This is a blog about building labor and community solidarity in Oregon's Mid-Willamette Valley and beyond. The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors only unless otherwise noted.
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
WASHINGTON—The North American Building Trades Unions fired a shot heard across the nation this week when they gave a ringing endorsement to the re-election campaign of President Biden. The move was particularly significant because the last time around significant percentages of workers in the various building trades backed Donald Trump, who large numbers of union members now see as having betrayed their vital economic and political interests.
The April 23-24 conference of more than 3,000 people heard from a parade of officeholders, capped off by President Joe Biden, who won the official endorsement of the NABTU. The endorsement could well result in legions of construction workers going out to stump the streets for Biden and to inveigh against the efforts of Trump to get back into the White House this fall.
The laudatory words from NABTU President Sean McGarvey assured the attendees, media, and the nation that precisely that is what will happen now that Biden has their endorsement. A hard-hitting NABTU television ad, shown to the packed house, had tough words for ex-President Trump who, at the time, was sitting in court, on trial for criminal attempts to manipulate election results. An even harder-hitting Joe Biden took the stage after the ad was shown.
McGarvey, the ad’s narrator, often talked straight to the camera. “Donald Trump is incapable of running anything…. And God help us if he gets anywhere near that White House in the future,” he declared.
Biden himself, in many sharp jabs against Trump—by name, for once—sounded the same contrasts. He lauded unions and workers and put what he called his pro-worker record up against Trump’s “failed promises.” The crowd responded with repeated cheers, applause, and laughter at Biden’s taunts.
The president even voiced a class contrast, of the “Scranton values”—Biden’s birthplace—of hard work with Trump’s “Mar-a-Lago values” as “competing visions of America.”
“We all grew up with folks who sort of looked down on us because of what our dads did,” Biden reminisced. “People like Donald Trump learned a different lesson. He learned the best way to get rich is inherit. He learned that paying taxes is something working people did, not him. He learned that telling people ‘You’re fired’ was something to laugh about.
“Not in my household. Not in my neighborhood…Especially being fired, because you had no protection.”
Washington, D.C. – April 24, 2024 – Today, at their annual national legislative conference, in front of thousands of building trades members from across the country, North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) will announce its formal endorsement of Joe Biden for President and Kamala Harris for Vice President of the United States. The organization, representing over 3 million union construction professionals, issued the following statement from NABTU President Sean McGarvey:
“North America’s Building Trades Unions can honestly say no elected official has shown our members and their families more respect than President Joe Biden. Through his policies and his personnel, President Biden has demonstrated his laser-like focus on not only rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure and manufacturing sector but rebuilding the American middle class itself.
“His Administration’s accomplishments, specifically the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act have brought life-changing, opportunity-creating, generational change focused on the working men and women of this great country who have for far too long been clamoring for a leader to finally keep their word. His regulatory actions to protect and uplift working families, strengthening Davis-Bacon prevailing wage protections, his independent contractor rule fighting worker misclassification, and repealing the disastrous and misguided IRAPs, are wins for workers, fair and honest contractors, and American taxpayers.
“When Trump was elected, we took him at his word that he would have a worker-centered agenda and deliver on long-stalled issues such as infrastructure investment. Instead of delivering, he aligned himself with his billionaire buddies to enact tax cuts that raised costs for our members. Simply put, he failed to deliver. Given our experience and knowing his track record the choice is clear.
“Joe Biden has proven to be the perfect leader at the perfect time for this country and the working men and women who have built it. NABTU is proud to endorse the clear and only choice for President of the United States, Joe Biden.
“In the coming months, we will continue to engage our membership and their families directly, member to member, door to door, and jobsite to jobsite, with an unprecedented field program in key battleground states, to tell them how important President Biden and his policies have been to them, their economic security, and their freedoms.
“We finally have a President who cares about results, not rhetoric; who cares about jobs, not jokes; who cares about hope, not headlines. We know Joe has our back, and we have his. Now it’s time to get to work.”
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Media Contact: Betsy Barrett, (202) 997-3266 | bbarrett@nabtu.org
About NABTU: North America’s Building Trades Unions is an alliance of 14 national and international unions in the building and construction industry that collectively represent over 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada. Each year, our unions and signatory contractor partners invest almost $2 billion in private-sector money to fund and operate over 1,900 apprenticeship training and education facilities across North America that produce the safest, most highly trained, and productive skilled craft workers found anywhere in the world. NABTU is dedicated to creating economic security and employment opportunities for its construction workers by safeguarding wage and benefits standards, promoting responsible private capital investments, investing in renowned apprenticeship and training, and creating more construction career pathways to the middle class for women, communities of color, indigenous people, veterans, and the justice-involved. For more information, please visit nabtu.org.
A statement from the Metro Washington Labor Council said:
Joe Biden landed a major union endorsement Wednesday from North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), whose leaders say the president has his infrastructure bill largely to thank for it. NABTU leaders are kickstarting efforts to mobilize their 250,000 members in battleground states.
Maryland's Governor Wes Moore and Pennsylvania's Governor Josh Governor were among the speakers at NABTU yesterday. "Governor Shapiro and Governor Moore have faced sudden, tragic infrastructure collapses in Pennsylvania and Maryland," said LiUNA! Mid-Atlantic in a social media post. "They both understand the importance of building with union labor."
