Dramatic And Compelling Messages From Members Of UE local 150

Straight from the hearts and minds of working-class people: 

Action Alert: Help Save Union Jobs!

From the United Electrical Workers (UE):

For months now, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has been moving work done by union members at its Service Centers in California, Vermont, and Nebraska to low-paying, non-union contract locations.

Fee processing at all Service Centers has been relocated to contract workers at USCIS “Lockboxes.” The remaining work is being redistributed among the Service Centers, resulting in mass layoffs of hundreds of UE Local 1008 members in California, with hundreds more soon to follow for Local 208 in Vermont. According to bid solicitation documents obtained by the UE, the plan doesn’t stop there. Once USCIS has eliminated good union jobs in California and Vermont, it will then shift to eliminating good union jobs in Nebraska, where UE Local 808 represents hundreds of workers.

To save a few bucks and silence the voices of organized workers, USCIS is jeopardizing the U.S. immigration system. When all is said and done, USCIS will have eliminated the jobs of roughly one thousand skilled union workers, many of whom have served the agency for decades. This move dramatically undercuts USCIS’s capacity to handle its still massive backlogs, including H-1B visas, asylum cases, and VAWA petitions.

It’s not too late for USCIS to reverse this reckless decision. USCIS can decide today to protect the rights of workers and to ensure that immigrants have access to an efficient legal process. The members of UE Locals 208, 808, and 1008 deserve better than being used for their expertise and then callously discarded. Petitioners deserve better than endless delays when trying to navigate the immigration process.

Save USCIS Service Center Jobs!

Go here to sign a petition supporting USCIS Union Jobs!

Attacks on UAW and Other Unions Seek to Curb Union Power, not “Anti-Semitism”

From the United Electrical Workers:

August 11, 2024

Pittsburgh

Statement of the UE officers

In the face of rising working-class militancy, anti-union forces have launched various legal attacks on the labor movement, using the false claim that union involvement in protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza is somehow “anti-Semitic.” Most prominently, the federal monitor charged with rooting out corruption in the United Auto Workers has engaged in wildly inappropriate behavior, in a clear attempt to use his immense legal power over the union to shut down their criticism of Israel. The National Right to Work Committee and union-busting law firms like Jones Day have also launched a series of legal cases, including some against UE locals, aimed at undermining union shop and exclusive representation.

On December 13, a little under two weeks after the UAW released a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the union, Neil Barofsky, made a phone call to UAW President Shawn Fain, urging him to reconsider the union’s position. In February, Barofsky sent a letter to the UAW executive board reiterating his criticism of the union’s position, and also brought it up in a virtual meeting with the executive board on February 19.

Barofsky was appointed in 2021 as part of a consent decree between the union and the federal government, stemming from rampant corruption under previous UAW leadership. In his role, Barofsky has extensive power to oversee all aspects of the union’s operation, including the power to impose discipline on UAW officers and members. The current leadership of the union was elected to reform the union; they have democratized the UAW and led important and militant fights, and have in fact worked closely with the monitor to root out corruption.

The consent decree which gives Barofsky authority over the union charges him with “remov[ing] fraud, corruption, illegal behavior, dishonesty, and unethical practices” from the union. Nothing in this mandate is applicable to the union’s position calling for a ceasefire, a position voted on by an executive board elected through a democratic process overseen by Barofsky himself.

After the union refused to change its position, and sent Barofsky a letter raising concerns that he was acting outside of his jurisdiction, Barofsky opened a new investigation into the union and demanded that the union turn over more than one hundred thousand documents, including communications that could potentially expose the union’s internal plans for taking on corporations

The attacks on labor over positions on Israeli policy towards Palestinians are not limited to the UAW, however. In July, a lawsuit against the Professional Staff Congress, the union representing faculty and professional staff of the City University of New York, was appealed to the Supreme Court. The National Right to Work Committee, which is providing legal counsel in the case, seeks to further weaken public-sector unions by asking the Supreme Court to eliminate the principle of exclusive representation. If exclusive representation is eliminated, then employers will be free to reward non-members with higher wages and other perks. This would further undermine public-sector unions, which are already suffering under the effects of the 2018 Janus decision outlawing union shop in the public sector. Two UE locals have also been the target of legal actions making false claims of anti-Semitism to attempt to undermine the union shop in the private sector, instigated by the National Right to Work Committee and the notorious union-busting law firm Jones Day.

These lawsuits, like the UAW monitor’s attack on that union, are justified by personal differences of opinion with positions taken by the union’s democratically-elected leadership, or in some cases by the membership as a whole. However, in a democracy, differences should be resolved, not by lawsuits, but by persuasion. UE has never taken action against a member for holding an opinion which differs from the union’s policy. Indeed, the preamble to our constitution directs us to unite all workers regardless not only of “craft, age, sex, nationality, race, [and] creed,” but also of “political beliefs,” and we encourage robust discussion of the union’s policies through our democratic structures.

It is ironic that several of these legal assaults alleging that criticisms of Israel’s military actions constitute “anti-Semitism” are being supported by the National Right to Work Committee, an organization whose history is steeped in actual prejudice against Jewish people. Vance Muse, the lobbyist who was central to the passage of so-called “right-to-work” laws throughout the country in the 1940s, was both a rabid anti-Semite and a committed white supremacist. His organization, the Christian American Association, sought to portray CIO unions like UE and UAW as agents of “Jewish Marxism” — precisely because our organizations united workers regardless of race, creed, and political beliefs.

It is not an accident that these attacks are specifically targeting unions which are growing, leading militant struggles, and daring to take independent positions on U.S. foreign policy. In this and in many other ways, they resemble the attacks on the progressive wing of the labor movement in the 1940s and 1950s when the unions which were growing, leading militant struggles, and taking independent positions on U.S. foreign policy were tarred as “communist-dominated” and subjected to government persecution — all of which only aided the corporations. The attacks on so-called “anti-Semitism” are nothing more than a new McCarthyism.

Just as we have always rejected any attempts by the government, corporations or special interests to dictate UE policy, we forcefully condemn the attempts by the federal monitor to influence the policies of the UAW, and to retaliate against them for taking a courageous and just stand for peace. We urge the court which appointed Barofsky to replace him with a monitor who will not exceed his authority.

More broadly, we condemn the cynical misuse of claims of anti-Semitism to attack union security and exclusive representation. We call upon the rest of the labor movement to close ranks against these attacks on exclusive representation, on the union shop, and on the right of unions to democratically take policy positions independent of the government or any political party.

Carl Rosen
General President

Andrew Dinkelaker
Secretary-Treasurer

Mark Meinster
Director of Organization

Organizing Gets The Goods: Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina Chapters of UE Local 150 Win Largest Wage Increases in Years

I frequently post about the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), and I pay particular attention to the progress being made by that union's locals in the South. This is an Oregon-based blog, so why do I do that?

I run this posts in order to make a point. The UE is what they say they are---"a democratic national union representing tens of thousands of workers in a wide variety of manufacturing, public sector and private service-sector jobs. UE is an independent union (not affiliated with the AFL-CIO) proud of its democratic structure and progressive policies." The union has a great history and is experiencing new growth in sectors that onservors might not expect the UE to find a base and growth in. But there are large numbers of workers who want to be union members and who want democratic, militant, progressive, and member-run unions and UE can be their union. I also run these posts because I want to make the point that workers can organize and win under very difficult circumstances. If municipal workers in Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina can fight and win, workers in Oregon can do the same.

Read about some great and long-term organizing and union victories:

Durham City Workers Union/UE Local 150 members rally for fair pay.

Photo from UE.

August 2, 2024

Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina

After over a year of organizing and turning members out to actions, city worker chapters of Local 150 successfully pressured Durham and Charlotte City Councils to approve millions in raises for public workers in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. On average, full time workers in Durham on the general step plan will receive a raise of over $8,000. Workers with more years of service will receive higher wage increases with some totaling over $15,000. In Charlotte, members won a six percent raise and an increase in the minimum starting salary, which is now $23 dollars an hour.

“This raise is a first step in recognizing the dilemma we face as city workers,” said Durham City Workers Union chapter Vice President Willie Brown, a crew leader in the Public Works department.

These raises come after a long fight to increase sanitation workers’ wages. Durham solid waste workers conducted a six day long “stand down” last September, which won $6.5 million in bonuses for city workers. The Durham City Workers Union held many rallies in 2023 and throughout 2024. Members also met with several council members and the mayor of Durham in order to build support for the proposals.

In Charlotte, UE members followed a similar strategy. “We do not have collective bargaining here, it is illegal, so one of the things we have been able to do over the past three years is a ‘multi-pronged pressure tactic,’” said UE Local 150 Charlotte chapter Vice President Robert Davis, who is Crew Chief One in Charlotte Water. “We have gone to city council meetings, met with city council members individually, had meetings with the Charlotte city manager, and had several actions at Marshall park where we have brought out as many members as possible to march to city council. With this multi-pronged pressure tactic, we have been able to mount community support and build a coalition of business leaders and other leaders around the city to gather around what we are demanding. We have made the wants and needs of our members clear.”

Charlotte City Workers Union/UE Local 150 packs the city council chambers.

In North Carolina, public-sector unions do not have the right to collective bargaining. When asked how union members get around this disadvantage, Davis said, “We have had to build a pretty wide coalition with the members of our union, community, and business leaders. We have been able to get their support and make our needs known as we go to city council.” Brown said, “While we don’t have collective bargaining, we have a collective agreement that we are all underpaid.” In the absence of collective bargaining, workers in the Durham and Charlottechapters of Local 150 use direct action to pressure the boss.

“We learned that we can still negotiate our pay”

In both Charlotte and Durham, public workers have been outspoken about their low wages. Many members are unable to afford to live in the cities that they keep functioning and clean. In September, the situation came to a head in Durham when members organized a “stand down,” refusing to load their trucks for six days.

Workers were being overworked because of the enormous amount of open positions. Over the course of the pandemic, sanitation workers’ step pay plans were essentially frozen. These issues were at the forefront of members’ minds as the stand down action started on September 6. Less than a month later, the city council voted to approve $6.5 million in additional bonuses for the city workers. Once that demand was met, members continued to push for an increase in their base wages.

Durham city workers held rallies, marches, and meetings in order to make their voices heard. In October 2023, George Bacote, a solid waste operator and Local 150 member, said during the public comment period of a city council meeting, “The truth of the matter is that there are a handful of guys in my department that are homeless, that are living in hotels with their wife and children.”

Brown explained how they are fighting back. “We understand that collective bargaining is illegal in North Carolina. But we learned through this process that we can still negotiate our pay. The actions that we took unearthed the reality of our situation that we didn’t even know. We have a much more educated workforce out of this struggle. Now we are learning more about how to move and take collective actions.

“Our actions have opened doors for other cities like Raleigh, Rocky Mount, and Chapel Hill. The raises mean a lot to me and my family. It means I will have more time to work with my family after I work my hard job instead of going to my second job to earn $100-200 per week. The raises ease the pain of the high expenses. Gas ain’t getting cheaper, and because we can’t afford to live in Durham, it helps ease expenses to commute.”

More Than Just a Raise

In Charlotte, members have won more than just a raise. The city council also passed an increase to the home ownership program, totalling $2 million in assistance, where workers can now get up to $80,000 for a down payment and housing counseling for improving their credit. Improvements have also been made to the education program so members no longer have to rely on reimbursements for tuition but can get money for college upfront from the city. Davis explained, “We have been able to do all of that without collective bargaining and we still have a seat at the table. We are invited to these meetings and with members from different departments to get our demands heard and get them met.

“The raise is something that everyone is celebrating in the area.” Davis continued, “We are fighting uphill but we are winning. Unlike Sisyphus we have been able to reach the summit with each boulder our members asked us to fight for. There is nothing special about Charlotte but what we have been able to win is absolutely unheard of. When I started here six years ago, my starting wage was $15.05 an hour and now the starting wage is $23 an hour.”

Members of Local 150 are partnering with the firefighters to push for a “Workers’ Bill of Rights” that would guarantee even more protections for members. “We have built a collaborative network,” said Davis. “We are getting our message out there, and making the city listen and respond.” Local 150 members in both Charlotte and Durham have proved that they can still win without the right to collective bargaining by working together and taking strategic action.

Unions Stand in Solidarity with Campus Protesters, Demand Their Rights to Protest and Free Speech Be Respected

For more information contact:

Jonathan Kissam, UE Communications Director
(802) 343 1745 | jkissam@ueunion.org

MAY 20, 2024

Unions representing over one million workers released a statement today in support of campus protesters at colleges and universities across the country.

The unions are members of the National Labor Network for Ceasefire (NLNC), which has been outspoken for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, restoration of basic human rights, immediate release of the hostages, unimpeded full access for humanitarian aid, and our president calling for a permanent ceasefire.

The six national and four local unions, some of whom represent faculty, student, and other campus workers, are stepping forward because they recognize the risk of suppressing free speech — employers have been trying to suppress workers demanding their rights for centuries. When some campuses began enlisting police to beat and arrest protesters to silence them, the already unacceptable crackdowns across the country went too far.

Union members have been attacked by the police on some campuses for exercising their rights to free speech, assembly, and protest. Labor unions across the country must defend these rights as the same rights that sustain our democracy and provide a voice for workers,” says Carl Rosen, General President of the United Electrical Workers Union (UE).

Here is the full statement:

Unions Stand in Solidarity with Campus Protesters, Demand Their Rights to Protest and Free Speech Be Respected

Our unions, representing over one million union members, stand in solidarity with those students, faculty and other academic workers across the United States who have faced a repressive and violent crackdown of their protests of the war in Gaza. We demand that campus administrators cease their campaign of threats, suspensions and expulsions against peaceful protestors and cease using law enforcement agencies to disrupt and attack them.

Our unions are all members of the National Labor Network for Ceasefire, united by our shared call for a ceasefire in Gaza, the safe return of hostages, and safe passage for urgently needed humanitarian aid to those displaced, starved and injured by Israel’s campaign in Gaza. We see our demands broadly reflected in the campus protests.

Moreover, as trade unionists, we can never support efforts to repress, intimidate or deploy state-sanctioned violence against those exercising their democratic rights of free speech and who protest, strike, or demand justice.

The repressive response of certain university administrators and local police to these protests is also a labor rights issue. Faculty, student workers, and other campus workers – many of whom belong to our unions – are among those who have been arrested and forcibly removed from the protests or suspended from their work. University staff have been ordered to clear protests led by students, their fellow workers and union members. Academic freedom, free speech, the right to assemble, and the right to protest are fundamental rights and they must be respected on campuses and across the country.

The time for peace is now. We stand in solidarity with the protesters.

American Postal Workers Union (APWU)
Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA)
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT)
National Nurses United (NNU)
United Auto Workers (UAW)
United Electrical Workers Union (UE)
Chicago Teachers Union Local 1 (CTU-1)
SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania (SEIUHCPA)
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East (1199SEIU)
United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 3000 (UFCW 3000)

Some Thoughts On The Labor Movement & The Campus Protests

Student- and youth-led protests supporting a ceasefire in Gaza are sweeping across the United States and the world. In some countries, mass protests supporting a ceasefire and pro-Palestinian demands are being organized by coalitions that are led in part by unions and by popular social movements. This work is being done from many corners of world labor and from many perspectives.

Popular media in the United States often either ignores the protests being held here or so misstates the facts on the ground concerning these protests that media watchers and readers might come away with the mistaken impression that the campus protests are, by their nature and intent, anti-Semitic, violent, and led by people who are not students and who have ulterior motives. I want to encourage readers of this blog to explore counter-narratives concerning the campus protests. You might want to start here and here in order to begin examining counter-narratives concerning the protests. 

I believe that three aspects of these protest movements in the United States are not being sufficiently explored in either our popular or alterntive media and that these points should be of special interest to the labor movement. We should start by acknowledging that most unions in the United States have been strong supporters of Israel since its founding in 1948 and that this support has come with little discussion or debate and that some within labor who have opposed this course have lost their jobs and have found it difficult to find other employment or have faced other forms of censorship. For a broad view on this matter, see this article that appeared in Labor Notes and this article as well.

There is no principle at stake here that says that we cannot or should not take positions on events that are occuring elsewhere in the world and that may not be of immediate concern to the immediate welfare of all union members. Rather, the principle has been that the mainstream labor movement in the U.S. has tended to fall safely in step with U.S. foreign policy goals and has often enlisted in the ideological battle for winning those goals through AIFLD and the ACILS. (There have been notable exception to this principle.) Most union members will not be  familiar with AIFLD and ASCILS and are not aware that their unions are engaged in international affairs.  

In our current moment, on the other hand, we see many unions cautiously breaking with our past and adopting calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. Some perspective on this change in affairs can be found here, here, and here. The February 8 statement by AFL-CIO condemning "the attacks by Hamas on October 7th" and calling for "a negotiated cease-fire in Gaza—including the immediate ingrelease of all hostages and provision of desperately needed shelter, food, medicine and other humanitarian assistance to Gazans" and reaffirming AFL-CIO "support of a two-state solution for long-term peace and security” marked a historic turning point for labor.

This brings me to the first aspect of our present moment that I want to comment on. The campus protests are indeed initiated and led by students, but these protests are increasingly involving university faculty and staff, and to the extent that unionized faculty and staff are involved these protests become union issues. This is particularly underscored when faculty and staff are attacked by the police and counter-protestors, are threatened with firing, or are fired. See this recent post, this recent post, and this recent post that have appeared on this blog for some idea of what this looks like. My points here are that unions that represent workers who are being victimized have a duty of fair representation in many of these cases, whether the unions involved support a ceasefire or not, and that unions such as the United Auto Workers and the United Electrical Workers (UE) have especially large union locals with members that have been facing repression on campuses. UAW President Shawn Fein has been especially forthright in defense of UAW members who are engaging in protests. This post from the UAW tells a story in its own right.   

 

Mainstream media is not telling the story of the campus protests from a labor or working-class perspective. There are wild cards in play here. The media's emphasis has been on whether or not President Biden's reelection is at risk because of these protests and what is taken to be his "pro-Israel" stance and what is generally perceived as being subtle shifts in that stance. The popular line is that Biden is alienating young voters by not supporting a ceasefire and by supporting Israel but also stands to lose at least some Jewish support for his shifts in policy. The other wild card here, at least for the labor movement, is whether or not union support for a ceasefire and for union members who are victimized for protesting will lead to union growth on campuses or not. The UAW, the UE, and some CWA local unions that are engaging in supporting calls for a ceasefire and for defending their members who are attacked look good to large numbers of young people and to many campus workers right now. This feels a bit like the days of the Occupy movement and the early days of the Black Lives Matter movement in some ways. Both of those movements showed the labor movement that we have lots to learn or relearn and they have helped push us in positive directions.

The primary movements for social change in the late 1960s and early 1970s won limited gains or lost in part because they were easily characterized as being youth movements and then isolated. In our current moment, however, there is an opportunity to build solidarity between young people and campus workers and their unions. Union members, as much as anyone else, need to fully understand the demands being raised in the protests.

Photo from Hussein Malla / AP/ People's World. See this article for an analysis of 

what is at issue in the campus protests. 

Another aspect of the moment that we're in has to do with what Labor has to teach the pro-ceasefire movement and the protesters and activists. We understand the discipline needed in striking and winning while other social movements may not, or these movements may see things differently than we do. Striking is not only about getting your sign, marching in a circle for a few hours, and picking up strike pay. The recent Portland Association of Teachers strike (see here and here) reminds us that strikes are also about forming transformative new relationships, pitching in to help coworkers cover childcare and rent and car payments, and winning public support. Most of go into strikes knowing that we have to define what a victory is and with the patience that gives us the strength to fight for what we didn't win when we return to work. Doing this right takes discipline and experience. We can teach this to others if we stop to take a breath and use our critical thinking skills to analyze what has and has not worked for us in the past.

In line with this, we need to carefully study and adopt/adapt passive resistance and the intricate psychology of confrontational non-violence. Our labor history is full of useful examples of us using non-violent civil disobedence, and it would be hypocritical and wrong-headed for us to criticize others for following our example. Here is a great labor video to help us start understanding this:

One of the many remarkable features of the strike shown in the video above was that the strikers and their families and closest supporters stayed on message despite police brutality, hostile courts and other violence. The company was the primary target and the goal was a strong union contract and the union remained on message throughout the strike. This won strong public support and support from many prominent progressive people who would not have otherwise engaged with coal miners in Appalachia. I know this because I was there. 
 

My last point here builds on something that the labor movement knows and carries in our DNA but that we do not often acknowldge. We know from union organizing that we do not begin an organizing campaign with puttng forward maximum demands. We find core issues that unite most people and we become the living voice of those demands and we win over people who are neutral or sitting on the fence by listening to them and creating safe space with them and including what they want in our demands if that's possible. It's a slow and steady step-by-step process that can suddenly accelerate. In some sense, then, we organize on the basis of loving our co-workers more than we do on hating our bosses.

The movements for a ceasefire and for the liberation of Palestine do their best work when then start with demands for a ceasefire and peace and use those to split their opposition and win over or neutralize some who oppose them. By doing this they put the fence-sitters in the positon of having to choose between what is human and good and what is pro-war and pro-genocide. So long as the movements have been doing that they have been winning against all odds and are building a pro-peace majority before the November elections. 

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO. Other opinions from union members in our region on this subject are welcome and will be appreciated.     

The UE Western Regional Council Meeting Theme Was Unity

In 2023 UE organized more new members than any other union in the country. The following is taken from the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America great website:

APRIL 16, 2024

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Representatives of locals from Ohio to California gathered for the first-ever UE regional council meeting in New Mexico, “The Land of Enchantment,” from April 13-14. Unity of workers and of the working class was a recurring theme as delegates, guests, and regional and national UE leaders discussed the victories and struggles in the union’s Western Region over the past half a year.

In his president’s report, Western Region President Bryan Martindale said that the only answer to racism, gender discrimination, corporate greed, and massive income and wealth inequality is to unite the working class to fight for an economy and a government that works for everyone.

“If we’re going to get anything, if we’re going to get ahead in this life, we need to fight,” he said. “The only way we have ever got anything done is this country is by getting out in the streets.”

Martindale decried the “damned if we do, damned if we don’t choice for our nation’s highest office” and suggested that the way to deal with “a corrupt political system” is by forming a labor party. He also condemned the “new McCarthyism” being directed at critics of Israel’s war against the Palestinian people, and of the U.S. government’s support of that war. “If ... you speak out at all against the genocide, you’re labelled anti-Semitic. The same way Joe McCarthy and his cronies labelled people as ‘communist’ if they didn’t agree with the propaganda of that time.”

The council meeting also heard from Eastern Region President George Waksmunski and Vice President Antwon Gibson, who were visiting their sister region as guests. (Martindale and Western Region Vice President Larry Hopkins will visit the Eastern Region’s council meeting in North Carolina later this month.)

In his remarks, Waksmunski urged delegates to take to heart the emphasis on uniting all workers in the preamble to the UE Constitution. “Capitalists, who own everything, are trying to divide us,” he said, and in order to maintain a decent life, “we have to stay united as workers.” Gibson praised the exchange between regions as an opportunity to “learn from one another, educate one another, [because] that’s how we grow.”

“Our power lies with unity with the rest of the working class”

In the Organizing Report, Director of Organization Mark Meinster also made reference to the preamble of the UE Constitution and UE’s core principles, one of which is that “our core mission is to organize the unorganized, that our power lies with unity with the rest of the working class.”

However, he said, “we have to constantly renew” the union’s commitment to that mission through democratic debate and decision-making. He pointed out that if UE had not maintained that commitment, and made the decision to organize in sectors outside of the union’s traditional base in manufacturing, there would be far fewer delegates in the room. “That’s the reality under this system,” he said, “that if we stand still, we lose members until we die.”

However, “at every turn” in UE history, “the decision was made to lean into that principle, organize the unorganized,” and as a result in 2023 UE organized more new members than any other union in the country. Those new members were overwhelmingly graduate workers who “did the heavy lifting themselves.”

“Member-run unionism is how this is happening,” Meinster said as he introduced Local 728 President Kevin White, whose local took the initiative to organize a group of workers at their facility.

“Maintenance workers at our facility, after taking a look at our second contract, decided they would like to have a union for themselves,” White said, and after discussion on the local executive board, “we decided that we had no business of standing in the way of anyone who wanted a union in their shop.” White is now leading bargaining for a first contract for the nine workers, which he reported is going well.

Read more here.

Officers, executive board members, and trustees of the Western Region are sworn in.

"Right-To-Work" is taking some hard hits. What does that mean?

 The AFL-CIO reported yesterday that

Top Cut:
The New Hampshire House of Representatives on Thursday voted down H.B. 1377—this legislative session’s attempt to pass “right to work”—by a margin of 212–168.

Why It Matters:
In a clear display of how New Hampshire residents feel about these legislative attacks on workers’ rights, more than 1,400 members of the public testified or signed on to register their position on the bill over two days of testimony, and only about 50 were in support of the right to work. The House postponed the entire topic for the rest of 2024.

New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Glenn Brackett said in a statement, “While out-of-state billionaires and D.C. lobbyists continue to enlist legislators to introduce identical bills, year in and year out, our elected representatives of both political parties have voted to defeat them. That is what happened today. It happened because the people of New Hampshire, and the members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, know what we know, that ‘Right-to-Work’ is STILL wrong for New Hampshire.”

The same AFL-CIO report mentioned the following:

Top Cut:
Georgia union members and leaders spent Thursday morning lobbying state House of Representatives members against S.B. 362, a bill that would prohibit employers receiving state economic development incentives from voluntarily recognizing employee unions.

Why It Matters:
The bill, which is championed by Gov. Brian Kemp, is similar to a law passed in Tennessee last May and a cookie-cutter piece of legislation drafted by corporate lobbying group American Legislative Exchange Council. Alabama and South Carolina also have passed related laws. But, despite these coordinated special interest attacks on workers across the South, Georgia teachers, electricians, painters, glaziers, film crew members, public college employees and other workers across industries showed up in full force to push back and urge lawmakers to do the right thing in the state.

This followed a February 14 report by the AFL-CIO that said the following:

Top Cut:Michigan officially got rid of “right to work” on Tuesday, making it the first state in nearly 60 years to repeal the law.

Why It Matters:
Originally enacted in 2012 by then-Gov. Rick Snyder, after the bill was passed during a lame-duck session of the Legislature, the repeal of right to work is a huge step to expand and protect workers’ rights in Michigan. Tuesday also saw multiple other pro-worker pieces of legislation signed into law, thanks to the democratic trifecta in Lansing, including restorations of prevailing wage and organizing rights for graduate student research assistants.

There was some worthy press coverage of the real of "right-to-work" in Michigan. PBS did a good story. That story says in part that

Michigan had the nation’s seventh-highest percentage of unionized workers when the “right-to-work” law was enacted in 2012, but that dropped to 11th in 2022. Over the past decade, union membership in Michigan has fallen by 2.6 percentage points as overall U.S. union membership has been falling steadily for decades, reaching an all-time low last year of 10.1%.

Michigan becomes the first state in 58 years to repeal a “right-to-work” law, with Indiana repealing its in 1965 before Republicans there restored it in 2012. In 2017, Missouri’s Republican Legislature approved a “right-to-work” law, but it was blocked from going into effect before voter’s overwhelmingly rejected it the next year.

In total, 26 states now have “right-to-work” laws in place. There were massive protests in Indiana and Wisconsin in recent years after those legislatures voted to curb union rights.

“If we want to make Michigan a place where people want to come and raise a family and build their careers for the long haul, it is critical that we have got these strong workplace protections,“ Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan State AFL-CIO, said. “By standing up and taking their power back, at the ballot box and in the workplace, workers have made it clear Michigan is and always will be the beating heart of the modern American labor movement.”

Truthout and the Economic Policy Institute also carried good coverage. The New Republic carried a strong analysis of what's wrong with "right-to-work" in the first place. 

Many of us will read the headlines and think that we are being told what we already know or will feel justified in our long-standing opposition to "right-to-work" and leave it at that. Perhaps this is why there is so little coverage of what happened in Michigan and New Hampshire and what is happening in states like Georgia and Tennessee even in the progressive press. But I think that there is a deeper story here.

The strikes and near-strikes of 2023 have to find an expression in politics, and I think that that is what we are seeing taking place in muted form in some states and nationally right now. We have young and progressive pro-labor candidates stepping up and pro-worker legislation being moved from the grassroots in many places. These trends ae one key part of defeating the Republican agenda in November and each victory along the way helps build momentum for other new wins. It's true that workers and union members are more driven by issues than we are inspired by either political party, but it's also true that it's Democrats---and particularly young, progressive and women of color Democrats----who are leading on our issues right now. The Squad looks more like The Troop this week, and might look like The Battalion soon if if this trend continues.

Significant numbers of union members understand what is going on. The United Electrical Workers' (UE) report on their union's recent General Excutive Board meeting contains the following:

In his Political Action Report, President Rosen noted that close UE ally Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-PA), along with many other of the most pro-worker members of Congress, are under attack by deep-pocketed right-wing forces and will be facing well-funded opponents in their primaries this spring. Congressman Chuy Garcia (D-IL), another close UE ally, may also be facing a similar primary challenge. UE will be issuing a leaflet to make sure members know about Lee’s record of standing up for workers.

GEB members also discussed the dilemma that will face workers in the fall, as they will be forced to choose between the disappointing incumbent, Joe Biden, or Donald Trump, who has vowed to use the government to punish his perceived enemies if he is returned to office.

 

Photo from UE.

Many union members understand the complex moment we're in but some don't. One of my fears is that our closest political friends won't receive the support from us that they deserve in the names of what seems expedient or practical. Another is that the counter-attack from the right will hit hard and turn our world upside down. And there is the pernicious racism and sexism that has historically divided us at key moments in the past and still threatens our unity. Every nay-sayer and defeatist seemsto be gettig the press coverage and seems to picking up the mic these days, and they're doing lots of damage. 

Where are you standing in relation to this? Are you keeping your hands on the plow and your eyes on the prize or are you somewhere else? Here's a reminder about we're headed if we have everyone on our side keeping focused on our goals.

Photo from The New Republic

The opinions expressed above belong solely to the author and are not those of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO.

"Workers’ Time Is Now!" says the UE Research and Education Fund

Photo from a fundraising appeal sent by the UE Research & 

Education Fund

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..

All of this takes money and person-power. The practical need is for all of us to step up and chip in. UE is not a large union with lots of resources, and a project like the Fund can't succeed if it's based on one union's donations anyway. This is a project for the entire working-class to support. Chip in here.

This post does not reflect the opinions of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO,

Online opportunities and books for union stewards and activists to learn with

Labor's Bookstore continues to produce and sell online helpful union steward and activist Zoom trainings. These will help guide union members through organizing, taking leadership positions, negotiating contracts, representing workers in grievances, building a voice for everyone in a union local, holding to our shared working-class values, and dealing with difficult matters like FMLA and LOTS more. They also have a blog at https://www.laborsbookstore.com/blogs/news. 

The United Electrical workers has a review of  Claiming the City: A Global History of Workers’ Fight for Municipal Socialism by labor historian Shelton Stromquist on their website. I have not read the book, but the review draws out some aspects of our labor and political history that are relevant today. The UE store has a number of useful books, and some of these serve well as introductions to labor and union history. I recommend Labor's Untold Story, Them and Us, and So Long, Partner.

Who We Are Right Now

Members of Plumbers & Gasfitters Local 5 marched with union locals from across

 the country as part of Tradeswomen Build Nations last weekend in DC. Photo from

 the Metro Washington Labor Council.

“When I’m at work, I spend a lot of time waiting near idling diesel locomotive 

engines. I know this pollution is affecting my breathing. I can feel it, and I am not the

 only one. We have a lot of drivers who have health problems. It impacts everybody, 

especially in the communities that are right around these rail yards. Drivers like me

 used to have better jobs directly with the railroads, but they subcontracted our work

 so they could save money. Now, they don’t have to pay for things like health insurance

 for us. Here we are, doing the work, making them money, and all they are doing is

 making us sick.”---Cedric Whelchel of the United Electrical workers. Photo from

the UE Research and Education Fund.

"Hundreds of early-career researchers at the US National Institutes of 

Health (NIH) have voted overwhelmingly to form a union, nearly completing

 the official process required to do so. They plan to call on the agency — the world’s

 largest public funder of biomedical research — to improve pay and working conditions,

 and to bolster its policies and procedures for dealing with harassment and excessive workloads."

 Taken from an article by Max Kozlov that appeared in NATURE and in Portside. Photo by

 Melissa Lyttle.

Communications Workers of America District 1 Healthcare Workers met in Buffalo,

 N.Y., for their first ever Healthcare Worker Convening. Photo from CWA District 1.

How We Do And Don't Do Politics: Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates At The United Electrical Workers Convention

 
Note from Bob Rossi:

This post does not reflect the opinions of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter (MPYCLC) or the Oregon AFL-CIO.

I think that Sister Davis Gates gave a strong and generally correct speech to the recent convention of the United Electrical Workers (UE). Given that union's history of engagement with progressive issues and its recent growth in numbers and influence, the UE members present were geared up for what the Chicago Teachers Union President had to say. It should matter to all of us that much of what she had to say is being proven true in practice. She isn't making anything up in her speech. And I think that if our labor movement wants to hold on to members and succeed in contract campaigns and politics we have to listen carefully to what is being said here and change course.

Here are some of my takeaways:

1. We let the political parties choose our candidates rather than asserting ourselves way too much of the time. Candidates show up, ask for endorsement, we usually go through a difficult endorsement process, and if we endorse them we spend some time trying to bring them up to speed on our issues while they're busy running for office. Full labor unity behind particular candidates is not always in place, and endorsements and unity do not always guarantee votes. We sometimes run in circles for money, endorsements and votes while trying to bring candidates closer to us, and we may not fully succeed in either attempt. When the not-fully-informed-and-committed candidate wins but doesn't follow through on our issues as we hoped they would we're disappointed or angry, but if you step back and look at how the process works over time you can see why this happens so often.  

2. The Oregon Labor Candidate School and the Labor Education and Research Center and whatever programs unions may have in place to encourage union members to run for public office are invaluable. No union member or union supporter should run for office without taking the trainings and classes offered. More than that, these training opportunities graft people in to networks and expose participants to big-picture politics and complex questions that potential candidates should be working with before they run.

That said, trainings are not substitutes for organizing, building movements, producing the people and energy that movements need, creating street heat and winning in negotiations, and defining victories. Sister Davis Gates is saying that movement building is the priority and that you won't understand and exercise power until you have built a militant labor movement that is not afraid of striking. That movement will create activists, organizers and leaders and our candidates and the energy needed to get them over the top should come from the movement and its alliances with community activists and organizers. The money and endorsements will probably come later and after institutions learn that you're serious and committed and capable. See this article and this article.

3. We're putting the cart before the horse by not being about movement building, thinking that we have to choose between candidates who do not come from our ranks, trying to bring candidates along who do not know us and our issues, thinking about winning elections as being about money (and not people power), thinking about people power as something to mobilize every two years or four years (instead of it being about constant organizing and militancy at the grassroots), and supporting candidates who have not been tested in workplace actions, strikes and contract negotiations.

4. Our labor political scorecards are valuable tools. They tell us how a politician has voted on labor issues. I think that the problem here is that as political polarization deepens it gets harder to define what "liberal," "centrist," "conservative" and "progressive" mean in real terms. What is a "labor issue" today and how do we define victories when we're up against the wall and too quick to compromise? The Republican party has moved so far to the far-right so quickly that a politician or program that used to be considered conservative now might look like liberal and a progressive politician or program gets defined as being anti-Republican and left at that. Like many other working-class people, I'm both repelled by the anti-worker and hard-hearted Republicans, who tell me that I don't deserve what I have earned and are taking aim at my rights, and by the weak liberals and progressives who excuse austerity and don't defend public services and many of the gains labor has made over the last ninety years. And we in labor are often playing a weak defense.