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| Members of the UE Young Activist Program were recognized during the Organizing Report. |
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| Jimmy Collins of Local 250, Boston Hertz workers; Cheryl Grimm, Local 208, FedConsulting; and Bob Kunkle, Local 165, ADT report to the convention on their recent organizing victories. |
The UE Convention afternoon session of Monday, September 26 was devoted to the Organizing Report. President John Hovis called on the Convention's Organizing Committee. Co-conveners Marie Lausch and Larsene Taylor read the resolutions "Labor Law Reform" and "Organize the Unorganized." Hovis then introduced Director of Organization Bob Kingsley. "We gather here in difficult and dangerous times, as our adversaries are waging all-out war on the well-being of the working class," said Kingsley. He described the economic devastation suffered by working people while the corporations enjoy record profits. But there have also been political setbacks. "We left the last convention in 2009 hoping for labor law reform and expanded rights to organize. We come together this week with labor law reform a dead letter, and state legislatures stripping away the rights we do have."
Kingsley then talked about the union's initiative, immediately after the 2009 convention, to mobilize its younger members. He reminded delegates that the union was founded in 1936 mainly by young workers. Our first director of organization was 28 years old, our first president was 25, "and the secretary-treasurer was an old man of 32." He then called the UE Young Activists in attendance at the convention, as well as the young activists from Japan, Mexico, France and Canada, to come to the stage. Some 35 young unionists marched up, most wearing red "UE Young Activsist" T-shirts. Heather Jorgensen, Local 893, and Antwon Gibson, Local 610, spoke for the group. Jorgensen reported on the Young Activist International Convergence, which had kicked off three days earlier, saying, "We educated each other about issues in different countries." Gibson said the UE young activists are "that lightning bolt in the UE logo, charging up the battery," and assured older UE activists that they'd be able to put their feet up and relax "because we got this!" Audrey LeFebre-Sauve from the CSN in Quebec spoke on behalf of the international young activists. She praised UE as the most activist and most democratic union in the U.S. and she taught the delegates a chant from the Quebec labor movement: "So-So-Solidarity."
Despite the economic and political setbacks - and with one in three bosses still firing workers when they try to organize - UE has been working non-stop at organizing, Kingsley reported, with a string of successes especially in the 90 days leading up to the convention. In that short time we've won elections bringing UE representation to 500 workers. "The victory in St. Albans was especially sweet," Kingsley said, because in 2008 we lost an election for the same group of workers at the Vermont U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Center. On September 21 those nearly 250 workers voted by an overwhelming margin to join UE. After their incomplete victories in 2008, Kingsley said, Local 208 at the Vermont Service Center and Local 1008 at the California Service Center, "kept alive their vision of UE representing all the workers, wall-to-wall." Last week's win in Vermont realizes that vision, after the only remaining non-union group in the California center - 50 workers - organized, demanded and won voluntary recognition by the employer during recent contract negotiations.
Kingsley described the low wages and bad conditions that led 150 Renzenberger rail crew drivers in Chicago to organize with UE and fight for a first contract. They are part of the logistics industry, which has a huge presence in Greater Chicago, and our Warehouse Workers for Justice initiative is organizing among the area's thousands of warehouse workers. Kingsley highlighted other organizing wins of the past two years: the affiliation of independent alarm technicians at ADT to become UE Local 165 in Greater Philadelphia; the affiliation of an independent union of auto parts workers at Autoline in Indiana, as Local 735; successful recruitment drives in North Carolina Local 150, West Virginia Local 170, and particularly Virginia Local 160, which in the past year added new chapters in the Tidewater region and Northern Virginia. Other locals have built the union through internal organizing within existing units, and Kingsley recognized Local 893's successes on this front.
Kingsley praised the 250 rank-and-file members who have assisted UE organizing in the past two years. But more of this is needed, he said. Working within the limits of UE's staff and finances, and even with help through fundraising for some of our workers' rights campaigns, the union will need even more commitment from our members to organize 2,000 additional members in the next couple of years. So the union is planning a nationwide spring organizing offensive in 2012, and will be asking all UE locals and members, and particularly the Young Activists, to help reach this goal. Kingsley then led the delegates in a refrain heard at some past UE conventions. "If you want justice on the job, build this union! If you want justice in society, build this union! If you want to say fight back when they say give back, build this union!" The delegates then took up the chant, "Build This Union!"
Kingsley next called to the stage members of Locals 208 and 1008 from the Vermont and California Service Centers. International Rep. Kim Lawson introduced two of the Vermont workers who had voted themselves into UE just five days earlier - Cheryl Grimm and Lynn Corbett. Corbett called herself "a proud Local 208 member and recovering 'no' voter." She'd been at the center for 15 years but had never gotten a raise, and described the hardships of having the employer - the contractors who run the center for the federal government - change every three to four years.
Field Organizer Fernando Ramirez introduced Julia Nguyen of Local 1008, who said how pleased her local is that the California Service Center in Laguna Niguel is now 100 percent union, as is the Vermont Service Center.
Peter Knowlton, Northeast Region president, came to the platform to introduce two of the Boston workers at Hertz who voted overwhelmingly, just three days earlier, to join UE. Jack King and Jimmy Collins said they and their co-workers were thrilled to be in UE. Kingsley proposed, and the delegates approved, the immediate issuance of a UE charter to these workers as UE Local 250, and they were presented with their charter.
International Rep. Mark Meinster introduced James Hill of Local 1177, who described the struggle and gains of the Renzenberger workers. Robert Hines, a warehouse worker, fired up the convention with his passionate report on the work of Warehouse Workers for Justice. "They say the meek shall inherit the earth," he said. "Well, I am hungry, and I can't feed my kids... We are fired up and ain't gonna take no more!"
Marie Lausch, Local 222, described the successful campaign of paraprofessionals in the Branford, CT schools to join UE. The vote was 74-5, and though none of the paras were able to attend the convention, several of them addressed the delegates via a video. Peter Borja, Local 1004, described his local's successful effort to add the workers in the medical records department to the local at Henry Mayo Hospital in California. A video of some of those workers, describing why they organized, was also shown.
Kingsley then called International Rep. Gene Elk to the stage to introduce members from new Local 165. He said for local President Bob Kunkle this was a homecoming; Bob was a member of Local 155 27 years ago, when his employer, Wells Fargo Security, was bought by ADT Tyco and the workers were absorbed into another union. But the other union was not democratic and responsive like UE, and Bob worked for years to bring his co-workers into UE, which he accomplished earlier this year with a unanimous vote to affiliate. His son Patrick, now vice president of Local 165, also spoke.
Kingsley introduced Bernice Delong, a leader of the independent union at Autoline in Butler, IN which last year voted to join UE for help in negotiating with a tough new corporate owner. "Once we got ahold of UE, it was a whole different ball game," and they defeated the worst of the company's concession demands.
The next organizing example was one of members of international solidarity -- a UE local helping the FAT to organize a Mexican plant owned by their employer. The employer is DMI, the UE local is 715, and the FAT had a long tough struggle when the company refused to recognize their win over a corrupt "charro" union. But the visit to the plant by Local 715 Vice President Pat Berry as part of a UE delegation to Mexico, and a petition and other pressure from Local 715 members, helped push the company to recognize and begin dealing with the FAT as the workers' union. Lenin Gonzalez of the FAT described the struggle. Pat Berry added, "I am very honored to be part of this. The company acts like they're doing a big favor by giving the workers shoes and a free meal. But when they're only paying them $8 a day, giving them a meal is the least they can do. We are willing to do whatever we have to do to help these workers."
Finally, Kingsley called delegates from the three Southern public sector locals to the stage - Locals 150, 160 and 170. International Rep. John Thompson introduced Donna Morgan, new president of Local 170, who pledged to double the membership in West Virginia in the next two years. Field Organizer Dennis Orton introduced James Okyere, a member of Virginia Local 160 originally from Ghana. He is part of the local's recent dramatic growth, and is proud of the union's commitment to fighting discrimination and injustice. His wife has experienced discrimination because she is African. Larsene Taylor introduced Mary Hart, president of Local 150's Murdoch chapter, which has also experienced major growth through organizing.
Delegates voted to approve both the Labor Law Reform and Organizing Plan resolutions, and the convention recessed for the evening. Delegates enjoyed an evening boat ride including dinner on Pittsburgh's three rivers.