Dec 18, 2025 | Politics & Legislative News
IAM Union International President Brian Bryant recently wrote a letter urging the U.S. Senate to pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550, S. 2837) following its bipartisan approval by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The legislation passed the House by a vote of 231-195. It would restore collective bargaining rights to federal workers impacted by a recent executive order that stripped those rights from roughly 75 percent of the federal workforce.
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The bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.). The Senate companion legislation, introduced by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), currently has 48 cosponsors, including two Republicans.
“The IAM is a strong advocate for workers’ rights and firmly believes this EO is blatantly illegal,” wrote Bryant in the letter. “This EO is an assault on the rights and job security for federal workers caring for our veterans, keeping our military ready, adjudicating passport applications, caring for our public lands, and performing countless other essential public services.”
The IAM strongly believes the executive order is illegal and undermines the fundamental right to collective bargaining, which has long helped ensure workplace protections and efficient delivery of public services.
The IAM represents thousands of federal workers across the country, including members of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM), an IAM affiliate representing approximately 110,000 federal workers nationwide.
The bipartisan House vote demonstrates growing momentum to reverse the unjust removal of federal workers’ collective bargaining rights. The IAM is calling on the Senate to act swiftly and pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act to ensure fairness, stability, and respect for America’s federal workforce.
Read the complete letter here.
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Dec 16, 2025 | Politics & Legislative News
IAM Union International Affairs Director Peter Greenberg testified before the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), calling for the implementation of urgent and enforceable labor standards in the upcoming review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The IAM Union warned that current shortcomings in the agreement continue to fuel outsourcing, weaken labor protections, and undermine the economic security of working people across North America.
Greenberg outlined the union’s longstanding concerns with USMCA’s failure to meaningfully improve labor conditions in Mexico or face the loss of good-paying U.S. and Canadian manufacturing and aerospace jobs.
“Unfortunately, our concerns about USMCA have proven to have been accurate: Mexican industrial wages remain lower than those in China, and offshoring of well-paid U.S. jobs continues, including many in the aerospace sector,” said Greenberg. “Since USMCA was enacted, we have seen further erosion of good, middle-class, union jobs in the United States. In order to prevent this from continuing, we need to take vigorous action during the upcoming review.”
The IAM Union emphasized the crucial importance of strengthening rules of origin, expanding Labor Value Content, and ensuring that goods moving duty-free under the USMCA are genuinely produced in North America. IAM Union members build and maintain some of the most advanced aircraft and engines in the world, supporting both commercial aviation and U.S. national defense.
Weak USMCA provisions have allowed products with significant non-North American content – particularly from China – to enter the U.S. duty-free, undermining domestic aerospace manufacturing and the integrated U.S.-Canada supply chain.
Greenberg also pointed to the findings of the Independent Mexico Labor Expert Board (IMLEB), which documented ongoing failures by the Mexican government to enforce core labor rights and penalize employers who violate them. Without more vigorous enforcement, increased funding for labor rights monitoring through the U.S. Department of Labor, and meaningful penalties for violators, Mexican workers will continue to be denied the rights necessary to build an independent and democratic labor system.
“The IAM Union message is simple: If we strengthen labor standards, they must be enforced. And if we enforce them, companies must not be allowed to undermine them by seeking cheaper labor elsewhere,” said IAM International President Brian Bryant. “Working families deserve a trade agreement that works for them and not against them.”
As part of the USTR’s USMCA hearings series, the IAM’s Maine Lobstering Union also delivered testimony, urging the USTR to confront long-standing inequities in the Agreement that place Maine’s lobstermen at a competitive disadvantage. These imbalances – ranging from unequal conservation requirements to inconsistent enforcement across borders – continue to threaten the livelihoods of working families and the stability of coastal communities that rely on a fair and sustainable fishing industry.
The IAM Union submitted formal comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on the upcoming joint review of the USMCA. In its submission, the IAM Union urged the administration to strengthen labor enforcement, raise wage standards, and close the loopholes that continue to fuel the offshoring of aerospace, manufacturing, and other critical jobs across North America.
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Dec 1, 2025 | Politics & Legislative News
The IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) and the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM) issued the following statement in response to the end of the federal government shutdown:
“While we are extremely disappointed that the GOP did not negotiate a deal that prevents a healthcare crisis, nor does it restore draconian cuts to Medicaid, our top priority has and will always will be to protect our members who do vitally important work for the federal government — both as federal employees and federal contractors. We are encouraged by the reopening of the government and strongly urge Congress to do its jobs and provide back pay for all workers — federal employees and contractors — who were furloughed during this manufactured shutdown.
“The IAM Union represents more than 115,000 federal workers and over 30,000 Service Contract Act workers who have endured needless financial and emotional strain because of political dysfunction. These hardworking public servants perform critical duties every day: supporting our military, protecting our public lands and natural resources, caring for our veterans, and ensuring that essential government services reach every community in America. They deserve stability, respect, and timely pay for their labor.
“We believe that the contract workers who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with federal employees should receive full back pay without delay, and the IAM continues to point out that over a million federal contract workers went unpaid during prior shutdowns. The lack of back pay for federal contract workers shows a lack of respect for the work they do to help keep our nation safe.
“We urge Congress and the administration to work together to provide backpay to all federal workers and contractors while taking measures to prevent future shutdowns. The American people deserve a government that works as hard and as faithfully as they do. No family should ever again be forced to choose between paying bills and serving their country.
“The IAM and NFFE-IAM will continue to stand with our members and fight to ensure their voices are heard, their pay is protected, and their work is respected.”
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Dec 1, 2025 | Politics & Legislative News
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2025 – The IAM Union wrote a letter urging all members of Congress to support the process for successful passage of the Protect America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550), bipartisan legislation that would restore collective bargaining rights stripped from federal workers by President Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order.
A bipartisan group of 218 House members signed the discharge petition (H. Res. 432), forcing consideration of the bill introduced by U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine). The measure would nullify the executive order titled Exclusions from the Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs, which removes collective bargaining rights from roughly 75% of the federal workforce.
“Federal workers matter,” wrote IAM Union International President Brian Bryant. “These are hard-working individuals who are our neighbors, our relatives and our friends, and they’ve taken the civic duty to ensure our nation keeps moving forward. Federal workers deserve the right of collective bargaining, which provides protections in the workplace and better service to the public, just to name a few benefits.”
The IAM, one of the most diverse labor unions in the country, represents thousands of federal workers, including the 110,000 federal employees of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM), the IAM’s federal sector affiliate.
The IAM strongly supports this bipartisan effort to restore collective bargaining rights to our nation’s federal workforce and is calling on all members of Congress to vote to move this critical legislation forward.
Read the complete letter here.
The IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) is one of North America’s largest and most diverse industrial trade unions, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, shipbuilding, railroad, transit, healthcare, automotive, and other industries across the United States and Canada.
goIAM.org | @IAM_Union
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Nov 5, 2025 | Politics & Legislative News
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2025 — The 600,000-member IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers), North America’s largest aerospace, defense and airline union, is calling on the U.S. Trade Representative to strengthen labor enforcement, raise wage standards, and close loopholes that allow offshoring of aerospace, manufacturing and other jobs under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
In written comments submitted to USTR for the mandatory six-year joint review of the USMCA, the IAM Union emphasized that weak labor enforcement in Mexico and inadequate rules of origin continue to threaten good-paying union jobs in the United States and Canada. The IAM Union notably opposed the USMCA during its 2019 adoption, and NAFTA in the early 90s.
“The USMCA promised to lift standards for workers across North America, but too many companies are still chasing low wages and weak enforcement,” said IAM Union International President Brian Bryant. “It’s time for a trade policy that defends North American manufacturing, protects our workers, and ensures that every product bearing the USMCA label is truly made under fair conditions.”
The IAM Union’s USMCA filing highlights the need to:
- Expand and strengthen the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) to reach more workers and strengthen labor rights in Mexico.
- Extend the Labor Value Content rule to cover aerospace, shipbuilding, and other key manufacturing sectors.
- Tighten rules of origin to prevent non-USMCA content from entering duty-free supply chains.
The IAM Union’s USMCA filing reads, in part:
“Unfortunately, our concerns about USMCA have proven to be accurate: Mexican industrial wages remain lower than those in China, and offshoring of well-paid U.S. jobs continues, including many in the aerospace sector. Indeed, since USMCA was enacted, we have seen further erosion of good, middle-class, union jobs in the United States. In order to prevent this from continuing, we need to take vigorous action on a number of fronts during the upcoming review.”
The IAM Union represents more than 600,000 active and retired members in aerospace, airlines, defense, and manufacturing across the United States and Canada.
The IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) is one of North America’s largest and most diverse industrial trade unions, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, shipbuilding, railroad, transit, healthcare, automotive, and other industries across the United States and Canada.
goIAM.org | @IAM_Union
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Nov 5, 2025 | Politics & Legislative News
ST. LOUIS, Nov. 5, 2025 – U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has sent a letter to Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg urging the company to “negotiate in good faith” and “quickly reach an agreement that the IAM 837 machinists can afford to accept,” continuing growing bipartisan pressure on Boeing to end its strike in St. Louis.
Nearly 3,200 IAM District 837 members have been on strike for more than three months—14 weeks without a paycheck or health care—after Boeing has refused to offer a fair contract that reflects the value of the highly skilled workforce building America’s most advanced military aircraft.
“These workers help produce our Nation’s most crucial, most advanced, and most expensive defense tools,” writes Hawley. “And since your company receives billions in government contracts, it is incumbent upon you to do the right thing.”
In his letter, Hawley cites the testimony of IAM District 837 member Joshua Arnold—an Army veteran and longtime Boeing Defense shop steward—who told a Senate committee last month that he and his coworkers have been without pay or health care for months because of Boeing’s refusal to offer a fair contract. Hawley also met privately with Arnold after the hearing.
“Senator Hawley’s letter adds to the growing bipartisan call for Boeing to come back to the table and reach a fair agreement,” said IAM Union International President Brian Bryant. “Our members have built their lives, families, and communities around this work—and they deserve a contract that reflects their value and the critical role they play in protecting our nation. It’s time for Boeing to do the right thing for the people who build the aircraft that keep our country safe.”
This latest show of congressional support builds on the growing bipartisan outrage over Boeing’s refusal to offer a fair contract. Bipartisan members of the powerful House Armed Services Committee recently urged Boeing to negotiate in good faith as military deliveries fall further behind. Five members of the Senate Armed Services Committee followed up with a strong plea to the company as well, saying that choosing replacement workers over IAM Union members “will be sacrificing the needs of the U.S. military in order to benefit the corporation’s bottom line.”
In October, U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Hawley voiced strong support for IAM Union members. In addition, Reps. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) and the Congressional Labor Caucus have joined calls for Boeing to bargain fairly and protect good-paying jobs in the St. Louis region.
The IAM Union submitted a responsible counterproposal to Boeing on Monday, Oct. 27, which included significant union concessions in a good-faith effort to end the strike. Boeing summarily rejected the offer and has still not provided a counteroffer, despite the fact that the difference between the IAM’s proposal and Boeing’s rejected offer amounts to only about $8 million over four years—a fraction of the company’s massive revenue and executive payouts. The IAM Union has now submitted two Unfair Labor Practice Charges against the company for not bargaining in good faith.
IAM District 837 members build and support production of the F-15EX, F/A-18, T-7A, MQ-25, and the future F-47 fighter jet—aircraft vital to U.S. and allied defense readiness. Boeing’s failure to propose a fair contract has already led the U.S. Air Force to publicly acknowledge that F-15EX deliveries are delayed.
The IAM Union continues to urge Boeing leadership to return to the bargaining table and secure a deal that brings these skilled workers back to work with the dignity and fairness they’ve earned.
The IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) is one of North America’s largest and most diverse industrial trade unions, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, shipbuilding, railroad, transit, healthcare, automotive, and other industries across the United States and Canada.
goIAM.org | @IAM_Union
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