Guest Post: What's a Union Issue? by Chuck Wynns

What’s a Union Issue?

Ever been to one of those meetings at your union when something controversial comes up? Maybe it’s a labor program to assist immigrant workers? Maybe someone or a group of folks have asked the union for support around a community issue? Maybe it’s a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Palestine?

All the same, when these issues come up at the union meeting, somebody will always stand up and say, “That’s not a Union issue!”. Simply put, “not union issue” is a convenient way to dodge the issue. All one has to do to dodge the discussion is simply claim the union is there for what exists within the contract and nothing else. It’s a narrow form of unionism that is based on the idea that the union has no meaning outside the workplace and the collective bargaining agreement.

I have a wider idea regarding what a union issue is. As I see it, a union issue is any issue that affects workers.

For instance, workers achieve a good contract and better wages yet the money gained is sucked out of workers’ pockets even as the ink is drying on the new contract. This is inflation, it’s killing workers, and it’s a union issue!

It’s a union issue that workers have great difficulty actually finding health care even though the health insurance plan is solid on paper. If you doubt this, just look at the month or more it takes to get an appointment once you call for one. Or ask folks in rural areas who are increasingly living in health care deserts. This too is a union issue!

Climate change is a union issue. All those massive storms, heat domes, floods and drought represent a drag across all economic activity. Commodities that arrive late lose value. This is not a problem for our bosses; they simply raise their prices. For us, this is a big problem! This is a major reason why we get sticker shock everytime we go to the grocery store and why us in Oregon, many dependent on PGE for their power, have received a 25% rate increase in the space of a year.

The war in Palestine is a union issue too. Why? Because us in the working class make the bombs that are dropped on Palestinians. Having a job does not morally exempt workers from responsibilities for what they do in their lives, including what their bosses tell them to do on the job. The ILWU has understood this principle for years. As the people transporting the bombs, members of the ILWU have been known to refuse to load cargo destined for immoral wars. Here, the ILWU is expressing its solidarity with all human beings. This is a value that has been known as a “labor value” for 100 years and more.

So here’s the deal. Unions Folks may remember Bernie Sanders and his slogan, “It’s not about Me, it’s about Us”. This is a revolutionary concept in the context of normal American life where everything is twisted to reflect the almighty presence of just Me in an atomized world. Yet, “It’s about Us” is the very foundational principle of unions and the Labor Movement. It is Us that makes solidarity possible, and with that the power to compel a better life for all of us.

With this in mind, a much wider view of what a union issue is , is essential to the well-being of all of Us. We need to be public and visible based on our commitment to all of Us. Issues coming up in union meetings need to be discussed, debated and positions taken. And if we in the Labor Movement don’t open up in behalf of Us, I guarantee you, nobody else will.