At this writing, only a few short weeks remained to 2008. And, wow, what a year it’s been, capped off by the election of Barack Obama as President, and a growing economic crisis that is threatening the future of whole industries and millions of American workers.

For us the year started off on a high note with an impressive organizing victory among table game dealers at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which followed an equally impressive win at Wynn Casino. Shortly, after we chartered a Gaming Division to enhance our organizing efforts among this largely unrepresented group.

January also saw our very successful participation in the annual Martin Luther King celebration in Memphis. And our Education Department continued its fine work by sponsoring a new officers training seminar at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, MD. Yet at the same time, the largest Local in the TWU (Local 100) was still dealing with the loss of dues checkoff, and working on a number of incentives to re-structure their operations and provide alternative dues methods for the members. Thankfully, checkoff was restored to the Local in the fall.

During the first quarter, we and other rail unions were successful in reaching an agreement with Amtrak after 8 years of delays under the Bush-appointed NMB. We were also in direct negotiations on contracts in all of our Divisions, and as we come to the end of this year, some of our major contracts are still open.

We made a big step forward in February after a great deal of research on the candidate and polling of our members and activists. At that time, the International Executive Board endorsed Senator Barrack Obama. As it turned out we were the first major AFL-CIO affiliated union to endorse Obama. Years back, we were the first union, or major organization of any kind, to endorse Obama when he was running in the Senate primary in Illinois.

Our Civil and Human Rights Department Chair Sandra Burleson and Co Chair Louis King (L514) hosted a regional TWU Civil Rights meeting in Tulsa that was well attended from across our Divisions. Based on the success of the meeting the plan is to conduct additional regional meetings in order to broaden education and participation. We were also delighted to host a Working Women’s Conference here in New York and thanks to Local 101 President Marsha Spinowitz we were able to have long time labor union pioneer Attorney Karen S. Burstein address the committee.

We were also involved in a number of issues on our legislative and political agenda, including important funding battles effecting our members in mass transit, airlines and rail. We sponsored a well-attended COPE Legislative Conference in April with the appropriate theme, “Change Starts Here.”

Our very successful Political Internship program, that I launched in 2006, continued to yield stunning results, as we provide some of our most energetic activists with a new avenue to advance the union’s political goals.

In the spring, Local 100 sponsored an impressive Lobby day in Albany to which over 1,000 active and retired members swarmed the capital.
Also, TWU Locals, big and small, took on the legislators and important issues from coast to coast.

We opened negotiations up at Southwest Airlines first with Local 555 (Ramp, Operations and Provisioning) and within a few a month’s time, Local 556 (flight attendants). I was on hand for opening comments. Our Southwest Locals also hosted very successful solidarity rally which showed management a strong bond and partnership between the Locals.

As executives at American Airlines awarded themselves another round on bonuses we launched a major drive against corporate greed in our “Share the Gain” campaign. At the same time, we saw fuel prices move wildly off the charts, which hit our industries hard as well as our members. Crude oil finally peaked at an unprecedented $147 per barrel. Our Aircraft Maintenance Technician’s on American were the brunt of external attacks when the FAA grounded the SP80 fleet. However, our maintenance professionals through the entire process maintained their skill and pride. In a difficult situation were able to return over 300 aircraft to service within 5 days.

In late spring, I testified before the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure covering New York and across the nation. The main focus was on improving safety and security on mass transit and rail.

Local 225 engineered a successful 12-day strike at Shortline/Coach USA, and Local 241 secured a solid a five-year pact with Columbia University the Local’s largest employer.,

We sponsored another successful “Grassroots Training Program” which has been well attended and received tremendous support from our Locals, which in turn helps us build a strong activist base back in the workforce.

The annual Michael Quill scholarship again randomly drew 15 college scholarships awards for TWU families. At our June International Executive Board Meeting we were able to host three Divisional meetings, and planning sessions with our Local Presidents within the Airline, Railroad, and Transit Utility, Universities and Services. These types meetings, in additions to our quarterly Strategic Planning Sessions, have been very successful in exchanging ideas that shape our International with our Local leadership.  We also unveiled our new TWU bus at these meetings which we are using for organizing and rallies.

One of our the major successful battles fought this year took place in Miami-Dade where Local 291, assisted by International Vice President J.W. Johnson, launched a very public campaign exposing a transportation tax shell game and as a result prevented the loss of 700 TWU jobs, and service to thousands of citizens, including many elderly.

Finally, we pulled out all the stops in our effort to support Barack Obama and other worker friendly candidates in November election. Our efforts paid off. The election was a major win for all of us in the labor movement and working families in general. As International President I am extremely proud of the numbers of TWU volunteer’s active, and retired that gave their time to work on phone banking, precinct walks. Leafleting, in every state we had members, and in some we did not. I was also impressed with some of our Locals participation in the various calls for action by the AFL-CIO.

TWU certainly had a front row seat for the ride on the 2008 rollercoaster. As we in TWU prepare to celebrate our 75th anniversary, we look forward to a better year for working families.