Boeing Firefighters & Fungi Perfecti Workers Are On The Move! What Does This Mean For Labor?

The pro-labor Acountability Northwest website and The STAND, the website publication of the Washington State Labor Council, are both highlighting the need for solidarity with locked-out Boeing firegighters and a union organizing campaign among on-site workers employed by Fungi Perfecti,a company producing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms, being led by Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 252.

The two union efforts and the publicity and traction that they are gathering speak to what may be a transitional moment for labor in our region. The lockout at Boeing is, in simple terms, an attempt by skilled and necessary workers employed by a major and very profitable corporation that anchors employment in our region to win parity with others doing the same or similar work. It may also be a foretaste of what is to come as other unions negotiate with Boeing and as unions in production and skilled trades go on the offensive as the United Auto Workers has been doing with generally good results so far.

The LiUNA campaign among Fungi Perfecti workers, on the other hand, could not have been conceived of just a short while ago. This is a relatively new industry that is vulnerable to corporate takeover, monopolization, and centralization. Legal mushrooms and pot have come with some controversy. The employer in this case is using standard union-busting tactics no doubt learned from the bottom feeders in corporate America, and this seems to be taking the workers by surprise. In contrast with the Boeing firefighters, most workers employed by legal mushrooms and pot companies are young and have probably not thought of themselves as working in an industry, and it is likely and they are only now beginning to think of themselves as being part of something much bigger than their particular employer and considering what they have in common with one another and with other workers doing the same or similar work as they do.  

It seems reasoable to assume that over the coming years that our region's labor movement will gain ground among younger and more diverse demographics and that unionization will increase among workers in rising industries and that their employers and industries will quickly be forced to compete and give way to monopolies and multinationals. These companies will not be union-friendly and will not hesitte to resist unionization. For these reasons, I think, youth protest movements and youth culture need to be understood now within the labor movement. Unions that want to have a future should be working with the protest movements and within youth cultures in order to build and find future leaders and in order to understand what new organizing will require from us.    

It is a healthy sign of the times that the Boeing and Fungi Perfecti workers are getting good pubicity and public support. Our region's labor movement is meanwhile being tested as we meet the challenges of the moment we're in.

Donations can be made to the Boeing Firefighters Lock-Out Fund:

Venmo @BoeingIAFFI66
PayPal @BoeingFFlocalI66
By Check – C/O I-66 Strike Fund, PO BOX 1768, Renton, WA 98057

Photos were taken from The STAND.