METALETTER

2

Open Letter to Avondale Workers

For the past two years, the Metal Trades Department has worked ceaselessly to keep Avondale open. Read more >

Sequestration Could Force Defense Contractors to Issue WARN Notices

Workers at federal defense contractors across the country may see WARN notices go out as early as September if Congress cannot strike a bipartisan deal on the federal budget soon. Read more >

Congress Passes Transportation Bill The Good the bad and the ugly

THE GOOD: Congress passed the Transportation Bill at the end of June that will allow for over $100 billion to be spent on highway, mass transit, and other transportation programs through 2014 and is expected to create or sustain three million jobs.
Read more >

Nuclear Workers
Under Attack

This legislative cycle has proved hazardous to all workers, but nuclear workers have been especially hard hit on several occasions by legislation and regulations aimed at weakening safety and health protections, destroying collective bargaining rights, and decimating pensions for workers in the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons laboratories. Read more >

MTD Launching Strategic Political Education Program

Jimmy Hart, the UA's key representative to the Metal Trades Department, is leading a strategic political education program for the MTD to be launched by Labor Day 2012. The objective of the campaign is to educate members of Metal Trades Councils around the country about the importance of campaigning for, and voting for, labor-friendly candidates in the upcoming November elections. Read more >

HII's Petters:
In Shipbuilding Anticipation, Not Reaction, is Critical

Mike Petters, Huntington Ingalls Industries President and CEO recently said in an article in the maritime strategy publication, Information Dissemination, that the shipbuilding industry is a business of anticipation and is not designed to respond rapidly to a crisis. He says the industry needs a stable, strategy-driven plan. He adds that failure to protect the industry would damage the economy and America's ability to maintain a strong national defense. Read more >

Additional Items Online:

• Destroying State and Local Government Defined Benefit Plans
• The Ryan Budget: Good for the 1%, Bad for Everyone Else
• More Federal Pay Freeze Plans Pushed in the House