Washington State Delegates Attending:

Randy Robins -     Local 502 Business Manager

Richard T Jones - Local 502 LEAP Chairman

John Kosinski -     Local 290 Business Manager

Mark Keffler -      Local 242 LEAP Chairman

Tim Kessler -        Local 104 Business Agent

Meeting Schedule

Con, Young             4/22/08 @ 11am  ( Alaska )
Senator Cantwell    4/22/08 @1pm
Senator Stevens     4/22/08 @ 230pm  (Alaska)
Senator Murray      4/22/08 @ 415pm

Senator MurKauski   4/23/08 @ 830am (Alaska)
Con, Hastings     4/23/08 @ 10am
Con, Inslee          4/23/08 @ 11am
Con, Ricart          4/23/08 @ 1130am
Con, Rodgers      4/23/08 @ 1pm
Con, Dicks          4/23/08 @  330

Con, Smith            4/24/08 @1130am
Con, McDermott  4/24/08 @ 1pm
Con, Baird           4/24/08 @ 245pm
Con, Larsen        4/24/08 @ 430pm

LEAP Conference Report for 04/22/08

Meeting Pamela Day at Congressman's Don Young's office ( Alaska ) .  The Congressman was unable to meet with us so we spoke with Pamela who is Deputy Chief of Staff.  It was a very direct meeting as we reviewed the issues with her. The Congressman has been a good supporter for working families in Alaska and as such has been a good supporter or labor in the past. Pamela will see the Congressman gets our fact sheets and we are confident that the congressman will do a good job to help us with these issues. This was a good meeting.

Meeting with Senator Cantwells Legislative Correspondent Kelly Dougherty. The meeting with Kelly was to just pass on the information on the fact sheet.  We are always unsure as to how the Senator will react to our concerns or issues.  We are confident that she will at least back us on clean air technologies and development for cleaner fuels. We did have a pretty good meeting and we are sure the Senator will get the info we left.

Meeting with Kevin Simpson Legislative Assistant to Senator Stevens ( Alaska ).  This meeting went as well as out meeting at Congressman Young's office. We reviewed the fact sheet had a good talk about Immigration and Climate changes Ideas were exchanged on the legislation for climate change and concerns about our shrunken navel fleet.  It was a good meeting. Short and to the Point.

Meeting with Jeff Bjornstad Chief of staff for Senator Patty Murray.  The Senator was in session and unable to meet with us this trip. However, we had a very good meeting with Jeff about our issues as Boilermakers.  As we have in the past.  We still do not see eye to eye on trade. but as we spend more time with the Senator and her staff on the issue I feel that we may be getting our message through a little more. Senator Murray has for the most part been a good supporter of labor and working Americans. And though we don't always agree on the trade issue we have a favorable friend in labor as a hole.

LEAP Conference Report for 04/23/09

Meeting with Senator Murkowski at Congressional coffee ( Alaska ) We met with the Senator and Nathan Butzlaff during congressional coffee. We covered the issues with the Senator and spoke at length on energy. over all we was received well but the Senator was more concerned about Alaska issues then issues affecting the majority of American working families. It was a pleasant meeting and we hope the material we left will be reviewed.

Meeting with Michael Conschafter Legislative Assistant for Congressman Doc Hastings.  We had a hallway meeting with Michael and covered the issues. However in talking about the new trade agreement the President wants with Columbia we strongly disagreed on. The Congressman is for a free trade agreement with a Country that continues to kill Labor leaders and their families for trying to organize. Some 2600 people have been murdered since 1996 in Columbia for being a union organizer.  This as we see it is a insult to the very core of the values we are suppose to hold as a nation. Certainly it is agents the core values this great nation was founded on. We left our information with Michael and was not happy regarding this topic. However, on most all other issues the Congressman is on the same page we are.

Meeting with Congressman Jay Inslee.  Delegates had the opportunity to meet with the Congressman.  As he has done in the past the Congressman is on board with our issues and will continue to do the best he can for labor in the Congress. He has and is a good supporter and we have always had a good meeting with him and his staff.

Meeting with Congressman Dave Reichert.   We had the chance to have a good long meeting with the Congressman. He is a good supporter for Labor also as he himself has been a Union Member of the Teamsters and police union or guild. He has been a good friend to labor on most issues. However,  We had a rather long talk about the Columbia free trade act the has been tabled by Congress.  He went to Columbia to see conditions and got the royal treatment by the President of Columbia and just raves about how much things have changed there.  We disagree. Beauty is only skin deep.  We explained to him our concerns as we did at Hastings Office. So we agree to disagree with the Congressman on this issue. Again we can not Afford to sell our values to the highest bidder.

Meeting with Ben Stecker Junior Legislative Assistant for Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers.  This meeting took a lot to get. After I was not even given a return phone call for a meeting request our Leap Chairman from 242 was able to get us in.  we met in the lobby and we reviewed the material. Ben was quiet and the meeting lasted 10min. We asked him to pass on the information but we know with her ( zero) voting for labor he may have just dropped in the trash can as we left the office. Not a very productive meeting but we did get it.

Meeting with Congressman Norm Dicks at the Capital.  With a phone call from our brother from Local 290 we got a face to face meeting at the Capital with the congressman between Votes.  He is very supportive of our ship building and Navel Ship yards.  He is working on getting more funding for Navel ship Building in Washington State and across the Nation.  The Congressman is on board with our issues and said he would continue to fight to keep our jobs in Washington State. Congressman Dicks will be able to get more done we feel as soon as we can get a good Demarcate in the Whitehouse.

Leap Conference Report for 04/24/08

Meeting with Congressman Adam Smith.  We had a good meeting with the Congressman on most all the issues we presented until we came to Trade.  We went over the issue of the Columbia Free Trade Agreement. However Congressman Smith does not appear to be swayed on his views that the trade is a bad thing with Columbia. We did our best to put our views forward but He supports trade with Columbia at this time.

Meeting with Jayme White Legislative Director for Congressman Jim McDermott.  We had a very direct and informative meeting with Jayme. As we have in the past.  Jayme is very well informed and was ready to answer our questions and respond to our issues. Although the Congressman is for Trading with Columbia, we were unable to sway Jayme on the issue. The Congressman has supported lobar well in the past and we have always disagreed on Trade. But he feels more enforcing of current trade standards are badly needed.

Meeting with Jessica Lemon Policy Adviser to Congressman Brian Baird.  We had a brief meeting with Jessica as the congressman was voting and could not attend our meeting.  She took our fact sheet and we presented it to her and will pass on the information to the Congressman.

Meeting with Congressman Rick Larsen.  We had a good meeting with the congressman on all the issues. However, Like with each of our other meetings when it came to trade with China and Columbia we ran into the road block.  The Congressman feels be doing much to China would cause a Trade war and one the US cant afford. On the issue with Columbia he feels that we need to give them a chance and move forward with the trade deal.  A pleasant meeting on the hole just wish we could get our Congressman to reconsider Columbia.

Conclusion

The Conference was very good and we were very busy with meetings and appointments. Our over all feeling from our Representatives was one of encouragement and at time we were feeling a little played off. But overall the meetings went well and mostly very hopeful for Washington state. Issues affecting our nation Like trade we had a hard time getting the to see our point at all. The fact is not much is going to happen in the House or the Senate until elections are over. Both sides of the House and Senate do not want risk much until we have a new White house in place.