Sisters and Brothers:
As the airline industry is rebounding, we are getting a better picture of the road ahead of us. Most of our members who took voluntary leaves are returning and our membership count is reaching the level we had prior to the pandemic. With our staff and many of our members vaccinated, the travel restrictions we had earlier in COVID had been lifted and we are now out having meetings and visits with our members.
With these improvements, I have appointed Joe Tiberi to fill a vacancy as Special Representative for District 142. Joe will be assigned by me to assist in representation across our system and to help with our various communication platforms. His appointment is effective July 1.
Joe initiated into District Lodge 142 as a member of Local Lodge 1056 at JFK Airport in New York in 1989. He worked as an aircraft cleaner, commissary driver, ramp serviceman and ultimately an avionics technician for Trans World Airlines, holding many roles in Local Lodge 1056.
In 1999 he became the Transportation Department’s first Communications Representative and created the first District Lodge 142 website. Joe coordinated membership and press communications through multiple airline bankruptcies, mergers, Presidential Emergency Boards and air and rail negotiations. He also authored all Congressional testimony for the Machinists Union regarding airline industry bankruptcy, consolidation, and pension reform.
Joe became Transportation Department Chief of Staff in 2012 and was responsible for the day-to-day operation of the world’s largest airline union. He was part of the negotiating teams for bargaining with Northwest Airlines, US Airways, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines and Continental Airlines. He also created the IAM’s first Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), who have been deployed to assist members and their families after aircraft accidents, mass shootings and natural disasters.
Joseph Tiberi has also been active in both the national and international labor movement. He represented the Machinists Union at the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department and Maritime Trades Department meetings, as well as in White House summits on aviation and the airline industry.
In 2013 he was elected Vice-Chair of Civil Aviation for the London-based International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and led the US labor delegation that year at the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Global Labor Forum on aviation in Geneva. He is an active lobbyist at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal.
In 2018 in Singapore, the ITF’s 250 global aviation unions in 117 countries representing more than a million civil aviation workers elected Joe to lead the ITF’s Civil Aviation Section as its Chair. In that role he also leads the ITF’s global response to the COVID-19 crisis in aviation.
Joe created and served as the first Chair of the ITF’s Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) committee to ensure that AMT’s had a voice on the global stage. In 2019 he accepted an invitation to speak at the Vatican about the scourge of human trafficking. Joe holds a BA in Labor History and Union Leadership & Administration.
Joe brings a wealth of background to the District and will help all our members across our system. Please welcome Joe to our team!
Sincerely and fraternally,
David Supplee
PRESIDENT-DIRECTING
GENERAL CHAIR
POST ON ALL IAM BULLETIN BOARDS
