June 2010 State Council

The Machinist's State Council met in Las Cruces June 19-20, 2010 to endorse candidates running for Federal and State Government.

The Delegates had speakers from the IAM as well as candidates running for office.

IAM Politics and Legislation Director Matt McKinnon took time out of his busy schedule to educate the Delegates on important legislation affecting jobs and Labor. He spoke on how past agreements such as NAFTA have been detrimental for the American worker.  Director McKinnon also talked on health care reform, and the need to continue to make improvements to the health care system. He informed us that employers would be scaling back health care coverage as we approach 2018 due to a tax on plans costing over $27,500 per year.
A video made by some Canada Machinists on the Canadian system can be viewed at this link -
Canadian Healthcare Video

Director McKinnon told the Delegates about the proposal put forth by the IAM that could save thousands of jobs in the aerospace industry by using the Orion space capsule on existing launch vehicles.  This could reduce the shuttle to successor gap down to about 18 months. This proposal has been picked up by Senator Nelson (Fla.) who is taking it forward. 

State Representative Nate Cote also made time to visit us, and spoke about the loss of jobs at the NASA facilities in the state.  Representative Cote said he has been in contact with both Representative Harry Teague and Senator Tom Udall about the NASA jobs issue. He also said that he is awaiting word that the F-35 fighter will be coming in to Holloman.

Rep. Cote informed the Delegates that the upcoming session of the State Legislature in January will be 60 days, and in light of the State budget issues, should be a very busy and hard session.

State Representative Joseph Cervantes spoke to us on problems with the State finances and the new spaceport.

The Delegates also got a visit from Judge Robert Robles from the New Mexico State Court of Appeals.  Judge Robles comes from a strong Union family and is running for re-election to the Court of Appeals.

Art Terrazas from Senator Tom Udall's office read us a letter from Tom expressing his regret for not being able to make it to the State Council meeting in person due to having to be in Washington for an important vote.

Western Territory Grand Lodge Representative Ray Rivera educated the Delegates on the importance of the Machinists Non-partisan Political League (MNPL), and how it strives to provide decent jobs for American workers and preserve those jobs for our children.  GLR Rivera told us another goal of MNPL is to stop outsourcing of American jobs to other countries.  He also explained how NAFTA has depleted American jobs, and how we need to create new jobs that can't be outsourced.

State Representative Joni Gutierrez told the attendees how hard it has been in the Legislature to try to cope with budget problems and that she voted for raising taxes rather than cutting jobs, and how she did not want to see the food tax reinstated. She also emphasized how important it is for all the Unions to work together.