MONDAY AFTERNOON SESSION, SEPTEMBER 17, 2007
John Hovis called the convention back into session at 2:00. The resolution on immigrant rights was approved.
The resolution, “Organize the Unorganized” was then read by Larsene Taylor, Local 150: and Bob Rudek, Local 1111.
Gwen Gruber, Local 896 read the resolution “Labor Law Reform.” The two resolution were discussed together.
Brother Hovis then introduced Bob Kingsley, Director of Organization, who reported on the organizing program.
“Organizing is the answer to the bosses bad behavior,” said Kingsley, who then spoke on some of the reasons why we organize. “The coffers of corporate America are filling fast, while workers’ coffers are on the wane. If the salary of a CEO is as tall as this hotel, your wages don’t make it up the front steps. We’ve got the most unequal distribution of wealth on earth.”
Brother Kingsley showed a short video of the Raleigh sanitation strike and said it represented a “historic juncture in our struggle in North Carolina.” But the stage for Raleigh was set by the organizing campaign in Charlotte.
Both the Raleigh and Charlotte campaigns were inspired by UE’s Worker Justice Campaign, said Kingsley. As a result of the ILO complaint, as well as worker struggles like the Raleigh strike, the North Carolina legislature is taking the first steps in 50 years to restore bargaining rights. “Our International Worker Justice Campaign is truly a groundbreaking campaign,” said Kingsley, “but it is not the only place we run into trouble when workers seek to exercise their rights. We face it in some form in every campaign we undertake.”
He described the struggle at Bluegrass Satellite, a contractor for DirecTV, where the employer fired literally dozens of workers to stop the union. But we convinced the NLRB to order their reinstatement and back pay totaling $1.9 million. “The bad news,” said Kingsley, “is that we still don’t have the first union contract there,” but we are fighting on.
At Hishi Plastic, a Mitsubishi subsidiary, the problem was a four-year delay by the NLRB in counting the ballots. “When they counted the votes, the union won with 90 percent of the vote,” said Bob. “We almost had to start from scratch … but today there’s a factory full of UE members working for their first contract. “
Kingsley identified three basic ingredients that enable us to organize: our principles, our members, and our staff. In the case of the Hishi campaign, no staff was involved, just the dedicated president of UE Local 404, Joe Maglino. “But when the labor board put that lock on the ballot box, they also put a lock on Joe’s dream to bring one more victory to his union before he retired.” When they finally unlocked the box and counted the ballots, Joe was two years into retirement. But he’s been working hard for the past five months to win those workers a first contract. The delegates gave a standing ovation to Joe Maglino, who was present in the hall.
Brother Kingsley then called on all the volunteer UE organizers present in the hall to stand and be recognized. They received the applause of their fellow delegates. Kingsley, and the delegates, then recognized the hard work of the talented and dedicated UE field staff.
“We’ve been in some hellacious fights over the past two years.” said Kingsley, mentioning the laong and tough organizing and first contract fights at Lakewood Engineering and Stepan Chemical. Kingsley said our record of success of winning first contracts is among the best in the labor movement, and we won an exceptional first contract won at Hess Oil.
“Our biggest growth has been in the public sector, the fastest growing component of UE,” now accounting for over one-third UE’s membership. The most dramatic growth has been in West Virginia, said Kingsley, but we’ve also added five new public employee units in Connecticut, and a new municipal chapter in Petersburg, Virginia.
UE has organized around 5,000 workers over the last four years, 1,500 of them in the past two years. Our proposed plan, said Kingsley, doesn’t call for major change in our strategy. We want to continue our focus on areas with significant UE membership and involvement of members in our work. We want to link more closely our organizing work in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia because their conditions and challenges very similar.
“In the universe of unions, there’s one union that believes in the struggle. I believe that if all other unions fail to answer call, there will still be one shining beacon … the UE.” Kingsley then said “It’s time to welcome our newest members to your union.”
Kingsley introduced Joe Maglino, who in turn introduced Hishii Plastics worker Mahbubur Rahman, who was presented with a union charter. “After four years, we are working on a contract!” said Brother Rahman. Next Kingsley called on International Rep Dennis Painter, who described the long and difficult organizing struggle at Bluegrass Satellite. Painter then introduced “two more heroes” – workers Kevin Rhodes and Alicia Romans, both fired from their jobs but now reinstated with back pay.
Kingsley presented them with a giant mock check for $1.9 million in back pay. Kevin Rhodes told the delegates, “Employees at Bluegrass say thank you. It’s good to know that in an ugly world, there are folks like you that will stick up for what is right.” Brother Kingsley presented Brother Rhodes and Sister Romans with a charter for UE Local 719.
Returning to New Jersey, Kingsley called on International Rep Gene Elk who introduced Troy Hood and Tom Armbruster from Hess Oil. They and their co-workers were trapped in an old craft union that didn’t represent the members. Hood described the significant gains in their first UE contract. “As a new union we gained solidarity as a part of the UE.”
Kingsley then called Local 222 President Marie Lausch and International Rep Carol Lambiase to introduce new members from Connecticut. John Perkins, president of the new Stamford Sub-local, said his co-workers had been in another union but wanted out. “UE and CILU helped us immensely. We won the election and became UE from that point onward,” and by using a UE activist approach were able to survive a recent city budget crisis without concessions or layoffs. Another new unit in Connecticut consists of the librarians from Weathersfield, CT. Librarian Pam Kelly described the two-year organizing campaign and two-year first contract fight. “The director had said we’d have a union over my dead body, but she’s still alive.”
Field Organizer Cathy Granoth introduced Dan Leary of the Guilford CT police department. They were in another union but needed better representation, so with just four days left in the open period they called UE. “Since that time, we’ve been negotiating a contract – a little over a year without a contract. We’re standing firm that unless they increase and enhance our pension, we will not sign; we’ll take an arbitrator’s decision before we sign something bad.” Bob Kingsley presented new sub-local charters to the Guilford and Weathersfield workers.
International Representative Saladin Muhammed was then called to the stage to introduce Jerry Ledbetter and James Booker, Raleigh city workers. Brother Ledbetter told the convention, “We were tired of working long hours and not getting paid for it. They only wanted to give us comp time, not overtime. But we could never take comp time. We decided that on September 13, we would not move the trucks. People were on our side … offering to put signs in their yards. We got lots of support from UE 150. We’ve now got meet and confer rights with the city of Raleigh. We’ve opened the door now because they knew we were not going to take any more. “ Brother Kingsley presented them their chapter charter.
International Worker Justice Campaign (IWJC) Organizer Dennis Orton introduced the Charlotte campaign and James Locklear. “We knew we needed to be in Charlotte because of status in state and worldwide,” said Orton. James Locklear, of the Charlotte Chapter of UE 150, said, “The managers tried to tell us it was illegal to have a union. We’ve learned a lot – learned about grievances – they started settling grievances even before we took them in. It’s important to reach out to the community so they know what’s going on. We’re going to keep fighting, especially during the election to see where they stand on these issues. We let them know we’re there and will not be going away.
Kingsley introduced Ashaki Binta, coordinator of the International Worker Justice Campaign. “North Carolina is a tough state and takes a lot of courage to get things done,” said Sister Binta. “UE has been very, very important for support and the work we do. It was remarkable to see all three national officers go to Mexico to launch the NAALC complaint with the FAT, on behalf of UE 150. This campaign has had worldwide implication and reach.”
Next, Brother Kingsley called on Organizer George Waksmunski to report on the Petersburg, Virginia campaign. George introduced Henry Mason and JoAnne Davis. Henry Mason, a city utilities worker, thanked UE and Brother Waksmunski for helping the Petersburg workers to organize, and said we “have to have backbone.” Brother Kingsley presented a charter to the Petersburg chapter of Local 160.
Kingsley then called for the West Virginia Public Workers Union, Local 170. More than twenty-strong, they marched around the hall and up the center aisle to the cheers of the delegates. International Rep. Gene Elk reported that less than a year ago a delegation of West Virginia came to the national office and convinced the officers that this was a good project. They have built a union of over 600 members in less than a year, he said, and introduced Bruce Dotson, newly-elected statewide President and Gordon Simmons, chief steward.
Bruce Dotson said: “We are proud to be a part of the family of UE. We needed help, needed a union that we knew would stand behind us. The morning we came to Pittsburgh a year ago, Gordon said to me, ‘Brother, let’s go make history for the public workers of West Virginia.’ Unlike our past dealings with unions, when we got here to Pittsburgh we were immediately welcomed by the UE national staff. Thank you for allowing this to happen.” Gordon Simmons added: “We’ve got a rich and important labor history in West Virginia. We’ve been making some new history the past few months. I’m glad that you think 600 members is nice, but we’re just getting started. We will make you proud of us, build this union, and take it to the next step.” Brother Kingsley presented a Local Charter to the Local 170 members.
“Brother, that concludes Organizing Report,” Kingsley told President Hovis. The delegates then unanimously adopted the organizing and labor law reform resolutions, and the convention recessed until Tuesday morning.