Dogs of America golf tournament,
• The Puppy Putt motorcycle run,
• The Flight for Sight fun run, and
• The Pacific Raceways drag-racing event;
• Local Lodge 751-A‘s annual Bill Baker Memorial Steel & Wheels Supershow;
• Local  751-E‘s annual horseshoe tournament; and
• A prize raffle sponsored by Locals 86, 1123 and 1951 in Eastern Washington.

Guide Dogs of America provides guide dogs and instruction in their use free of charge to blind and visually impaired people from the United States and Canada.

Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at the Boeing Co., District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers now represents nearly 31,000 working men and women at 45 employers across Washington, Oregon and California. In 2011, members of the Machinists Volunteer Program built their 300th wheelchair ramp while other volunteers collected more than $263,000 for Guide Dogs of America, the union’s charity of choice.

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The new Machinists Union members work for defense contractor URS Federal Services Corp. Some 71 percent of them voted in favor of joining Machinists Union District Lodge 751 in an election held Dec. 8.

It was the second time around for the URS workers, who had contacted District 751 organizers before, when they worked for defense contractor Lear Siegler at JBLM.

That first effort in 2009 failed to gain enough support to justify taking it to a National Labor Relations Board vote. But this time around, the URS workers were more receptive to voting “union yes.”

District 751’s success in negotiating labor agreements with defense contractors made the difference, said Gary Allen, the general vice president for the IAM&AW’s Western Territories. “The URS workers saw the district’s success in achieving quality first contracts for these units, and they wanted the same.”

There wasn’t much debate on it, said John Davis, who is a backshop lead for the group. “Everybody had heard what they needed to hear.”

For many workers, paid time off was a big issue, Davis said.

“A bunch of people got fed up with having their vacation rearranged,” he said. “I’d like to have some sick time back.”

Pay and benefits were also an issue, Davis said.

“I’d like to see a pay raise,” he said. “I’ve been there 13 years and haven’t seen a pay raise or cost of living increase in four. That’d be kind of nice.”

A year ago, more than 220 URS employees working at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station also voted to join District 751. They ratified their first contract in July, and began seeing the first fruits of their new contract this fall, when they started collecting the increased wages they’d negotiated for. They also began to accrue sick leave, which they didn’t have before.

After seeing what the union could do for their co-workers, the URS workers at JBLM were eager to listen, said District 751 President Tom Wroblewski.“We have a lot of highly skilled members who do work that’s essential for America’s defense,” said Wroblewski. “They deserve to be paid fairly and treated fairly, and a Machinists Union contract can give them both.”

The new Machinists still have a lot of hard work to do before they get their first union contract, said District 751 Organizing Director Jesse Cote, who led the URS campaign.

“This doesn’t get done without plenty of involvement from the folks on the shop floor,” he said. “Participation is the key to a successful deal.”

Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at the Boeing Co., District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers now represents nearly 31,000 working men and women at 45 employers across Washington, Oregon and California. This month, District 751 members used collective bargaining to reach an agreement that ensures Boeing’s new 737 MAX will be built in Puget Sound.

Become a fan of IAM 751 on Facebook.

Blondin is the former president and directing business representative of Machinists Union District Lodge 751 in Seattle.

“Aerospace industry workers make up almost 25 percent of our union’s membership and work in all corners of North America,” said Buffenbarger. “An Aerospace Territory will better coordinate contract negotiations and representation duties that are now spread across multiple Territories.”

Blondin’s “years of experience in the aerospace industry make him the ideal person to lead this new Territory,” Buffenbarger added.

Since 2007, Blondin had  been assigned as an IAM&AW aerospace coordinator, with the primary responsibility of negotiating agreements between the union and Boeing throughout the United States and Canada.

In that role, he was one of the leaders of the successful talks with Boeing that led to a four-year contract extension ratified by members in Washington, Oregon, Kansas and California earlier this month.

“It is an honor to lead this new Aerospace Territory,” said Blondin. “The aerospace industry is constantly changing and there are unprecedented challenges in the years ahead. Organizing our aerospace members under one banner will help keep North America the leader in high-tech manufacturing, the world’s best producer of aerospace products and the creator of solid, middle-class jobs.”

Blondin was president and directing business rep for District 751 from 2000 to 2007, and during that time he was the district’s lead negotiator for contract talks with Boeing in 2002, 2005 and 2008.

Blondin’s career with the IAM began in 1978, when he worked at a Seattle machine shop represented by the Machinists Union. He hired on at Boeing in 1979 and worked in the tooling department at Renton.

Blondin is a member of Local Lodge 751-C, and he held many posts as a lodge officer before becoming a District 751 business rep in 1996.

Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at the Boeing Co., District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers now represents nearly 31,000 working men and women at 45 employers across Washington, Oregon and California. This month, District 751 members used collective bargaining to reach an agreement that ensures Boeing’s new 737 MAX will be built in Puget Sound.

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More than 125 members of Machinists Union District Lodge 751 gave up a Saturday to help out during KING-TV’s recent Home Team Harvest food drive to benefit Northwest Harvest. The union members helped collect cash and load donated food into semi trailers at sites from Tacoma to Everett.

District 751’s local lodges and individual members also came together to donate $3,563 in cash, plus more than 500 pounds of food that was collected at union halls across Puget Sound.

And the food drive got further support from the Washington Machinists Council – the umbrella group for all Machinists Union districts and locals statewide – which contributed another $1,500 to the food drive.

“Our District 751 MVPs volunteer nearly every weekend, feeding the homeless at missions in Tacoma and Everett,” said Robley Evans, the chairman of the union’s Machinists Volunteer Program. “We’re seeing more and more people coming in – homeless families and veterans. Given that the need is so great, it’s more important than ever for groups like ours to get involved.”

This is the 10^th year in a row that District 751 volunteers have taken part in KING-TV’s Home Team Harvest event.

“Truly, the Aerospace Machinists Union has become as much a part of Home Team Harvest as anyone else,” said Betsy Roberson, the community relations manager for the TV station. “You’re the ones out there directing traffic and carrying those big bags of food from trunks to trucks.”

Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at the Boeing Co., District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers now represents nearly 31,000 working men and women at 45 employers across Washington, Oregon and California.  In 2010, District 751 members gave nearly 6,200 hours of volunteer community service and raised more than $276,000 for Guide Dogs of America, the union’s charity of choice.

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The strike sanction measure was approved with a 99-percent “yes” vote, the union said.

The vote does not mean a strike is imminent. However, it does signal to Hytek executives that their union workforce is willing to support a labor action, should talks with management fail to result in an acceptable contract.

Negotiations are set to resume in early January.

The workers at Hytek specialize in doing various types of metal finishing and coating for aerospace manufacturers, including Boeing, Lockheed and Bell Helicopters.

The union has been in talks with Hytek management in Kent about a contract for the company’s 170 workers since the fall. The workers voted to join Machinists Union District Lodge 751 in August.

High-cost health care, below-market pay and dissatisfaction with the company’s process for promotions and pay upgrades were the biggest issues union members had going in to the talks, and so far “negotiations with Hytek have not produced adequate attention to their concerns” said Kevin Cummings, a Grand Lodge representative for the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers.

“These workers perform a highly skilled and critical function in a toxic and carcinogenic atmosphere, and deserve better respect and compensation than they are getting,” he said.

Hytek is a subsidiary of Bellevue-based Esterline Corp., which released its fourth quarter and year-end financial results on Dec. 8. At the time, Chief Executive Brad Lawrence said that “fiscal 2011 was one of the strongest years in our history” and he added that “we expect to grow about 20 percent in fiscal 2012,” in large part because of Boeing’s plans to increase production rates for its 737 models.

“We aren’t asking for the moon,” said Cummings, “just a fair contract that recognizes the sacrifices of the workers. Let’s hope Hytek managers come to their senses and quit talking about how much they care, and start acting like they care.”

Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at Boeing, District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers now represents nearly 31,000 working men and women at 45 employers across Washington, Oregon and California. This month, District 751 members used collective bargaining to reach an agreement that ensures Boeing’s new 737 MAX will be built in Puget Sound.

Become a fan of IAM 751 on Facebook.