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.
An announcement from the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition says the following:
We tell our members that it is not possible to win a living wage for everyone in this country when corporations can cross an invisible line in the sand and pay workers $8 per day. That is why we are building support for workers in Mexico who are organizing unions of their own choosing, independent of corporate interest.
We are raising money to bring some of these Mexican labor activists to Chicago for the biennial April 19-21 Labor Notes Conference, which has emerged over the last 40 years as the biggest gathering of union activists in the United States—and one of the biggest in the world. The last conference brought together over 4,000 union members from across the United States, as well as union leaders and activists from two dozen countries, including Mexico. We expect similar attendance this year.
We are inviting activists from Mexico’s independent union movement because we want to promote cross-border solidarity among workers throughout North America. They work for many of the same employers and in the same supply chains. We think it is important to promote more awareness in the U.S. labor movement of the conditions of Mexican workers and their attempts to build genuine, democratic unions.
We are working with Labor Notes which is committed to helping facilitate the participation of Mexican union activists in the conference, and also provide for opportunities for addressing the conference, hold panel discussions and workshops. The size of the delegation from Mexico depends on our success working with Labor Notes to provide funding for accommodations and travel expenses.
We are holding a Zoom event on Thursday, March 21, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. PST, as an opportunity to hear the voices of Mexican labor activists. Register at https://bit.ly/March21livingwageevent.
Please donate at livingwage-sf.org/ online-donation-form/ or make out a check to San FranciscoLiving Wage Coalition and mail to SF Living Wage Coalition, 2973 - 16th Street Ste. 300, San Francisco, CA 94103.
Most of us probably don't think about workers' solidarity or don't know what those words mean. If we're union members we might be siloed in our workplaces or in our union locals and not have the time or the interest in thinking about why workers should stick together, break down the siloes, unite and take action together. If we think about workers' solidarity at all, it appears abstract or without meaning until we either see it in action or need it.
For instance, you may not think about workers sticking together until you have been on a picketline and have seen other workers going in to your work while you're outside holding a sign. You may be trying to win a union contract and you hear a story that other workers, some of whom may be in your union, can't or won't help you. It seems counterintuitive that, say, a truck driver would help a university professor win a union contract.
Now, picture yourself on that picketline in the cold Oregon rain and that Teamsters union truck driver drives up, sees the picketline and refuses to make her delivery in solidarity with you. Or think of yourself rallying for a better union contract. You're outside at a demonstration holding signs and shouting. People driving by are honking but it occurs to you that it's great that people driving by honk but folks need to step up and support. Honking helps but it's cheap. But at your next union rally you see a delegation of people from another neighboring local union in your larger union who have come to support you and speakers are there from other unions promising financial support if you strike. Wouldn't that make you feel stronger?
Workers who work on jobs that can be outsourced---almost all of us, no matter what we think---have a real interest in other workers not taking our jobs, and we have an interest in them doing better so that they don't have to take our work. This is true here in Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties and across Oregon. It's true across the United States. And it's true globally.
The United Electrical Workers union (UE) is probably the most progressive union in the United States, and it is a union with a long history and culture of building solidarity between workers. I have seen situations where UE workers were being laid off, plants were closing, and the UE negotiated the best deal that could be had and the union still went at the employers and attacked them as terrible corporate citizens and thieves and liars, and build labor and community resistance to the companies as the companies closed down and moved elsewhere.
What was the point? Well, the workers were angry and were entitled to fight back for more concessions from the employers, the communities were going to lose jobs and income and people and also had a right to get back what they could from the companies, and someone in the labor movement needed to put their foot down and scare the heck out of the companies that were considering moving out as well. Begging never really works while fighting back alongside others almost always does. Those tactics work best when a union has the active cooperation of rank-and-file workers who will be picking up the work, be that in the next county over or in another state or in another country. Contrast the power in taking action under those circumstances to the powerlessness of a few high-seniority workers staying on the job i their worksite 'til the last day and watching members of another local in their union showing up every day to move equipment to the company's new location and no one even protests. I have seen that happen as well.
The UE has the UE Research and Education Fund that "supports a variety of programs to build new skills among diverse worker leaders, helping them fight for economic and racial equality, for a just transition for workers, and to unite working people across borders." The Fund is counting on 2024 being a "year for bringing economic, environmental, and racial justice to workers across North America."
A press release from the Fund says "At our partner union, UE, members set national policies and make decisions for their locals. UEREF powers that democratic approach by building skills among diverse worker-leaders and helping them fight for economic and racial equality, a just transition, and international worker solidarity." The Fund is planning on continuing its organizing and advocacy to repeal North Carolina’s racist ban on public sector collective bargaining and will be pushing to pass collective bargaining ordinances in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Newport News and beyond. This work has the potential to help transform the South, build racial and economic justice, protect jobs, and bring home wins for working-class people across the United States. Companies should not be able to relocate to the Southern states, or anywhere, in pursuit of lower wages and a union-free environment.
The Fund is also hoping to organize workers in certain key states to fight for a sustainable future, and build networks with local environmental activists who share the Fund's and the UE's goals. In practical terms this means building alliances that the labor movement needs to stay relevant and advocating for states to implement stricter emission standards.
The Fund has supported activist exchange programs between UE and Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT) in Mexico. The Fund will continue this work in 2024, with rank- and-file UE members traveling to Mexico in order to build solidarity with their cross-border counterparts. Union organizing here in Oregon will be much easier if our sisters and brothers from Mexico are arriving here with positive union experiences and with the expectation that they can help organize and run a union that fights for everyone. We have much to learn from FAT.
The Emergency Worker Organizing Committee is responsible for many of the great union organizing campaigns in 2023. This work is going to continue with the Fund's support..
WE’RE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE MÉXICO SOLIDARITY PROJECT MEMBER JOSÉ LUIS GRANADOS CEJA’S IN-PERSON WEST COAST SPEAKING TOUR!
This accomplished investigative journalist from México City spoke with hundreds of people on his East Coast tour, sparking much interest in México. He spoke about changes in México since AMLO (Andrés Manuel López Obrador)'s election in 2018, and what they mean for México and US progressives. He will visit various West Coast cities in January/February, 2024. Stay tuned!
Bring friends and feel free to share this notice. Donations gratefully accepted.
The news stories and analyses of José Luis Granados Ceja, a freelance writer and photojournalist based in México City, focus on contemporary political issues, especially those that involve grassroots efforts to affect social change in México and Latin America. He is currently finishing up a degree in Human Rights at UNAM (the Autonomous University of México City). His Anti-Imperialista column appears monthly in the México Solidarity Bulletin, he writes regularly for Venezuela Analysis, and among many publications, recently authored an article on México’s electoral reforms for The Nation. An experienced speaker, he was a panelist on México’s economy at the March 2023 Burying 200 Years of the Monroe Doctrine conference. You can follow his comments on democratic struggles in Latin America on Twitter via @GranadosCeja.
This tour is not sponsored by the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO.
