Can Labor And The Left Ally In Salem?

Photo by N. Krupskaya

The photo above is of a billboard paid for by the right-wing and anti-union Freedom Foundation. There are at least five of these billboards up in the Salem area. Don't worry if you don't understand the message or the intent here. Thousands of people pass by these billboards every day and have no idea what they are about.

Briefly, the Freedom Foundation has been attacking Oregon's public employee unions for years in ways that have been deceptive, underhanded, unfair, unethical and without substance. These billboards are one more slapstick step in the wrong direction by an outfit that wants to deprive workers of our rights and turn back the clock. The "OEA" referred to is the Oregon Education Association, probably the largest public employee union in the state and a powerhouse when it comes to defending the rights of school employees and working people in Oregon. OEA defends its members on the job and through lobbying and political action and is often allied with other unions and progressive organizations as it does so. Why these alliances? Because it is most often other unions and progressive organizations and politicians that center education, education workers, unions, and the interests of working people in their programs. "DSA" refers to the Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the United States. DSA has a solid record of fighting for the interests of working people in many cities around the United States and has many members who are also union members. DSA supports a ceasefire in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and justice for oppressed peoples. Many unions, including the OEA, have passed pro-ceasefire resolutions.

The Freedom Foundation is once more trying to create a controversy and divide and antagonize people where no controversy exists. For a short period earlier this year the local DSA held some membership meetings at the local OEA office. The socialists are no longer using that space. 

If there is anything of interest here, it is that this ham-fisted approach by the pro-Republican Freedom Foundation gives us an opening to talk a bit about labor history, democracy, and irony.

There are union halls and there are union offices and the two are quite different. A union hall is a place where union members and others can meet, relax, talk, and build community. Many unions once used their halls as libraries and reading rooms. In many western mining regions, the union hall was the foundation of local civil society and, in a sense, of civilization. Some union halls were shared with working-class and middle-class organizations that actively supported the prohibition of alcohol while others had union-member-only saloons. Some, quite unfortunately and stupidly, housed anti-immigrant and anti-Chinese organizations. Some were community centers with healthcare clinics, law offices, night schools, English language instruction, and training centers. Salem once had union halls, and one of these also had a socialist office and a bar a restaurant inside. Good and bad, this is our labor history.

I have seen union halls in the United States that had art galleries and performance spaces. I have attended weddings, community dinners, and polkas in union halls. I visited union halls in Spain that had cafes and bars and galleries and one that had readings of erotic poetry on Friday nights. I also visited a union hall in Turkey that had a large room of very busy human rights activists working on computers and telephones and I visted a Kurdish elementary school that was run by union members during the day and served as a union and community center at night.

Our old Salem Labor Temple and Labor Day in Salem.

Union offices, on the other hand, are places where union business is transacted and where union staff work and union members may meet to carry on union business. They are most often dull and uncomfortable places with a sad feel to them. There is an understandable tendency in our labor movement towards isolation and being totally focused on taking care of the business at hand and not being able to manage much more than that or to not seeing how union interests and community interests can coincide. That's all real, but what are we doing to break out of that? 

SEIU Local 503, AFSCME, and Teamsters Local 324 have beautiful and fully-functional union halls in Salem. The PCUN hall in Woodburn is a good example of a one-time union hall now serving as communal and activist space. OEA has a wonderfully laid-out office with great meeting and social space that could be used as community and labor union space.

A union hall furthers democracy and preaches community engagement and activism just by existing. A union office sends quite another message.

Got me a date, and I won't be late

Picked her up in my '88

Shagged on down by the Union Hall

When the joint starts jumpin', I'll have a ball

Tonite we're gonna pitch a ball

Down to that union hall

Gonna romp and tromp 'till midnite

We're gonna fuss and fight 'till daylight

We're gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long

The Freedom Foundation doesn't care about democracy and is opposed to unions in the first place, so they don't much care if we have halls or offices. They just want us gone. But they are implying in their latest billboard campaign that they don't want us to have social and democratic space. I don't know how OEA members and leaders are feeling about this, but I hope that they're not intimidated by this latest attack by the yahoos.

It is every union's right to use its property as it sees fit and without interference. The Freedom Foundation, always the outsider with deep corporate pockets and a hidden agenda, seeks to grab headlines by either ignoring these common rights or by trying to drive a wedge between union members and union leaders. The more member-led and member-driven a union is, the more able it will be to withstand such attacks and turn them to the union's advantage. Perhaps more to the point, a strong and member-led union will encourage union members to be involved in many causes and will open the union hall to them and uphold the principles of democracy in the hall, in the union, and in the workplace. Any pro-union organization supported by union members should have access to union halls, and the labor movement should feel and know that the Left has our back.

We can only get to that point of unity by working together and forming relationships. This is about something that is almost transactional. Do Labor people and Leftists here in the Salem-Keizer area have some things to offer one another? This is not about good intentions or particular histories or legacies, important as they are, but about identifying and fulfilling needs and building trust out of hard work. 

We need a working-class culture that prizes solidarity. This is not, in the first place, about using solidarity to win fights with the boss or win in elections, although those are ever-important. A working-class culture of solidarity provides identity, belonging and inclusion, intellectual fulfilment, the constructive use of time, physical well-being, equality, diversity, balance, and the means to develop one's creativity with others. This assumes a willingness to join in for the long haul, take on responsibilities with others, and be open to new ideas.  

Is it a big and scandalous deal that there are socialists, and are socialists marginal characters whose presence should alarm union members? Not at all. The historic socialist movement and the labor movement in the United States share common historic origins and have many interests in common. There have been great socialist union leaders in the United States, and this tradition extends back to the 1860s. We are not talking about extremes here, but about democratic ways of thinking and acting together that should be of special interest to union members.

And there is irony.

Salem does not have a working-class culture based on solidarity or a labor movement that engages often enough in mutual support and solidarity or an organized Left presence that is particularly meaningful or helpful to the region's labor movement. We don't have a workers' center or a Jobs with Justice organization or a progressive trade union committee for unity, action, and democracy led by people on the Left. The reasons for this are complex. But it is a sad fact, I think, that the Freedom Foundation has so little to worry about. Local Labor does not seem to be up in arms about the Freedom Foundation's latest attack, DSA isn't asking for solidarity from Labor (that I know of), and local socialist labor leaders tend to be so busy in their union work that they have mostly disengaged from the existing socialist groups. For their part, these groups can be cranky, pedantic, reactive, ageist, and factional. This isn't going to build unity between Labor and DSA or anyone else. The Freedom Foundation has little to worry about. Where the Left has traditionally supported popular fronts, the local Left seems more inclined to being the unpopular front.

The exceptions to this have been strong efforts by local Leftists and others to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and DSA's past local environmental work and when DSA helped lead the pushback against former U.S. Representative Kurt Schrader on certain policy issues. The Salem-Keizer DSA has a local leader who has a strong understanding of union organizing from the American Federation of Teachers and a solid record of environmental activism as well. Another local DSA member who is active in the ceasefire movement was a long-time SEIU Local 503 shop steward. This kind of intersectionality holds promise. There is also at least one winnable legislative race underway in our region where Labor and Left interests coincide.     

DSA has shown its best hand in union organizing at Amazon, at UPS, in the auto industry, in certain school systems and on certain college and university campuses. The great Emergency Worker Organizing Committee (EWOC), a national project between DSA and the United Electrical Workers, has been groundbreaking. Many of the companies targeted by EWOC and other unions have facilities here in Salem-Keizer, and many of the unions that DSA members are active in nationally and regionally have locals in our area. We have to ask what is holding back local socialists from organizing in the non-union places and building solidarity and unionism in local unions and why we don't see more Leftists in our area active in the legislative race referred to above. The Freedom Foundation deserves a real run for its money and influence.           

      

Co-enforcement, Worker Power, and Re-thinking Labor and Social Movements (Part Two)

Harlan County, Kentucky mine workers take collective action in 1939

(Please see the first post in this two-part series here.) 

It would certainly help matters if all of us came to a new understanding of politics based in our collective working-class experience and a new understanding of solidarity and supporting one another as well. Imagine a powerful pro-worker and pro-union set of laws and rules, a fair legal system, and government agencies, unions and allied organizations partnering on inclusive research and enforcement and penalizing wayward employers. One necessary component of that would be workers running for office and taking positions in government agencies. That day seems far away. We are not yet at a point where we are about the business of building the kinds of solidarity and union growth that directly involves people in taking collective control of our destinies. We have an immediate challenge of impressing on people that when we vote for governors and labor commissioners in Oregon we are voting either for or against co-enforcement and explaining the positives and negatives involved in making that choice.

In the meantime, we struggle with seemingly mundane questions like what constitutes evidence in a wage and hour complaint or in a grievance, what is and isn’t just cause for discipline at work, and how do you know if piece rate pay is being done correctly or not. The questions may seem tedious, but the answers to them can make qualitative differences in worker’s lives. And from how these questions are understood and dealt with come more questions about how workers organize and fight for our rights and what form these fights take and where they might lead. Our challenge is to politicize what seems mundane. The strongest and most experienced advocates for co-partnering between unions and union-supportive organizations fighting for workers’ rights at the conference put forward a few case studies and preliminary responses to how these types of questions can be taken up. Most of these were success stories of one kind or another. All of them raised many questions in my mind.

The Pilipino Workers Center in Los Angeles is engaged in organizing some homecare workers and using legal enforcement mechanisms and co-enforcement and partnerships with other organizations to win gains with these workers. Their work was described as an attempt to “build a whole new kind of brain trust” and it sounded to me as if they are a kind of hybrid non-profit and union. Here in Oregon, we have Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) doing a service center that refers workers to the Northwest Workers Justice Project (NWJP) and state agencies. The NWJP has also partnered with the Carpenters union and BOLI and other state agencies to pursue claims against carpentry contractors working in the underground economy and this work has been particularly successful. The Carpenters union, PCUN, NWJP and the state agencies that are working together deal with language barriers, worker’s fears of retaliation and deportation, and worker pessimism as well as weak laws and employer opposition.

There are hopes that cooperation will develop between the worker organizations, more state agencies, and federal agencies and that targeted enforcement and an inter-agency task force model will develop. There are also hopes that penalties against bad employers will be increased, that enforcement will go deeper and be more effective, and that employers will be forced to pay for trainings by worker advocates that will then lead to deeper labor organizing. Some portion of public funds dedicated to infrastructure could be used to facilitate these changes, and local, state, and federal bodies should not be contracting with companies and their contractors who violate labor laws. These violators should lose their business licenses and registrations and should be shut down. Companies should be held responsible for the behavior of the contractors that they do business with.

State’s attorneys general could be given the power to enforce wage and hour law, as is done in Massachusetts, and union representatives could be deputized, as happens in the construction industry in Multnomah County and the Los Angeles school district. Legal cases brought forward by pro-worker non-profits could be expedited. Companies could be forced to disclose all their locations, contractors and sub-contractors and unions and allied organizations could use this information to map and chart industries and carry organizing forward. Wage theft ordinances might be won, and these might contain liability clauses that go up the chain from the sub-contractors to the responsible employer. Protections for reporting violations can be strengthened and reporters can be anonymous and still have their complaints acted upon. Perhaps one of the most radical hopes or proposals is that there be an established presumption that wage claims and other complaints signal a widespread problem in an industry and that these complaints should lead to selective industrial investigations and co-enforcement tactics and strategies.

Opposition to this comes from several quarters. Employers will claim that they should not be targeted for investigation because certain competitors are bad actors. Employers are making California the center of their efforts to oppose partnerships between government agencies, unions, and worker advocacy organizations. Among their strongest allies are city attorneys and local mayors who won’t take on bad employers and who want exceptions made where and when certain violations occur. The employers and certain government agencies also often resist recognizing the non-profit worker organizations with the claim that they need to protect the confidentiality of workers making complaints (there are legal ways around this) or employers may take a demand by a pro-worker non-profit as a legal demand for union recognition and argue for a union election before the National Labor Relations Board knowing that the workers will not vote for a union. There are continuing fights over the rights and protections that should be accessible to whistleblowers.

Small companies and companies owned by employers of color cannot afford the trainings that corporations have access to. Oregon’s safe staffing law (HB 2697) is already being violated and tested by employers. BOLI wants changes in laws, rules and enforcement that will benefit workers while our Department of Justice is resisting that, making our Attorney General a key decider. Some unions agree not to disclose or be publicly critical of employers after violations have been settled, and some unions will protect industries and employers where strong bargaining relationships prevail and where apprenticeship programs, joint trusts, project labor agreements and arbitration boards protect union-employer mutual interests.

There is a push for increasing workers’ rights and there is pushback from those in power and this process is the fabric of class struggle, but in the daily grind of things there are gray areas and moments when there are moments went separate interests coincide and conflict. It was mentioned at the conference that some workplace organizations have shifted to becoming 501(c)(3) organizations, enabling them to accept money from foundations. Perhaps this gives or will give labor-friendly non-profits and unions the same or similar immediate goals but different long-term interests. Few of us in the labor movement doubt that intensive union organizing that reaches millions of workers and wins working-class battles is needed, but there are different levels of commitment to this within labor, disagreements over if and how this can be done, and different visions over what should follow successful organizing campaigns. If unions come to depend more on allied non-profits to do some of the heavy lifting and help build union density, these will have to be membership-based non-profits, and some kinds of understandings about resource- and power-sharing will have to be agreed to. Labor and pro-worker and social movement-based non-profits will have to restructure and reorient themselves if they’re going to partner with one another and with government agencies to guide union organizing and if the emphasis is going to shift from collective bargaining to extending workers’ rights through law.

The changes suggested above, most of which were advocated for by some conference participants, all require changes in how working-class organizations see themselves and how we conceive of and use political power. The state itself---government---will also have to be transformed if it is to be used to build worker power. Something deeper than the New Deal and the historic Protocols of Peace will have to be enacted, but how to do this in ways that build working-class power and provide openings for further political and economic struggles led by workers isn’t clear. Many of the strongest advocates for co-enforcement make their case by referring to the Progressives of the early 20th century and the New Deal, both cited in the first post here discussing co-enforcement, but it should be said that these programs were used in part to manage and deter labor militancy. How do we use co-enforcement to build worker power without worker militancy? Many of the speakers and those attending the conference would probably reject historic Progressivism.    

It is difficult to imagine the Democratic Party as presently constituted agreeing to support and committing to win the changes needed to establish workers’ power locally and regionally, and it's impossible to believe that this could be a bipartisan project. Changing laws, making new rules, increasing enforcement of pro-worker laws, and raising up a generation of researchers, activists, inspectors, and enforcement personnel will require having a worker-friendly and anti-austerity political party in power for decades to come and still having a politically independent labor movement.

Co-enforcement, Worker Power, and Re-thinking Labor and Social Movements (Part One)

Photo from LRAN.

This post is inspired by a plenary session and a workshop that I attended at the Labor Research and Action Network (LRAN) conference that was held in Portland on June 20-21.

The plenary session took up the matter of how labor can use co-enforcement strategies in Oregon. That session featured the following presenters and presentations:

• Jessica Giannettino Villatoro, Deputy Commissioner, Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI)
• Why the Agency Embraced Co-Enforcement, Big Changes: Laura van Enckevort, Wage and Hour Division Administrator, OR BOLI
• Transforming Day to Day Practices, Setting Sectoral Tables: Kate Suisman, Attorney, Northwest Workers' Justice Project and Liz Marquez, Policy Associate, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN)

• Co-enforcement in Practice:

- Adam Jeffries, Proactive Investigations and Enforcement Unit, OR BOLI
- Construction: Trampas Simmons, Special Representative and Jesus Saucedo, Organizer, Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, taking on multiple subcontracting entities
- Childcare: Nat Glitsch, Organizer, ILWU Local 5 organizing in childcare centers

Progress, Challenges and Lessons:

• Moderator: Janice Fine, Professor, Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations

The workshop that inspired this post dealt with defining co-enforcement, how to use co-enforcement locally, and how to use enforcement as a means for building worker power. That workshop was led by the following researchers and analysts:

• Janice Fine, Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations
• Jeremy Simer, Researcher, SEIU Local 49
• Janet Bauer, Research Associate, Oregon LERC
• Jillian Cruickshank, Policy Analyst, Jobs with Justice
• Tia Koonse, Legal and Policy Research Manager, UCLA Labor Center

This post is a mash-up of what I understood the speakers listed above and certain audience members to say and some of my thinking.

I think that the key underlying assumption shared by most of the speakers was that the strategic use of laws, regulations, and public institutions by unions and pro-labor and pro-worker non-profits can build worker power. There was an optimistic belief that government---the state---can be democratic and user-friendly by workers and our organizations and a more realistic assessment that pro-worker policies often pass through legislative action and rule-making processes without enough thought being given to who is going to do enforcement and what enforcement of these laws and regulations looks like. This lack of foresight and planning is not sustainable and eventually creates working-class distrust and cynicism. These understandings led most of the speakers to support strategic enforcement of laws and rules by unions and allied organizations, better and more research, and alliances between unions and likely partners.

“Co-enforcement” simply refers to unions and union-friendly organizations partnering to enforce the laws and rules that are on the books, and perhaps stretching them in practice to meet their intended purposes. The problem here is that the dominant understanding of government today is that state institutions are supposed to be neutral while workers need laws, policies and enforcement that are not neutral and that help us. It helps to remember that many local, state, and federal agencies were set up in response to working-class demands for protection and redress and that conservatives (with help from many liberals) have been successful in weakening these agencies and redirecting their missions. I think that on this point several of the speakers exaggerated the relative strength of the Progressives who were in power in the early years of the 20^th century and the good work done for working-class people under the New Deal of the 1930s, downplayed or were silent on the advances we made under the Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon administrations, and did not address the austerity measures that we saw under the Carter and Clinton and Obama administrations.

Perhaps it is that in many regions of the world, including the United States, many traditional functions of government have either been taken over by corporations or abandoned. The rising corporate model is not the traditional one of reinvesting some profits in producing goods and services but of moving away from direct ownership of production and distribution and instead holding onto profits and banking them, causing a dangerous expansion of the financial sector. More companies connect consumers to services and service providers and charge fees and make profits from doing that rather than through production and distributing goods and services that they own. Under such new conditions enforcement and co-enforcement come up against special challenges.

Whether I’m right or wrong here, I agreed with the speakers who made it clear that we need to go beyond umpires and adjudicators and get into real enforcement. Oregon is unique in that we are one of only 5 states where commissioners of labor are elected. Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries has a wage and hour division, a civil rights division and apprenticeship programs oversight. Workers’ comp and insurance, workplace safety and health, the Employment Department, business licensing and oversight, and the Construction Contractors Board are separate from BOLI.

Frontline state and agency staff dealing with workers’ rights and benefits need up-to-date training and support to meet today’s demand. So do union staff and members and the folks working in organizations allied with unions. Still, the problems these people face go beyond training. The will to fight hard for workers’ rights requires in the first place an understanding of the contours of class struggle and resources. Jessica Giannettino Villatoro pointed out that we have under-resourced wage and hour investigators here in Oregon handling over 200 claims a year when they should be handling 85 or fewer. They are trained in laws, policies, and enforcement, and they benefit from their contact with people working in pro-worker non-profits, but they and their non-profit activist colleagues do not learn the fundamentals of class struggle as a cohort.

Other conference speakers pointed out that complaints, by themselves, don’t empower workers or our organizations. The policy analysts, investigators and enforcement agents work in a fragmented and underfunded system that cannot bring lasting justice as it is. The system that we have now---including workplace inspections and enforcement, passing worker-friendly laws and doing good rule-making, and even union organizing and contract negotiations and grievance handling---is weak or broken. We need to think of this as one system and not as separate silos to understand what is going on around us and make real change.

When conference speakers spoke about labor winning more of our fights these days and an upsurge in the number of strikes I wondered why it doesn’t feel like we’re winning much of the time. Why are the strikes that are taking place not more politicized and why don’t they seem to be helping to give us a ride into a victory at the polls in November? Working-class cynicism is fed by weak laws and policies and under-resourced enforcement, laws and standards that hamper union enforcement, and at least 30 years of concessions-based bargaining by unions and related losses in union power.

This cynicism is not unreasonable, but many workers still maintain a fundamental but fragile hope in the system despite their pessimism. What happens when these hopes are dashed? Can unions and social movements grow quickly enough and win enough fights to disprove the cynical arguments that unions lack power and presence in worker’s lives? Will there be a more-or-less unified working-class vote in November, and which way will that vote go? Graham Trainor, President of the Oregon AFL-CIO, said in his address to the conference that one in five or one in six workers in our region are union members, that unions are winning our battles, and that “We can’t be afraid to lead with a progressive agenda.” These remarks show that the labor is making quantitative and qualitative advances. But what are the practical connections between relatively high union density and progressive politics under current conditions? How do we define winning our battles under these changing conditions? And whose progressive agenda makes the cut?

Employers know all of this and don’t have much reason to fear penalties or repercussions for their inevitable bad behavior or condemnation for intervening in the political process and the courts. They may be frustrated by sometimes having to work with so many different agencies and deal with a system that tends to be one-size-fits-all, but in the long run the faults in the system and the top-heavy nature of the system works in favor the worst actors among the employers and provides incentives for employers to cross the line.

Combining state resources that affect workers’ salaries, working conditions, and benefits under one umbrella might help create real enforcement of pro-worker and pro-labor laws and rules. It might also lead to strategic enforcement in certain areas and leave workers not covered by the decisions on strategic enforcement out in the cold. Imagine a situation where, say, farmworkers get justifiable strategic attention from state agencies, unions, and union allies but home construction workers or university workers are not included in strategic planning and enforcement. That would be divisive in the first place, but I believe that we would then see corporate money and financing go into areas of the economy where enforcement is weak or non-existent and a new crop of corporate bottom feeders arise.

Photo from Northwest Public Broadcasting

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.

Unions are the Mycelial Network of the Environmental Movement

 

Breach is proud to be a part of Green Union Hall, a network and education center for unionized and union-curious climate and environmental workers.

Back in March, several Green Union Hall organizers presented a panel, “Unions are the Mycelium of the Environmental Movement,” at the University of Oregon’s Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC). The panel rippled through the conference: according to one participant it “was standing room only and was heralded as one of the most interesting and meaningful PIELC panels… ever”. Earlier this month, the panel was reprised at the Decolonizing Economics online summit.

If you weren’t able to catch the panel at those events, you’re in luck! You can now check out the PIELC recording on our YouTube page.

Stay tuned for more Green Union Hall events in the coming months!

In solidarity,

Danny + the Breach Team

Climate Justice & Labor

 This looks like an exciting program to be held in Portland:

 

A Short Union News Update From The Working Families Party

The Working Families Party provided this short and interesting union news update in a fundraising appeal:

Check out some of the biggest labor updates of the past few weeks:

After years of union busting, Starbucks has finally agreed to work with Starbucks Workers United and move towards negotiating fair contracts! They have also agreed to provide credit card tipping options in union stores — a benefit they’d previously withheld from stores that had voted to unionize. While there’s still plenty of work to do before a contract is set, this change from the corporation is thanks to the determination and organizing work from union members who did not back down when faced with closing stores, firing union activists, and more.1

Animators with the Nickelodeon Animation Studio have ratified their first contract since unionizing in late 2022. Workers across 2D, 3D, and production specialties banded together and won a comprehensive contract that includes minimum staffing requirements to protect jobs, significant wage increases, and bereavement leave. Other members of The Animation Guild have recently joined entertainment crew members from IATSE (the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) in a negotiating committee to get the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to improve pension and health plans for industry workers.2 IATSE is in the middle of its own labor fight with AMPTP, with a potential strike coming later this year. This comes after last year's history-making joint strikes of union actors with SAG-AFTRA and writers with the WGA, which ended with major union wins and increased wages and job security from the AMPTP. Jimmy Kimmel shouted out union workers in the industry during this week's Academy Awards ceremony and assured union workers: "We will stand with you."3

In a historic vote, the Dartmouth men’s basketball team became the first college sports team in the United States to vote to unionize, with a landslide 13-2 vote. The labor of college athletes often brings huge revenue to their colleges, with Division 1 football and basketball teams producing $7.9 billion during the 2022-2023 school year alone. But these athletes have not been considered employees, and so they’ve received no monetary compensation, with many having to take additional jobs just to get by. In a union, these athletes can bargain for pay, better health care to pay for injuries sustained while playing on their team, and more. The fight continues as Dartmouth tries to overturn this election entirely, but we stand by these athletes as they continue building power together.4

Workers at Missouri Toyota and Alabama Mercedes auto plants started their own campaigns to unionize and join the United Auto Workers Union, which won its own major contracts with the Big Three auto companies following strikes last year. They’re joining a major union push, with public campaigns at other plants for Volkswagen and Hyundai and over 10,000 signed union cards for the UAW in recent months.5

More than 3000 Harvard non-tenure track faculty members filed for official union recognition,6 followed shortly after by the Harvard Union of Residential Advisors,7 which includes hundreds of the university’s tutors, proctors, and house-aids. These groups are fighting for job security, fair compensation, and workplace protections and equity.

In Washington, the legislature voted to allow the state's legislative staffers to collectively bargain, paving the way for these workers to negotiate a contract that meets their needs. This is a reminder that while we support the workers organizing on the ground, we also need to keep fighting to elect leaders at all levels of government who will have unions' backs.8

Sources:

1. The Starbucks Workers’ Union Has Finally Broken Through, Jacobin, February 29, 2024

2. TAG-Unionized Nickelodeon Animation Workers Overwhelmingly Ratify New Contract, Animation Magazine, March 5, 2024

3. Jimmy Kimmel Says “We Will Stand With You” to IATSE Members Amid Strike Threat at Oscars 2024, The Hollywood Reporter, March 10, 2024

4. Dartmouth basketball team votes to join the first college athletics union, CNN, March 5, 2024

5. “We keep Toyota running”: Workers at critical Toyota plant launch campaign to join the UAW, United Auto Workers, March 6, 2024

6. Group of More Than 3,000 Harvard Faculty Files for Union Recognition, The Harvard Crimson, March 5, 2024

7. Harvard Resident Tutors, Proctors File for Union Recognition, The Harvard Crimson, March 7, 2024

8. WA lawmakers approve union bargaining rules for legislative staff, CrossCut, March 8, 2024

Catch up with some labor news

Portland Democratic Socialists of America has the following labor solidarity items posted:

Dealing with Difficult Supervisors - A Steward's Workshop
Wed. Feb. 21, 4-5:30pm (zoom)
This workshop has limited capacity and is for stewards and elected officers who work with stewards - not staff. Please register only if this applies to you.
REGISTER: https://labornotes.org/events/2024/stewards-workshop-dealing-difficult-supervisors-february-2024

Healthcare Workers for Ceasefire
Rally & Deliver Demand to Sen. Wyden & Rep. Blumenauer
Fri. Feb. 23, 4pm
911 NE 11th Ave.

Several labor organizations are promoting these important upcoming Black History Month events:

Coalition of Black Trade Unionists: Black History Month Events
Ongoing throughout February both on Zoom and in person in Portland
The Oregon Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) cordially invites you to join us for a month-long recognition of Black excellence in conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, Portland Rising, Oregon AFSCME, and AFRAM/SEIU Local 503. 

February 22, 2024 at 6:30pm: Labor History Workshop (In Person at Oregon AFL-CIO)
February 29, 2024 at 7:00pm: Movie Night (In Person at SEIU Local 503)

Click here to learn more about these exciting events!

There is this:

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) just picked up some bragging rights:

Approximately 34 in-house audio and video workers at Allianz Field, the home

stadium for Major League Soccer’s Minnesota United FC (MNUFC) ratified their

first contract Tuesday — bringing an end to eight months of contentious negotiations

 for the newly unionized crew.

Ford workers got this fixed:

We have this good news:

This is historic:

The staff of FRESHFARM farmers markets voted in favor of ratifying their

 first union contract, making them the first farmers market workers in the country to 

secure a collective bargaining agreement.

The American Federation of Government Employees says:

During a week of spectacular protest actions the following came from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA:

Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants Authorize Strike, Raising Stakes in

 Contract Talks

Senator Jeff Merkley @SenJeffMerkley 18h Solidarity with the @afa_cwa, @APFAunity, and
@transportworker workers walking out of major airports across the country this week. Flight
attendants are essential workers who support billions in profits for the airline industry. They
must be paid well with a strong #ContractNow!

A cautionary note:

An apology: I am unable to accurately credit most of the sources for the items given above  because of problems with my filing. Most likely came from the AFL-CIO or the unions listed.   

An Important Discussion On Labor & Civil Rights

The following comes from the latest issue of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association (PNLHA). I highly recommend joing and supporting the PNLHA and using their magnificent wall calendar for educationg yourself and others about labor history in the Pacific Northwest. Bill Fletcher, Jr. is one of our great union organizers and thinkers. His books and articles are especially important to building our labor movement.

On Martin Luther King Day, January 15, Michael Honey and Bill Fletcher discussed the state of labor and civil rights on the Tavis Smiley talk show on Los Angeles radio KBLA 1580. Here are parts 1 & 2 of their conversation. https://p.ftur.io/kblaam/13770 https://p.ftur.io/kblaam/13772 The International Labor Organization purchased 500 copies of Martin Luther King, Jr., All Labor Has Dignity, edited by Michael Honey (Beacon), and James Lawson, Revolutionary Nonviolence; Organizing for Freedom (UC Press) with Michael Honey and Kent Wong, has gone into a paperback edition and circulating throughout the California labor movement. *James M. Lawson, with Michael Honey and Kent Wong, with Forward by Angela Davis, Revolutionary Nonviolence, Organizing for Freedom: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520387843/revolutionary-nonviolence In Jacobin, 55 years Since King, by Michael Honey https://jacobin.com/2023/04/mlk-death-memphis-strikers-labor-civil-rights

Some labor headlines & links on union news

Photo from the Northwest Labor Press

* Grad worker strike averted at University of Oregon

* Another 600 employees unionize at OHSU

* The Country’s Largest Public University System Is Headed for a Faculty Strike

* Truck drivers, nail salon workers among those protected by new federal rule

* At MLK conference, unionists strategize on organizing the South

* IATSE: Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

* Catholic Prison Ministries is forming a peer support group for prison correction staff

The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble and Musicians Union Local 99 have a great event coming up!

This announcement came via the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association and the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble:

PJCE's first large ensemble show is happening February19th at The Hallowed Halls

Union Makes Us Strong amplifies workers’ voices and modern labor issues in a free concert! Join PJCE and Musicians Union Local 99 for a concert exploring the past and present of Oregon’s labor movements through newly commissioned jazz compositions and arrangements performed by PJCE’s 12-member ensemble and guest vocalist Marilyn Keller. The free event will include premieres of compositions and arrangements by Kerry Politzer, Jasnam Daya Singh, Ryan Meagher, Lars Campbell, and Caroline Miller. Presented as part of the 2024 Biamp Portland Jazz Festival, the music will touch on the causes of timber, health care, and farm workers, among others. Please RSVP here to make sure you have a spot at the show- we expect this one to fill up fast. WHEN: Monday, February 19th WHERE: The Hallowed Halls, 4420 SE 64th Ave, Portland TICKETS: Free to attend with RSVP More info about the composers and ensemble members can be found on our website. We can't wait to debut these new pieces for you!

Labor for A Ceasefire Update & Some Notes

 

The graphic above comes from the Labor Network For A Ceasefire. The post accompanying the graphic explains that "Federal employees in Washington and across the nation will take off from work on January 16 for a Day of Mourning to commemorate over 100 days of the War on Gaza." It is not clear from the post if this action has been authorized by a union or unions. The post goes on to say that "To date, 179 labor organizations - among them national unions (UE, UAW, NEA, APWU, NNU, IUPAT, and AFA) - have called for an end to the slaughter. Many go further, condemning US complicity and calling for suspension of arms, ordnance shipments and funds to Israel. 128 labor organizations have endorsed The US Labor Movement Calls for Ceasefire in Israel and Palestine petition initiated by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) and UFCW Local 3000."

Saturday will see a large pro-ceasefire demonstration in Washington, D.C. and some unions will have a noticeable presence there. The event will be live-streamed on American Muslims for Palestine’s social media pages, including Facebook, X and Instagram. If Tuesday's actions have not been sanctioned by unions, some workers are taking quite a bold step and risking much. If the actions have been sanctioned, the unions involved are signaling an important change in direction. 

I have made much mention of the movement within organized labor for a ceasefire and some of the controversies surrounding how this issue is being dealt with within the union movement. I recommend this article that recently appeared in The Nation as a good introduction to where pro-ceasefire forces within the labor movement are at currently. I can find no strong record for those in labor who oppose a ceasefire, which is not to say that these forces are not in control within the AFL-CIO. A statement issued in October by the AFL-CIO and a recent clarification on the rights of labor councils and unions to take or not take positions and make recommendations on taking a position on a ceasefire are the most prominent pro-ceasefire or clarifying public positions taken.

The impression being given is, I think, that those opposing a ceasefire and supporting Israel's government are hoping that the pro-ceasefire movement will go away, that making the war on Palestine and Biden's position central issues will damage Democrat's chances in November, that U.S. Labor's historic support for Israel should be maintained as part of mainstream Labor's support for U.S. foreign policies, and that the mainstream unions have committed so many resources to supporting the Israeli labor federation and Labor Zionism over the years that a change in course cannot be made without great difficulties. The AFL-CIO has on occasion protested Israeli policies but fantastically large sums of money have been spent by our unions over the years in order to help fortify the Israeli labor movement's leadership. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and similar groups have been strategic and successful in bankrolling campaigns by some politicians who are also supported by Labor, and the transactional nature of politics in the U.S. is such that we are forever doing coalition politics and working alongside people whose support we need on certain issues. This way of doing politics may help win victories in the short run, but it constrains how we think and what we are able to accomplish in the long-run. Labor's political friends sometimes organize us to take positions that go against the interests of the world labor movement.    

A public split in the labor movement now might do great damage to our ability to organize non-union workers, bring home good first contracts, win needed changes in labor law, and get pro-labor folks elected in November. On the other hand, unions that support a ceasefire may find strong support among workers, non-union and union, who want peace and identify with movements for progressive change and who are disappointed in the pace of positive change.

One lesson here is that new union organizing and fights for first contracts often opens worker's eyes and empowers them. People come to unions or to other movements because they want change, not because they are happy with how things are. The movement for labor support for a ceasefire has some long-standing and experienced activists leading it, but in the main these are young voices that have not been heard before in organized labor. They will not respond well to attempts to silence them. 

The opinions expressed here are not those of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter, the Oregon AFL-CIO or any of the organizations mentioned in this post.  

  

  

Some quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. to live by

Joyce Provost Wheeler, the labor movement and labor history, and some lessons for today

Many years ago when I was working in Baltimore I got in a car with Joyce Wheeler on a Baltimore-humid day in August and went somewhere---I don't recall where---and listened to her talk about the how-tos of organizing and movement-building. I tried hard to take it all in. Joyce was energetic and was focused on teaching while I was trying to drive and learn from her at the same time. Some of what she had to say seeped in, but I was a poor student and a not-so-good driver. Joyce passed on in 2019. She lived a full life, but she is very much missed by those who knew her and learned from her.

What follows comes from Joyce's husband, Tim Wheeler. Tim says that "Here is a condensed version of one of the last chapters in my book, 'The Man From Lonaconing: The Life & Times of George A. Meyers.' I just finished it and added it to the book today. Joyce was such a quiet, unassuming, fearless, hero!" Tim carries on as a writer and as a source of knowledge and experience that should benefit young people finding their paths in the labor and progressive movements. I am posting this account by Tim because it describes aspects of the labor movement that I grew up in and some of what I have taken for granted. My intent here is to carry forward something invaluable from Joyce and Tim. The activists and leaders who are at the base of our labor movement and who are working for progressive change have to be creative, selfless, dedicated to our goals and focused on them, and willing to touch the hearts and lives of the young and those who face discrimination. They need to roll with the punches and understand that there are times of victories and defeats and still keep going forward. The labor movement needs to continually uplift and celebrate their diversity and spirit and make this our emblem. I think that Joyce was trying to say all of that in my car so many years ago.

 

IF FBI GETS IN THE WAY WE'RE GOING TO ROLL RIGHT OVER THEM!

Joyce Provost Wheeler earned a degree in anthropology at the University of Washington in 1963. A gifted dancer, she planned to do graduate work in ethnomusicology to preserve all the precious folk dances of isolated tribes around the world. Her career path veered suddenly when we met at a Student Peace Union meeting and got married. She ended up a kindergarten-First Grade teacher at Grove Park Elementary School on Baltimore’s far west side in 1970. I am to blame. I became a full-time reporter for the Worker, paid the minimum wage.

Joyce went to work as a classroom teacher to support the family. In all her forty years, she always taught “structured phonics.” Mack B. Simpson, the principal of Grove Park ignored Joyce’s use of a banned textbook, her insubordination in using phonics to teach her children to read. She invariably earned “Superior” ratings as a teacher. Teachers in the upper-grades would comment to Joyce, “I don’t know how you do it, but every one of the children who was taught by you, knows how to read!” Bored after fifteen years of teaching, she turned her classroom into a mini-zoo. Bunny rabbits hopped around her classroom, two orange and white guinea pigs that looked like miniature Guernsey cows, gerbils, a tiny female mouse with a brood of baby mice, a pair of Terrapin turtles, a huge tarantula spider that Joyce placed on her shoulder as she taught the children to read and write. The crown jewel of her animal collection was “Nagayina,” a lovely red-tailed Columbian boa who also liked to sleep wrapped around Joyce’s shoulders when the tarantula was in her cage.

She told her students they must feed the animals, clean up after them, and keep a log measuring their weight and behavior. She assigned them to write essays about the animals. Soon they all became pets. The children loved Joyce’s classes.

She decided to produce a play with all her children playing roles in this drama. It was performed in the big multi-purpose room. The play she chose was “Wagon Wheels” about African American pioneers, freed slaves, who emigrate to Kansas after Civil War Emancipation and establish the town of Nicodemus, an all-Black community in the middle of the prairie.

I attended an evening performance and I will never forget the expression on the faces of the parents, all the people from the Grove Park community, when they saw their youngsters perform in that marvelous play, the parents’ faces filled with joy and amazement. Dressed in their western costumes up on the stage, the children gathered round the camp fire, belted out their lines loud enough for everyone to hear. They sang cowboy songs like “Git Along Little Dogie” and “I Ride An Old Paint.” They were bringing to life a chapter in the history of the African American people deliberately erased by the white supremacist ruling elite. The children were depicting their ancestors--- pioneers, cowboys, frontiersmen, trekking into the wilderness, fearless and brave!

In the spring of 1974, Baltimore teachers walked out on strike. It lasted one month. Joyce was the picket captain at Grove Park Elementary. Virtually all the teachers joined the picket line. Baltimore teachers did not win that strike but Joyce played such an outstanding role in uniting the faculty and community, she was chosen ever after as the union “Building Rep” at Grove Park. Teachers would come to her, sometimes on the verge of tears, to complain of this or that grievance, Joyce would take them by the arm and lead them down to meet with the principal to resolve the issue. An active member of the United Action Caucus she and other UAC members in Baltimore worked hard and won bargaining rights for the Baltimore Teachers Union, AFT Local 340. Joyce Wheeler was elected and reelected without opposition as BTU Treasurer.

She was held in such high esteem at Grove Park that she was asked to write a centerspread article in the Baltimore Afro-American about the history of the school. The article, co-signed by Joyce and Principal Simpson appeared in the June 23, 1979 edition of the Afro under a headline,  "Once Upon A Time.” They wrote: “This is the 25th year of the Supreme Court Desegregation Decision, Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education. Grove Park School and the surrounding communities have witnessed block busting by real estate interests, the upheaval surrounding the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr…The school is like a living organism. It has experienced both good times and hard times. Grove Park is on course, providing an excellent education for the children….”

Events moved swiftly in the years that followed. Principal Mack B. Simpson left Grove Park School. His successor was Margaret Mitchell, a gifted, progressive educator. The clouds of political strife were turning dark and ominous. Republican, Ronald Reagan, the smooth-talking Grade-B Hollywood cowboy actor won the 1980 Presidential election and within months fired 12,500 striking air traffic controllers in August 1981.

As a member of the Baltimore Teachers Union Executive Board, Joyce was urging strong action in defense of public education and the rights of school workers. As a member of the Baltimore Communist Party, she was meeting, often in the living room of our home, or in the home of Jim and Margaret Baldridge, to plan all this fightback.

One spring day in 1981, Mrs. Mitchell looked out the window of her Grove Park office facing on Kennison Ave. Parked directly across the street was an unmarked sedan with two white men sitting in the front seat. They were parked there all day---and the next.

What is this? Mitchell called School Police at Baltimore schools headquarters on North Ave. She spoke to one of the commanders she knew well. Please send a squad car to find out who these men are, she told the officer.

Within an hour he called her back. “Margaret,” he said. “They are FBI agents assigned to keep one of your staff-members, Mrs. Wheeler, under surveillance.”

Mrs. Mitchell’s jaw dropped. “What? My Joyce Wheeler? You mean the woman who has been teaching children at Grove Park to read for the past ten years? Well Mark, you send your officers back out and inform those FBI agents to leave immediately and don’t return!”

Captain Mark did. The FBI agents disappeared and never returned.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Mitchell called Joyce on the intercom and asked her please to drop by at the end of the day. When Joyce sat down in front of the principal’s desk, Mrs. Mitchell asked her, “Joyce, by any chance, have you noticed the car parked across the street with two men in it for the past three days?” Joyce shook her head. “Well, we now know who they are. FBI agents. According to Baltimore School police, they were assigned to spy on you. I arranged to have them removed. If ever you are accosted by these or any other federal agents, please let me know. I will do everything I can to protect you from this kind of outrageous harassment and intimidation.”

A few months later, the entire labor movement of Maryland, African American, Latino, and white, was mobilizing in solidarity with the striking PATCO air controllers fired en masse by Reagan and his union busting minions. The AFL-CIO Executive Council had endorsed “Solidarity Day,” a plan for tens of thousands of union members to gather in Washington D.C. September 19, 1981 and march in support of PATCO and all other workers fighting to defend their union.

Joyce and fellow BTU Local 340 members, marched proudly with the American Federation of Teachers. More than 500,000 union workers and their allies marched that day. Joyce played a leading role in pushing a UAC resolution through the AFT National Convention in Denver endorsing Solidarity Day and she worked tirelessly to fill BTU buses for that march and rally Sept. 19. She was Woody Guthrie's "Union Maid" who never was afraid of goons and ginks and FBI finks who made the raids.

Joyce Wheeler. Photo from Tim Wheeler.