News and Information
Here you will find updates on negotations and new groups joining our Union.
It is an exciting time to be involved in the labor movement, as you can see we are achieving historic wage increases in almost every negotiation.
March 2023
On March 1st, the employees at Trulife in Bellingham voted to unionize with the IAM. We welcome our newest members into the IAM family and look forward to negotiating their first contract.
November 2022
We represent a large group of members that service public transit vehicles. We have been in negotiations for over a year, two rounds of mediation, 1 proposal voted down by 100% of the membership and finally we have a deal that was accepted by the vast majority of the membership. First year wage increases are 13%, we also made improvements to paid time off and overtime rules.
October 2022
Our extremely valuable members at the City of Blaine and City of Ferndale recently voted to ratify their new contracts. We were able to lock in annual pay increases to offset inflation and help our members maintain their standard of living during this challenging time.
August 2022
Our highly skilled aircraft mechanics that maintain and repair equipment for the United States Customs and Border Protection, just finished negotations. Another big win for Local 2379, we negotiated a 21% wage increase over 4 years, a new 401k plan, a cap on employee's portion of health and welfare premiums, and improvements to holiday pay.
July 2022
Workers at a local manufacturing company contacted us to for a union in their workplace. This group is excited to join, they have not received consistent pay increases and are falling way behind due to inflation.
June 2022
Negotiations for Montigo Del Ray in Ferndale are complete. We were able to get significant increases to the employers portion of health and welfare benefits, a new 401k plan, addtional vacation time, and 17% wage increases over 3 years.
May 2022
We just wrapped up negotations with a large group of automotive and diesel mechanics. With rising inflation, wages were a top priority. We ended up with 28% pay increases over 5 years, no increases to health and welfare premiums, additional holidays and vacation time, and much more. The new wage scale tops out at $58 per hour.
Vaccine Mandate Lifted
As many public agencies lift their vaccine mandates many workers who were let go for choosing to not be vaccinated, are left wondering if they can return to their former jobs. For a group of mechanics at a local transit agency, the answer is yes. When the agency imposed the vaccine mandate, the IAM negotiated a clause in the agreement that allowed these workers to return to their former jobs without a loss of pay or benefits. When an employer in a non-union environment wants to make a change to working conditions, they just snap their fingers and make the change. In a Union shop, the employer is required to negotiate with the union if they want to make changes to working conditions, this is just another advantage of forming a union.