This article was featured in the Winter 2026-2027 IAM Journal and was written by IAM Communications Representative John Carr

The whistles still echoed across the Kennebec River as another shift of skilled Machinists filed through the gates of Bath Iron Works (BIW). For generations, IAM Local S6 members have built some of the U.S. Navy’s most advanced warships, vessels that serve around the globe and stand as symbols of American craftsmanship and national defense.

This year, those same workers added another accomplishment to their legacy.

Following months of preparation, member engagement and determined bargaining, approximately 4,500 IAM Local S6 members voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement with Bath Iron Works, a subsidiary of General Dynamics. The agreement delivers meaningful economic gains while strengthening job security, retirement and quality-of-life benefits for thousands of shipbuilders and their families.

For the members who build the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and support maintenance on the Independence-class littoral combat ships, the agreement represents far more than wages and benefits, it reflects the value of highly skilled union labor and the strength that comes from speaking with one voice.

“This agreement wasn’t just about dollars and cents,” said IAM Local S6 President Tim Suitter. “It was about respecting the people whose skill, dedication and craftsmanship make this shipyard successful every day.”

A Membership-Driven Contract

Long before formal negotiations began, Local S6’s bargaining committee was already hard at work.

Committee members spent months gathering proposals, meeting with members throughout the shipyard, reviewing contract language, studying economic conditions and preparing strategies for the bargaining table. Shop-floor conversations, member meetings and direct feedback helped shape every proposal presented during negotiations.

That preparation proved invaluable.

Throughout bargaining, members consistently emphasized several priorities:

• Competitive wages that keep pace with today’s economy.
• Protecting IAM work and limiting subcontracting.
• Strengthening retirement security.
• Improving paid time off and work-life balance.
• Preserving Bath Iron Works as a premier union shipyard.

Rather than entering negotiations with predetermined objectives, the committee focused on representing the concerns voiced by the membership.

“Every proposal reflected conversations we had on the shop floor or in our member surveys,” added Suitter. “Members told us what mattered most, and that’s exactly what we fought to achieve.”

“This agreement is the result of months of preparation, countless conversations with our members, and a bargaining committee that never lost sight of who they were representing,” said IAM District 4 Assistant Directing Business Representative Chris Wiers. “Every proposal, every discussion and every decision was guided by the priorities our members shared with us. That’s what made this a truly member-driven contract.”

“This new agreement reflects what can happen when an experienced bargaining committee listens to its members, prepares thoroughly and stands firm on the issues that matter most,” said IAM District 4 Directing Business Representative Jay Wadleigh. “Local S6 members have spent generations building some of the finest warships in the world, and they understand the importance of protecting the skilled work and good union jobs that make Bath Iron Works what it is. This contract recognizes their value and helps ensure that ‘Bath Built is Best Built’ remains more than a slogan it remains a commitment to the future of shipbuilding in Maine.”

Investing in the Skilled Workforce

The new agreement recognizes the tremendous value IAM members bring to one of the nation’s most important defense manufacturers.

The contract includes significant wage increases over the life of the agreement, improvements to retirement benefits, enhanced paid time off, expanded educational opportunities, and updated language addressing quality-of-life issues important to today’s workforce.

Just as importantly, the agreement reinforces the importance of maintaining highly skilled work within the shipyard.

For many members, protecting opportunities for future generations carried just as much weight as immediate economic improvements.

“The work we do can’t simply be replaced,” said Suitter. It takes years to develop these skills, and this contract recognizes the importance of investing in the people who build these ships.”

More Than Shipbuilding

Every destroyer launched from Bath carries with it thousands of hours of craftsmanship from welders, machinists, electricians, pipefitters, painters, planners, inspectors and countless other skilled trades represented by the IAM.

Members understand that every weld, every pipe, every cable and every component contributes directly to the safety of America’s sailors.

That responsibility creates a deep sense of pride throughout the workforce.

“When a ship leaves this yard, you know a part of your work will protect our nation’s sailors for decades to come,” said Negotiating Committee Member Tim Halle. “That responsibility isn’t something any of us take lightly. Every weld, every system and every detail matters because we know what’s at stake.”

For many families, Bath Iron Works is more than an employer. It’s a tradition.

Generations have worked inside the same shipyard, passing knowledge from one generation to the next while helping preserve Maine’s proud shipbuilding heritage.

Protecting the Future

As the shipbuilding industry continues to compete for skilled workers, Local S6 leaders believe strong contracts remain one of the most effective recruiting and retention tools available.

Competitive wages, retirement security and predictable schedules help attract the next generation of skilled tradespeople while encouraging experienced workers to remain in the industry.

Members repeatedly emphasized that the agreement helps ensure Bath Iron Works remains an attractive place to build a career.

“Young workers want to know they have a future here,” said Strike Committee Member, LEADS Program participant and second generation BIW worker Kaitlyn Baker. “A strong contract shows that this is still a place where someone can build a career, support a family and retire with dignity.”

“A strong contract sends a powerful message to the next generation of shipbuilders,” said Shop Steward and Strike Committee Member Matthew Wooten. “It tells young workers that this is a career worth investing in because they’ll have fair wages, good benefits, retirement security and a union that’s committed to protecting their future. That’s how we keep this shipyard, and our union strong for years to come.”

Preparation Makes the Difference

One of the defining characteristics of this round of bargaining was preparation.

Months before formal negotiations began, committee members reviewed proposals, analyzed economic trends, prepared bargaining strategies, and worked through potential scenarios.

That work allowed negotiators to remain focused throughout the process and respond quickly as discussions evolved.

Preparation also strengthened communication with the membership, helping workers stay informed while maintaining confidence in the bargaining process.

“Strong contracts don’t happen by accident,” said Tim Halle. “They’re built through preparation, communication, and members standing together from the first proposal until the final vote.”

Unity at Every Step

Perhaps the greatest lesson from this round of bargaining was the importance of solidarity.

Throughout negotiations, members remained engaged, informed, and supportive of the committee representing them.

That unity sent a powerful message across the bargaining table.

The agreement ultimately reflected not only months of negotiations, but decades of union experience built upon member participation and collective action.

“Every member has a voice,” said IAM Local S6 Communicator, Shop Steward, Joint Apprenticeship, and Negotiating Committees Member Devin Ragnar. “But it’s our unity that gives those voices real strength. When we stand together, there’s no question about what our membership expects or what we’re willing to fight for.”

“The greatest strength we have isn’t found at the bargaining table, it’s found in our membership,” added Ragnar. “When 4,500 members stand together behind a common purpose, that unity speaks louder than any one individual ever could.”

Looking Ahead

With a new agreement in place, Local S6 members have turned their focus back to doing what they do best, building world-class warships that protect the nation while supporting thousands of families across Maine.

Although another round of bargaining will eventually come, the latest agreement demonstrates what can be accomplished when preparation meets solidarity and skilled workers remain united behind a common purpose.

As steel continues to take shape along the banks of the Kennebec River, so too does another chapter in the proud history of IAM shipbuilders.

“As a proud member of Local S6 and a former Bath Iron Works shipbuilder, I know firsthand the skill, determination and solidarity of this membership,” said IAM Union International President Brian Bryant. “This historic agreement recognizes the tremendous value our members bring to Bath Iron Works, the state of Maine and our nation’s defense. I congratulate the negotiating committee and every Local S6 member who stood together to secure a stronger future for themselves and their families.”

For Local S6, the story has never been solely about ships.

It has always been about the men and women whose craftsmanship, determination, and solidarity keep both the shipyard, and the union moving forward.

“This agreement is about more than improved wages and benefits, it’s about protecting the future of union shipbuilding,” said IAM Eastern Territory General Vice President David Sullivan, also a proud member of IAM Local S6. “The dedication shown by Local S6’s members, bargaining committee, and leadership has strengthened not only this workforce, but the entire IAM. Their solidarity will benefit generations of shipbuilders who follow in their footsteps.”

For rideshare drivers, pay can shift overnight. Major safety concerns are swept under the rug. Drivers can be deactivated from the apps they rely on for income with no explanation or recourse.

For years, they’ve kept America moving. They pick up passengers before sunrise, navigate rush-hour traffic, work overnight shifts, sleep in their cars to make ends meet, and provide necessary transportation to millions of people every day. Despite taking on all of the risk and responsibility of powering a multibillion-dollar industry, they haven’t gotten the respect they deserve or had a voice in their work… until now.

Rather than accepting their tough working conditions as the cost of doing business, rideshare drivers are organizing. With the support of IAM Union and its partners, they are changing what was thought possible for this industry and unionizing.

TURNING FRUSTRATION INTO ACTION

“I never thought we would do this. It’s actually crazy. I talk about it with my counterparts, and we’re in almost disbelief. We were a dozen friends who would chip in twenty bucks each a week to print flyers and make T-shirts.”

That’s IAM Associate Organizer Lenny Sanchez talking about how it started years ago: a bunch of friends working on the rideshare apps who knew they deserved better and decided to take a stand for it.

“I went through what I think is the typical experience for drivers,” said Sanchez. “There is a honeymoon phase when you first sign up to drive. That’s when the apps will hook you up with the highest tipping passengers and the best promotions to get you hooked. Then, they pull the rug out from under you, and you quickly start to realize what working for this app long term is going to look like.”

“The pay starts to dwindle and the treatment is as cruel and heartless as it gets,” said Sanchez.

Sanchez had a passenger pull a firearm on him and kidnap him at gunpoint. Upon completion of the ride and trying to get a resolution, the companies would not cooperate so that the crime could be investigated by law enforcement. Their solution was to never pair him with that passenger again. “I realized that I was nothing more than a number, and they were willing to allow that same passenger who held a gun to my head in another driver’s car.”

In the beginning of rideshare apps’ existence, drivers’ contracts stipulated a fixed percent commission that they were going to get from every single ride, but the apps sneakily made a change to their terms and conditions, and with the implementation of dynamic pricing, companies take a much larger chunk of the fares, while drivers receive a much smaller fixed dollar bonus or nothing. Surcharges on high-demand areas and for access to airports raise prices for customers, but drivers don’t get paid more for driving during congestion or in certain areas.

Drivers describe unpredictable earnings, declining compensation, rising operating costs, safety concerns, and the constant uncertainty of working for algorithms that change without notice.

Andrew Spiro started driving after retiring to help pay bills and support his family. “I took pride in my work and maintained an excellent passenger rating, but that didn’t stop me from being suddenly deactivated without warning or a meaningful explanation. I never had the chance to speak with a real person or defend myself. An algorithm simply decided my livelihood was gone. No driver should have to live with that kind of uncertainty,” said Spiro.

“What I used to make in 15 to 20 hours a week, I am now working 35 to 45 hours a week and not even touching that, “ says rideshare driver Lisa McGee. “I was never one of those 10 to 12 or 14-hour-day drivers. The most I would do is maybe six to nine, depending what’s going on. But, now I have to in order to make the same or less. Our promos are terrible. The last three weekends, my promo was twenty rides for ten bucks. Ten dollars? Gas is four-something a gallon! How do they work that out?”

Mark Balentine was a worker protection organizer at Warehouse Workers for Justice before he became a driver for Uber. He got involved with the campaign when he was denied payment for a “quest” Uber promoted to increase ride sales.

The deal was, drivers would get $1,800 for completing 140 rides within a month’s time frame, a 30-day window. For example, if the driver completed 140 rides that accounted for $1,200 of earnings, Uber guaranteed to pay out the $600 remainder. Balentine completed more than 140 rides in 30 days; he even got a notification on the app telling him when he reached 140, but Uber’s system had a glitch and they refused to look at his screenshots for proof, so he was denied the payout.

“They just messed with the wrong organizer,” said Balentine. “I’ll get my money back from Uber one way or the other, and ever since then, I’ve been locked in on this union. I’ve been with Uber since 2014, and that’s the third time they ever did something that I felt was unjust, the first two I let slide, but the third lit a match up under me.”

Those shared experiences became the foundation of the Illinois Drivers Alliance, a coalition led by the IAM Union and SEIU Local 1 established to bring drivers together from every corner of the state and pressure lawmakers for their right to organize in a union.

A HISTORIC VICTORY IN ILLINOIS

The IAM fully committed to the effort, pulling in IAM Midwest Territory International Representative Ronnie Gonzalez to take the lead, organizing drivers for press conferences and rallies and guiding them in sharing testimony with lawmakers, working with allies and fellow unions, and most importantly lobbying politicians for drivers’ right to unionize.

IAM International President Brian Bryant and IAM Midwest Territory General Vice President Sam Cicinelli supported the effort wholeheartedly. Cicinelli had led the early stages of the campaign before turning it over to Gonzalez. Bryant and Cicinelli both invested in the goal. There are 100,000 rideshare drivers in Illinois, and in order to organize them, a law had to be passed first. IAM Railroad Coordinator Brian Shanahan was also brought into the effort for his knowledge of Illinois public transportation and his connections through representing transit workers.

As it stood, rideshare drivers were classified as independent contractors, not employees of Uber and Lyft. That classification barred them from organizing under federal rules, meaning a specific state-level legal framework was required to authorize collective bargaining.

Gonzalez and Shanahan helped build that framework with SEIU Local 1 and collaborated with ATU’s Clem Balanoff, Mid-America Carpenters’ Political Director Matt Watchinski, the Illinois Nurses Association’s Margo Gislain, SMART’s Political Director Bob Guy, and the Illinois AFL-CIO to advocate on behalf of the bill they drafted: the Rideshare Drivers Union Rights Bill (or the Transportation Network Driver Labor Relations Act).

The IAM team coordinated closely with SEIU Local 1, as well as IAM leadership and staff. They formed an organizing committee and held weekly meetings to develop communication and political strategy to support the drivers and get the bill passed.

Gonzalez, Sanchez and Balentine worked alongside drivers every step of the way. They organized lobby days, and drivers from all over Illinois would travel to Springfield to speak with their state legislators and share their personal stories for why they need a voice in their work.

“The legislative process was its own beast,” said Gonzalez. “Going down to Springfield on a regular basis. We brought drivers down there every single Wednesday and circulated them throughout the legislators. The drivers met directly with the legislators and informed them of the circumstances that they faced, and I think that had a huge impact on the legislators when it came time for them to push the button yes or no in the vote, because hearing the stories directly from the drivers is really moving.”

All of it paid off at 2 a.m. on June 1, 2026 when the Illinois General Assembly passed House Bill 5090, the Transportation Network Driver Labor Relations Act, to grant approximately 100,000 rideshare drivers the right to unionize, elect representatives, and collectively bargain with companies like Uber and Lyft.

“One of the most exciting points of it is, we were the only labor bill to pass out of Springfield in this session, that speaks volumes to the campaign. We also did it in one legislative session, which in Illinois, not many laws do it that way. It just shows the amount of grit that everybody put in and the time spent,” said Gonzalez, reflecting on the year-long effort.

On August 7, 2026, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed the bill into law, followed by a huge celebration of rideshare drivers who had lobbied for a year to get the legislation.

The next chapter is about building a strong union, engaging drivers across Illinois to sign up, and preparing to negotiate meaningful improvements to address pay, safety, transparency, and job security.

“Now the work starts,” said Balentine. “We celebrated. We kicked-back for a minute, but now we’ve got to make this work. I’m doing whatever I’ve got to do to make sure this union works. When I see that we have 30,000 drivers and we get a bargaining team together and send them to that table, I might take my foot off the gas.”

BUILDING ON MOMENTUM IN MASSACHUSETTS

Nearly 1,000 miles away, another groundbreaking campaign has shown what workers can accomplish when they organize together.

In Massachusetts, the IAM Union partnered with SEIU 32BJ to help create the App Drivers Union, giving nearly 70,000 app-based drivers a recognized voice on the job and opening the door to collective bargaining.

While the legal paths for these victories differed between the two states, the mission remained: ensuring that app-based workers have the opportunity to stand together and negotiate for better wages, stronger protections, and greater respect.

The Illinois Drivers Alliance adopted the App Drivers Union title after their bill was passed, gearing up to organize drivers now that they can legally be in a union.