Upcoming events and trainings, requests for solidarity, and some short union news updates

The following comes to us from Portland DSA and the Oregon AFL-CIO:

Union membership means more wealth for working Americans
June 24, 2024 | Labor Tribune
“New studies prove what unions have been arguing for years: Union membership means more wealth for working Americans. The Center for American Progress (CAP) analyzed new data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances and found that the median union household has significantly more wealth than non-union households, and these differences hold across demographic groups including race, ethnicity and education levels."

Labor and Community Organizations Stand with Chip Workers Demanding Living Wages and Safer Working Conditions
June 25, 2024 | Oregon AFL-CIO
“CHIPS Communities United (CCU), a coalition of labor unions, environmental organizations, and community groups, and the Oregon AFL-CIO today urged Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) to invest in its workers and honor their demands for living wages, safer working conditions, and an end to unpaid shutdowns. ADI worker demands point to larger job quality concerns and the need for strong labor standards accompanying public investment in the semiconductor industry.”

AFL-CIO President Applauds New Regulations Ensuring Fair Wages for Clean Energy Jobs
June 26, 2024 | AFL-CIO
“These new wage regulations are a historic win for working people, made possible with the culmination of decades of advocacy by the labor movement and years of work by the Biden–Harris administration. Today, we fulfill one of the key promises of the Inflation Reduction Act: that we can create good-paying union jobs and advance clean energy policy at the same time.”

Oregon Minimum Wage Has Increased More Than 30% Since 2016
June 27, 2024 | Oregon AFL-CIO
“On July 1, Oregon’s three minimum wage levels will increase by 50 cents, bringing the hourly minimum wage to $15.95 an hour in the Portland Metro Area, $14.70 in standard counties, and $13.70 in non-urban counties. According to the most recent data from 2022, just over 4% of Oregon workers earn minimum wage. That means over 100,000 people will see their paychecks go up in July.”

Race and Labor (a Labor Notes workshop)
Sat. June 29, 9-11am
How does racism show up in our workplaces and our unions? What are some strategies to confront it and build solidarity for a stronger, multiracial labor movement? And what can you say to union siblings who aren’t convinced racial justice has anything to do with union politics? This workshop addresses how class and race are inextricably linked, tracing back the origins of “race” as an invention of the ruling class to divide workers. We'll talk about how to move to strategies of unity. REGISTER: https://labornotes.org/events/2024/race-and-labor-june-2024

What to Do When Your Union Breaks Your Heart (a Labor Notes workshop)
Tues. July 2, 4:30-6pm
If you’re a union member, unfortunately the chances are good that you’ve had, or will have, your heart broken at least once by one of your own leaders. Whether you tried to get involved and there was nowhere to go, or the members got sold out, or leaders want to keep the union as their exclusive club, it can feel pretty harsh. In this workshop, we’ll talk about how to recommit to your union and change the culture into one where leaders respect and serve the members.
REGISTER: https://labornotes.org/events/2024/workshop-what-do-when-your-union-breaks-your-heart-july-2024

Secrets of a Successful Organizer (a Labor Notes training)
How to Organize at Work and Win !
Sundays, July 7, and July 14, 6-8pm
Portland Association of Teachers, 345 NE 8th (basement)
RSVP: https://actionnetwork.org/events/secrets-of-a-successful-organizer-2024/

Union Makes Us Strong - Jazz Performance (Portland Jobs with Justice)
Portland Jazz Ensemble Composers' Ensemble
Thurs. July 11, 6:30pm
Norse Hall, 111 NE 11th Ave, Portland
JwJ's annual Summer Solidarity fundraiser, dinner buffet, cash bar, raffle prizes
TICKETS: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/pjwj-pjce-summer-jazz-show

LERC Summer School (OR AFL-CIO/)
Labor Education and Research Center
Fri-Sun, July 19-21
University of Oregon Campus, Eugene
Whether you are a new member or experienced leader, Summer School has something for you. Join us for a weekend of education, discussion and socializing with 100+ other union members from across the state.
REGISTER: https://lerc.uoregon.edu/ss24/.

Investigating Grievances - a Labor Notes Steward's Workshop
Wed. July 24, 4:30-6pm (zoom)
*Limited to stewards and officers who work with stewards
Grievances are a lot more than what you write down on a grievance form or what gets said in a grievance hearing. Some of the most important work that goes into winning a grievance happens before you even file, and pays off big time if a grievance ends up going to arbitration.
RSVP: https://labornotes.org/events/2024/stewards-workshop-investigating-grievances-july-2024

Support Unionizing Preschool Workers Illegally Fired (ILWU 5)
Workers at two Guidepost Montessori locations in the Portland Metro area have lost their jobs due to extreme union retaliation. Two of five locations in the Portland Metro area decided to unionize, and the company responded by shutting down the unionizing locations for at least 3 months each. Workers can use support while they stay committed to their unionizing campaign, and as they grapple with the loss of their livelihoods and relationships with their students. DONATE:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-unionizing-preschool-teachers-illegally-furloughed

Starbucks Workers United Rapid Response Network (SBWU)
Baristas will be bargaining a national foundational framework, an agreement that sets the standards for SBWU contracts across the country. The 10,000+ unionized Starbucks partners have come a long way to get to this moment – and we're determined to keep the momentum strong and fight to win at the bargaining table. By joining the rapid response network, you'll be on standby to mobilize quickly when called upon - this could look like calling into a store, holding a flyering event outside a store, organizing a solidarity standout, lodging customer complaints, etc. If your support is needed, it will likely be a tight turnaround time - so the form asks some specific questions to help gauge what level of capacity you and your organization may have for rapid response organizing. SIGN UP: https://tinyurl.com/SBWUrapid

Review: How Reformers Doubled Vermont AFL-CIO Membership---A post from Labor Notes

The following review by Gordon Simmons of West Virginia recently appeared on the Labor Notes website. I have not read Van Deusen's book yet, but it sounds like a book that all of us who are involved in AFL-CIO labor chapters or councls should read. Are labor councils still viable? Can they be transformed in meaningful ways that build working-class power? Does the leadership of the AFL-CIO want chapters and councils to continue to exist? These are important questions to raise and study, and it sounds as if Van Deusen's book will help us take these questions on. 

Insurgent Labor: The Vermont AFL-CIO 2017-2023 , by David Van Deusen

 (PM Press, 2024) Photo: Vermont AFL-CIO

Transforming an existing union into a more democratic and member-run organization has often proven to be a daunting—though possible—task. The pressing need to revitalize organized labor in the U.S., however, depends on such movements.

Beginning in 2017, a slate of reform-minded union activists won leadership offices in the Vermont state federation of labor, reinvigorating that organization. Within just a few years, the federation’s membership doubled.

Insurgent Labor: The Vermont AFL-CIO, 2017-2023 is two-term president David Van Deusen’s participant-retelling of the emergence of the UNITED reform group. As a model for revitalizing labor, this story contains quite a lot of inspirational and thought-provoking material that working-class activists will find beneficial.

In his introduction, longtime labor journalist Steve Early makes a persuasive argument that this story follows in the tradition of rank-and-file insurgencies like Miners for Democracy and Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

REFRESHINGLY FRANK

One of the reasons this account is both fascinating and potentially useful is that Van Deusen is not only uncompromisingly radical in his commitment, but also refreshingly frank.

He appraises the obstacles and mistakes that he and his fellow insurgents encountered as they set out to transform an entire state-level AFL-CIO organization, putting it on a road to playing a role in both workplace and community struggles as well as boosting member involvement and numbers.

These obstacles included not only an entrenched old guard at the local level, but also pushback from the national AFL-CIO when the insurgents undertook plans for a general strike if an anticipated coup had occurred in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.

A threatened imposition of receivership—like the coup and strike—never materialized, thanks in part to the mobilization of an extensive network of allies.

CLOSE TO THE SHOP FLOOR

Key to the success of the UNITED reformers was their continual communication with workers at the shop floor, a time-consuming procedure given the mix of unions affiliated with the state federation. His account of working with the grassroots membership to build and maintain a reform caucus more closely resembles the duties of skilled shop stewards than the maneuvers of power brokers.

One of the most important innovations the reformers brought was a willingness to commit effort and resources to the organizing efforts of various unions—whether or not they were affiliated with the federation—and even to community groups. This expansive outreach and sense of solidarity forged valuable alliances and increased the number and size of unions that chose to affiliate.

Within the federation, as in any democracy, debates over tactics and positions are inevitable. Van Deusen is forthright about the times when he was outvoted by his fellow insurgents—or committed himself to a course of action that turned out to be a tactical error.

Though he’s a committed leftist, he’s also refreshingly untainted by the sort of factional groupthink into which so much of the New Left degenerated in the aftermath of the 1960s.

AN ANTIDOTE TO CYNICISM

Activists who know about labor’s early roots in organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World have long been somewhat dismissive of conventional unions as vehicles for genuine social transformation—viewing the mainstream movement as an “American fragmentation of labor” rather than a means of empowering workers.

Van Deusen doesn’t gloss over the shortcomings of organized labor since the ascendancy of business unionism from the middle of the last century. This book, nevertheless, is a welcome antidote to such entrenched cynicism. It’s a good reminder of the need to combine, in the words of the great Marxist intellectual Antonio Gramsci, pessimism of the mind with optimism of the will.

His firsthand account of the resurrection of the Vermont state federation from bureaucratic slumber and irrelevance may not be easily replicated across the labor movement. Vermont is a very small state with a uniquely progressive history that also gave us Bernie Sanders.

But it meshes well with any number of recent developments, like the grassroots movement of West Virginia school strikes in 2018 and the newfound militancy among auto workers today. It may be time to notice which way the wind is blowing.

Gordon Simmons is chief steward of the West Virginia Public Workers Union and a member of the West Virginia Labor History Association.

Some Great Upcoming Regional Labor Events

* OHSU Rally for PostDoc Researchers
(AFSCME)Millions to Buy Legacy Hospitals but Nothing for Researchers
Wed. Mar. 20, Noon
Mac Hall Lawn, 3266 SW Research Drive
Send OHSU Executives a Message - https://actionnetwork.org/letters/ohsu-needs-to-pay-their-fair-share-for-postdoc-research-now

* Informational Picket at Providence St. Vincent
March 20 starting at 5:00pm | Providence St. Vincent in Portland
Nurses at Providence, Oregon's largest healthcare system, are advocating for improved standards, including better health benefits and wages, as their contract negotiations have stalled since December. In response, they plan to hold informational pickets across the state to show solidarity in their pursuit of fair contracts, culminating in a rally in May involving healthcare workers from newly organized units.

* Practice Picket, Strike Ready (PCCFCE)
Living Wages, Healthcare, Job Security !
Thurs. Mar. 21, 4:30-9pm
Sylvania Campus, 12000 SW 49th Ave. Portland
4:30-5:30 - picket with classified employees
5:30-7 - food
7-9 - present strike pledges to PCC Board of Trustees
RSVP https://pccfce.org/march21

* Assertive Grievance Handling (a Labor Notes workshop)
Thurs. Mar. 21, 5-6:30pm
This workshop is for stewards and union leaders who work with stewards, not staff.
Fighting grievances isn’t only about how well you argue your case. It’s also about organizing members to build pressure on management. This workshop will focus on how to win creatively without going to arbitration—or sometimes without even filing a grievance. REGISTER https://labornotes.org/events/2024/stewards-workshop-assertive-grievance-handling-march-2024

* A Discussion with Anne Broyles, Author of I’m Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People
March 28 starting at 5:00pm | Oregon Labor Center in Portland
Please join the Oregon AFL-CIO and the Oregon Labor Movement for an engaging discussion with Anne Broyles, the author of I’m Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People. Anne’s book is about the visionary folk artist and labor organizer Ralph Fasanella and is perfect for picture book readers because of its stunning illustrations. Click here to learn more & RSVP.

* Organizing for Power: Core Fundamentals
(training by Jane McAlevey, author of "No Shortcuts" & "Rules to Win By")
Thursdays, May 9 - June 13, 9-11am (PT) or 5-7PM (PT)
Groups of ten or more (get your co-workers lined up now!)
O4P's Core Fundamentals is a six-week intensive training program composed or weekly sessions divided into lectures and practice time, plus campaign assignments that organizing groups are expected to complete on their own time.
Each session runs twice each Thursday to accommodate our global audience.
The registration deadline is May Day, 2024, so begin assembling your group of 10+ now, because we're only going to win if we're in this together, disciplined and committed, and ready to build our skill sets to ORGANIZE FOR POWER. Please contact O4P Coordinator Ethan Earle (earle.ethan@gmail.com) with any questions.
REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/O4PCoreFundamental

Labor Notes Conference: Register now & book your hotel and travel

Labor Notes 2024 Conference

Register Now! (and book your hotel, travel)

Fri-Sun, April 19-21

Hyatt Regency O'Hare, Chicago---Join thousands of union members, officers, and labor activists who are on the front lines in our workplaces and our communities, organizing new workers and agitating together. Meet troublemakers from across the country and around the world.

More than 200 meetings and workshops include creative organizing tactics, beating apathy, running for local union office, winning contract campaigns, bargaining over technology, assertive grievance handling, and reviving the strike.

Organize with others in your union, industry, or campaign. Face-to-face meetings to share tactics and swap notes are the heart of the Labor Notes Conference. Join an existing industry, union, or caucus meeting—or contact Labor Notes to set one up.

Registration: $185. Get $45 off if registered by March 1! Some scholarships are available for low-income workers, see here. Sponsor a low-wage, unemployed, striking, or young worker by registering at the sustainer level.

The full program will be available online a few weeks before the event. Meanwhile, for a taste of what the last conference was like, browse the 2022 program and read Angela Bunay's and Alex Press’s articles.

Register: https://labornotes.org/2024

Hotel Booking: Reserve now. Rooms go fast! Our room block at the Hyatt is already full. But we have a block of rooms at the nearby Crowne Plaza. Book at this link to get the Labor Notes rate of $145 per night. For more on hotel booking, see the Conference FAQ.

Our Unions And Demands For A Ceasefire In Palestine/Israel

I have done a few posts here on our labor movement and demands for a ceasefire in Israel/Palestine. There are strong arguments on both sides of the issue, but I suspect that most union members don't know that our unions are involved in foreign affairs and international policies. At its best this union attention to international developments benefits working people the world over by building unity behind common demands. On the question of the ceasefire, though, the labor movement in the United States has a divided house.

That we have a divided house on this issue is not necessarily a bad thing. For generations our unions have had too little open discussion and a kind of enforced unity has sometimes prevailed. The pro-ceasefire faction in the labor movement is unique---and is probably interesting to many union members---because it is a coalition of experienced union members, many of whom have been active for almost 50 years, and young people who are new to the labor movement, many of whom organized their way in.  

I am a firm supporter of a ceasefire agreement and I fully support the unions, union leaders and union members who have acted with courage and dispatch to win broad union support for a ceasefire. In some unions, and in the AFL-CIO, this has meant bumping heads with union leaders and others who are opposed to a ceasefire agreement. The mainstream labor movement in the United States has been a longstanding supporter of Israel, and the ties that make that support possible are quite strong. The more progressive World Federation of Trade Unions takes a very different position. The International Trade Union Confederation essentially supports the position on the conflict taken by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Thus, the AFL-CIO is somewhat isolated within the world trade union movement. A recent but already dated summary of how world labor differs on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is here.

I attended two meetings about labor, the working-class in the United Sates and the ceasefire yesterday and found that our union members and friends who support a ceasefire are all over the map on why they support a ceasefire and how they hope to organize greater support for our position. I saw something of this recently when I attended a pro-Palestinian rally led by an organization that used the issue of the war to build itself rather than build unity for peace and justice in Palestine/Israel. They seemed to be doing an infomercial that said "We interrupt this war to tell you all about us." Those in the labor movement who are opposed to a ceasefire, or to unions taking a pro-ceasefire position, are more focused and unified in their game plans. And some of these voices in the labor movement have been good on other issues even while being wrong about the need for a ceasefire. Can either of the sides fighting this out tell us how supporting their positions builds our labor movement?

As we might expect, Labor Notes has a leading position in the effort to win unions to a pro-ceasefire position. The AFL-CIO position is briefly summarized here.

One of the meetings that I attended yesterday was sponsored by Communications Workers Of America Local 7250 and featured a talk by long-time Palestinian activist and trade unionist Imad Temeiza. He is a leader of the Palestinian Postal Service Workers Union. This union supports the movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) aimed at Israel. Brother Temeiza showed clips from cellphone videos made in Gaza recently that brought some people at the meeting to tears. It is a hard thing to see people suffering and children dying. A good introduction to Brother Temeiza's work can be found here:

The current issue of the Northwest Labor Press has a helpful article mentioning that "more local and national unions in the United States have issued statements calling for a cease-fire." The article expands on this by saying that "A letter sponsored by United Auto Workers, United Electrical Workers, and Seattle-based UFCW Local 3000 calls on President Joe Biden and Congress to push for an immediate cease-fire, and for the release of hostages taken by Hamas. More than 50 local unions have signed the letter, including some in Oregon and Washington: PROTEC17, AFT-Oregon, AFT Local 6069 (Coalition of Graduate Employees at OSU), New Seasons Labor Union, Oregon Education Association, Portland Association of Teachers, and UNITE HERE Local 8." My union, the National Writers Union, should be listed there as well.

The People's World online publication has an article dated December 15 that goes into greater detail regarding where our labor movement and some supportive politicians stand on the ceasefire and why they take the positions that they do. The People's World article explains that "Labor leaders from across the United States met in the capital on Thursday, Dec. 14, to demand President Joe Biden call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in occupied Palestine. Joined by Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Andre Carson, D-Ind., and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., union members and national leaders assembled to make their demands for an end to the genocide in Gaza clear. Officially represented were the United Auto Workers, the American Postal Workers Union, United Electrical Workers, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, and the National Labor Network for a Ceasefire. The event was called to build awareness and support for H.Res. 786, a ceasefire bill in Congress." As the article points out, something is moving when the National Education Association goes into action on the issue. The event that was held on December 14 can be seen on Representative Cori Bush's Facebook page. Representative Bush's press releases on the situation in Palestine/Israel can be found here.

Senator's Merkley's support for a ceasefire is explained here.

Photo taken from the Michigan Advance

The opinions expressed here do not reflect those of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO. 

Stewards' Workshop - Thinking Like an Organizer - An online training on Wednesday, December 13

Photo taken from Labor Notes and Jim West / jimwestphoto.com

Stewards' Workshop - Thinking Like an Organizer - An online training
(a Labor Notes workshop)

Wed. Dec. 13, 4-5:30pm (PST)

This workshop is intended for stewards and elected officers who work closely with stewards. Please register only if this applies to you. Shop stewards are the face of the union for most members - the people members see day to day, and rely on for everything from basic questions about the job to handling complicated grievances. But stewards are also in a great position to strengthen the union by getting more people involved: by thinking like an organizer.

REGISTER: https://labornotes.org/events/2023/stewards-workshop-thinking-organizer-december-2023

Labor Notes says:

Join Labor Notes for an online workshop for shop stewards on “thinking like an organizer.”

Shop stewards are the face of the union for most members - the people members see day to day, and rely on for everything from basic questions about the job to handling complicated grievances.

But stewards are also in a great position to strengthen the union by getting more people involved: by thinking like an organizer.

Meet with activists from different unions across the country to learn about how to be more effective stewards by organizing.

Registration is $10 - no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Register by clicking "Add to cart" at the link given above, and check out by clicking the cart in the top right corner of the screen on tat page. If you want to register more than one person, change the "quantity" in the cart to purchase the correct number of registrations. You will receive an email with instructions to sign up individual members of your group.

If you've got any questions or issues, contact joe @ labornotes.org.