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| Delivering Our Message: From left, Director of Organization Bob Kingsley, Local 222 President Marie Lausch, Local 1103 President Lauro Bonilla, Eastern Region President Andrew Dinkelaker, UE General President John Hovis and UE Political Action Director Chris Townsend. UE News Managing Editor Al Hart (not pictured) also assisted. |
A delegation of UE leaders was the first union group to visit the offices of Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Arlen Specter on April 28, within hours of his switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. The UE people were there to deliver thousands of postcards and electronic messages signed by UE members and supporters to their senators in support of the Employee Free Choice Act, the vitally important bill to restore the right to organize.
UE General President John Hovis and Director of Organization Bob Kingsley headed the UE delegation, which also included three members of the UE General Executive Board representing the three UE regions: Eastern Region President Andrew Dinkelaker, Local 222 President Marie Lausch representing the Northeast Region, and Local 1103 President Lauro Bonilla from the Western Region. They were assisted by UE Political Action Director Chris Townsend and UE News Managing Editor Al Hart.
UE to Senators: 'Many Experiences with Union-Busting'
In a whirlwind day-and-a-half lobbying blitz, the delegation met face-to-face with Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and both of California’s senators, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein. The group also had extended meetings with aides to Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner (both D-VA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl (both D-WI). Shorter meetings, to deliver members’ postcards and UE’s basic message for the need for EFCA, took place with the offices of Senators Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), George Voinovich (R-OH) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT.)
At every opportunity, the delegation talked to senators and staffers about UE’s many experiences with employers’ union-busting tactics that thwart workers’ desires to join the union. Democracy is repeatedly subverted by tactics that scare workers into voting "no" even when a clear majority have shown support for the union by signing cards, or when the union wins the NLRB election but the employer continues to fight the union and refuses to bargain a contract.
"The original Wagner Act in 1935 said it was the policy of the United States to promote collective bargaining," Director of Organization Bob Kingsley told several Senate staffers. "The law still says that – it just no longer does it."
President John Hovis reminded Senators that, during the prosperity of the 1950s, "...34 percent of the U.S. workforce was unionized. Now it’s only 12 percent, and our economy is in trouble. The industry that has done the most damage to the entire economy – the banks and financial services companies – are almost entirely non-union." Hovis concluded, "We need to rebuild unions to restore balance and accountability to our economy."