SHIPYARD WORKERS RELAUNCH USS COLE

Just a little more than a year and a half after al Qaeda terrorists attacked the USS Cole in Yemen, union workers at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, MS rebuilt and relaunched  the ship. "We worked around the clock to get the Cole back in service," said IAM Local 1133 Chief Steward Jim Bass.

Local 1133 members and workers from 10 other unions at the shipyard did major overhaul and refit work to repair the damage from the attack in October 2000. The relaunching ceremony was an emotional one because many of the workers took the attack personally, they helped build the Cole in 1996.

"The whole place closed down for the event," said Bass. "Thousands of people lined the docks waving American flags. Everyone wanted to send a message: Terrorism isn't going to win."

NEVER TO LATE TO WALK THE LINE

93 year-old retired IAM General Vice President
Ross Mathews, left, joins striking workers at 
Lockheed Martin in Marietta, GA.

When 93 year-old Ross Mathews, a former IAM General Vice President, heard that his Local 709 brothers and sisters were on strike against Lockheed Martin in Marietta, GA, "I wanted to join my Brothers and Sisters on the line," said Mathews.

"It's so inspirational to have him here," said Local 709 member Carolyn Hill. "The more he walks with us the stronger he gets."

Mathew's roots with Local 709 run deep. "In 1958 I was a Grand Lodge Representative and was assigned to a strike in Marietta," said Mathews.

Local 709 President Jim Carroll gave Mathews a copy of the 1958 contract he helped settle. "I'm honored to walk the picket line with him," said Carroll. "Some of our retirees remember when hew was here. It's great he can be here today."

Soon after the visit, Local 709 members approved a new contract and are back to work.

RAYTHEON MEMBERS SAVE 320 JOBS IN WICHITA

When Raytheon announced they were sending cable and harness assembly jobs to Mexico, Local 733 member Lee Carney decided to do something about it. She could lose her house and her daughter wouldn't be able to go to college.

Carney and fellow stewards Joanna Chadwick and Colleen Patterson got to work. Getting together with their fellow members, engineers, lean-manufacturing experts and managers, they set out to cut harness costs for King Air business jets.

The process worked. By redesigning how they did their jobs, they reduced costs enough to convince Raytheon to keep 320 jobs in Wichita. "Now I can make my house payment and I can send my daughter to college next year," Carney told the Wichita Eagle. 

With 2,000 jobs leaving Raytheon last year alone, District 70 Assistant Directing Business Representative Rita Rogers wants to expand the work that Carney and her coworkers started. "We're going to have to work together," said Rogers. "But everyone's goal is to keep jobs here in the United States."

PATROL BOAT CAPTAINS AID COLLISION VICTIMS

Fog covered the Chesapeake Bay when the mayday went out. The 520 foot freighter 
A. V. Kastner had collided with the tugboat Swift. IAM Local 2424 member Martin Jacquette heard the distress call. he alerted his fellow boat captains who operate patrol boats for the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

Captains Wayne Fletcher and Wade Hague were the first to respond. "It was so foggy we couldn't see more than a boat length ahead," said Hague. "We made contact with the Kastner and then searched the area for survivors. There was debris everywhere."

Hague and Fletcher searched the area, but found no one left in the water. Four crewmen had perished. A nearby tug the Buchanan 14, radioed that they had five survivors onboard, two of them injured seriously.

Hague and Fletcher's patrol boat, able to navigate the river's shallow waters that the Buchanan couldn't, picked up emergency personnel from shore and then sped to the Buchanan to bring the Swift's crewmen back.

"We were glad to help," said Fletcher. "We're all watermen. We know it could easily happen to us. We did what anyone else would have done."