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Remembering Machinists’ Lodges 701 and 113
Submitted by mnadmin on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 02:08
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Lodge 701 is the Automobile Mechanics Union Local in Chicago. After the local caucus, the Committee to Defend Local 701, achieved its goal and dissolved, Joan Davis, widow of the former local president, sent AUD a check for $1,950 out of the caucus's treasury. In forwarding the donation, Jon Baker, the business representative, suspended when the IAM trusteed the local, sent us the letter which follows:
Letter from Jon Baker
You may not remember us, but we remember you. Back in 2003, the IAM put its Local Lodge 701 into trusteeship and suspended its director and a union representative for allegedly being insubordinate to the IAMs International President R. Thomas Buffenbarger. The alleged act of defiance was the local membership vote to reject a labor contract with UPS, a contract which had been negotiated in part by representatives of the international union.
The local was trusteed, and the two elected union officials removed in a blatant effort to jam the contract down the throats of the members. The director and the union representative rallied members to their cause, formed a rank-and-file caucus (the Committee to Defend Local 701) and began a three-year battle to liberate the local and regain their jobs. The struggle was fought in the local, on the floor of the IAM convention, and in the federal courts, ending with the local coming out of trusteeship with the local leadership intact. The director and union representative, however, were not able to get their jobs back.
Throughout this battle we got assistance from many people and organizations, including AUD. We did not forget this and now, in a small way, can show you our thanks. Knowing that the battle against the IAM leadership would be neither easy nor cheap, the Committee worked hard to raise funds. When the dust settled, a small amount of money was left over. We would like you to have some of it.
Enclosed is a check for $1950.00 from the widow of Bill Davis, past leader of the Committee and president of Local 701. (She closed the Committee's account.) Please use this money to continue the battle for a strong and democratic labor movement.
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Editor's note: How could I possibly forget the good people in Local 701 and their fight against trusteeship in the International Association of Machinists? Especially since I know IAM Tool and Die Lodge 113, another Chicago local, had been merged into 701 some years ago.
Back in 1958, Tool and Die Lodge 113 was trusteed by IAM President A. J. Hayes, then also chairman of the AFL-CIO Ethical Practices Committee. Two rank and filers, who had been helping to lead a battle against corruption in the local, were expelled by direct arbitrary order of President Hayes. I was called upon to organize a campaign to publicize their efforts and raise money for legal challenge to the expulsions. Their battle was an early version of the battle in 701 and so there is poetic justice in the local's later merger into 701. Today, that battle would probably have been won; but they were expelled before the adoption of the LMRDA.
The Lodge 113 campaign was my first campaign for union democracy. It alerted me to how important democracy was--not only for the labor movement but also in the labor movement. It impelled me to begin publishing Union Democracy in Action. Most important, it cemented a lifelong collaboration between me and Clyde Summers who became one of the three sponsors of a committee for the defense of Marion Ciepley and Irwin Rappaport, the two expelled machinists. For the full story read the book, Rebels, Reformers, and Racketeers. Chapter 1 tells the story, Labor's Uncertain Trumpet, IAM Lodge 113 and the Demise of the AFL-CIO Ethical Practices Committee. -HB
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