UE’s Western Region met the weekend of March 24 and 25 in Chicago. Delegates from Indiana to California gathered to share shop reports, assess what the economic and political situation of the country means for working people, and celebrate an organizing victory at the Frank D Lanterman Regional Center in Los Angeles.
Western Region President Carl Rosen gave an overview of political and economic developments on Saturday morning. “Donald Trump seems to dominate most aspects of our news these days,” said Rosen. “He’s bigger than life — but much of it is for show; the only things he and Congress are really getting done are things that help corporations at the expense of the rest of us.” Rosen outlined the Trump administration’s war on workers, including his appointment of anti-worker ideologues to federal positions created to defend workers’ rights, and how the new Republican tax law is benefiting shareholders more than workers by a 60-to-1 ratio.
Rosen also noted that although companies have been hiring, the modest economic growth we are seeing is in fact a continuation of the slow growth policies to put in effect by the Obama Administration. Corporate leaders and politicians are afraid the economy will grow too fast, said Rosen, and the Federal Reserve Board is raising interest rates to slow it down — “They want to keep some people unemployed so that our wages don’t go up much.”
Turning to the issue of tariffs, Rosen urged delegates to read the UE General Executive Board’s statement, “Workers Need an Industrial Policy Not Tariffs,” and pointed out that much of the job loss in the steel industry is due to automation, not imports. “To create demand for steel what is really needed is big-time infrastructure investment - roads, bridges, public transit - a major policy issue Trump promised but has accomplished nothing on.”
Rosen also spoke about the NAFTA renegotiations, noting that improving the rights and living standards of Mexican workers is the only thing that will stop the continued movement of jobs to Mexico and forced migration of working people across the border. He condemned the increasing nastiness of immigration enforcement under Trump, noting that making immigrant workers live in fear drives down living standards for all workers in the U.S. And he warned that Trump’s recent appointment of Iraq War architect John Bolton as National Security Advisor may indicate that Trump is considering following in the footsteps of many unpopular presidents before him in deciding that what they need to do to get popular is to have a war.
Rosen ended his remarks with the good news that the increasing resistance to the corporate agenda is “energizing a broad swath of Americans in opposition to the right.” He especially hailed the teachers’ strikes in West Virginia. He concluded "It's time to be more militant not less. Organizations of working people need to set the message, not just react to it. If you want a better society and way of life for yourself, for your children and your grandchildren, you need to be active now … we have a once-in-a-generation chance to push the pendulum mightily in the other direction.”
Organizing UE at Lanterman: “The Best Thing That Ever Happened”
Two leaders from UE’s successful organizing drive at the Frank D Lanterman Regional Center in Los Angeles addressed the council during the organizing report. Lanterman worker Fatima Anda shared a very personal story of the kind of abuse from management that led to workers organizing. Marc Baca told delegates that at Lanterman, “They have a pattern there where if they're going to fire you they start writing you up for the most ridiculous things.” Management was also enforcing ridiculous policies on the workers, such as “telling us when we could go home sick, and we would have to report to them eight hours ahead of time to let them know we were going to be sick.”
Organizing with UE has changed the environment in the shop. “Everyone tells me that they're very happy that I was very strong and they started calling me Dolores Huerta at work,” said Anda. “I want to really thank you guys for believing in us because we felt like no one did.” (Dolores Huerta was the co-founder, along with Cesar Chavez, of the United Farmworkers union.)
“People throughout this process have become more militant, they've lost that fear that they had,” said Baca. “This campaign essentially brought back the sisterhood and brotherhood that we used to have, the sense of family … it is the best thing that has ever happened at Lanterman.”
As Anda and Baca were telling their stories, UE members encouraged them that “we got your back” and that the kind of abuse they suffered was “not happening anymore, brother.” At the end of their presentation they received a standing ovation.
During the organizing report, delegates also heard from Bobby Frierson, who was a leader of the organizing committee at MTIL. As reported at the 2017 convention, MTIL management violated the law so egregiously prior to a scheduled election in December 2016 that the National Labor Relations Board issued an injunction ordering the company to bargain with UE, and MTIL workers are currently bargaining a first contract. MTIL workers "are going to win the battle where we started, and that's on the shop floor,” said Frierson.
National Union Reports
General President Peter Knowlton began his address by recounting UE’s history of fighting — and often having to make difficult decisions — to preserve democratic, independent, militant rank-and-file unionism. After membership losses due to raids from conservative, more business-friendly unions in the 1940s and 50s and deindustrialization in the 1980s, UE has aggressively organized workers in all sectors of the economy and is now a union that unites manufacturing, service and public-sector workers who “have a common belief that the future of workers should be in our own hands, and not in the hands of the bosses, the oligarchs, or the billionaires.”
He described UE’s evolving relationship with the Canadian union Unifor, like UE a “union for everyone” who believe in rank and file trade unionism. The UE-Unifor North American Solidarity Project has held two study group meetings, to discuss new approaches to organizing and political action, and is laying the groundwork for a joint campaign to hold General Electric accountable to its workers and communities.
Another area of joint UE-Unifor work is around the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Unifor has prompted the Canadian government to raise the issue of Mexican workers’ living standards and right to organize, and so-called “right-to-work” laws in the U.S., as obstacles to improving workers’ lives in all three NAFTA countries. UE and Unifor are working together with independent Mexican trade unions to keep the pressure on all three governments to negotiate a NAFTA that raises labor standards for workers in all three countries.
Knowlton also urged locals to get involved with Labor for Our Revolution, the labor wing of Our Revolution, and to investigate whether there are locals of other Labor for Our Revolution unions in their area — the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way (BMWE) and National Nurses United (NNU).
The council was also addressed by Director of Organization Gene Elk, who discussed the union’s new teams of dedicated organizers, who will be based in Pittsburgh and Chicago but will organize throughout UE base areas, and International Representative Mark Meinster, who is leading up the organizing teams. “We believe in a different world, where working people control the world, not the corporations. Where things are done to benefit people, not profits,” said Elk, and the way to get there is through organizing.
Shop Reports
Locals from across the region gave reports on conditions and struggles in their shops, including Local 1161’s recent contract negotiations, which President Sharry Niedfeldt reported won “the biggest wage increase we have ever gotten.”
Joni Anderson, Local 1107, reported that "It's been a continuous fight to get the company to honor the contract" at Freudenberg, but that the local held a really successful floor action. “We had a couple people that got sick, one was in the hospital. They both tried for a couple of days to get in touch with the company. The company didn't call them back, didn't feel it was important enough to treat these people with respect and dignity when they were in the hospital or under a doctor's care.”
When management disciplined the sick worker, “We went to the members. They signed a membership petition - 100% of the people signed this membership petition. ... It just really got the membership going.” Members made colorful posters for the union bulletin board and kept up the pressure until management relented and removed the discipline.
Jaclyn Carver of Local 896, which represents graduate employees at the University of Iowa, reported that "We have been trying to advocate and support students in not just issues that affect their employment but also issues that affect them as students." The University of Iowa, like other Iowa public-sector employers, can now legally refuse to bargain over most employment issues.
Local 1077 President Laura Johnson reported that her local had signed up 50-60 new members and is preparing for their upcoming national contract negotiations with Hallcon. Local 1177 President Larry Hopkins, whose local also represents Hallcon drivers, reported that in addition to preparing for contract negotiations they had won two termination grievances and were training four new stewards.
Julia Nguyen and Joel Faypon reported that Local 1008’s new employer, PAE, had wanted to take away health benefits from UE members but that by staying united and strong they had managed to not only keep all of their benefits but gained a little. Faypon reminded delegates that “the company is never our friend,” and reported that his local “almost never” loses anything and had recently passed a local dues increase with minimal objections, because their members understand the value of the union. Mary Anderson from Local 808, which also represents PAE employees, reported on a recent grievance victory where the local discovered the company had been using workers’ health and welfare benefits to pay for the company’s 401(k) contributions and bereavement leave, and put an end to that practice.
Sub-Regional Caucuses, Honoring Retiree and Elections
At the end of Saturday's session, local leaders broke into sub-regional caucuses to make plans for working together in the next few months. The Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota locals talked about how to support public-sector locals in Iowa; in the fall UE's public-sector locals in Iowa will face both the recertification elections required by Iowa's new anti-worker law and critical political elections for governor and state legislature.
Wisconsin locals discussed how to get involved in Our Revolution, a planned May Day march in Milwaukee, and made plans for a sub-regional educational event in May. Illinois locals discussed turning out members for the Illinois Subregional education event, which will be a day of the Labor Notes conference in April. They also made plans for May Day and discussed how to support the MTIL first contract fight and upcoming national negotiations with Hallcon.
Indiana locals discussed the fall sub-regional educational event, which will be held on October 14th at the Local 735 union hall in Butler, IN. Ideas for training focused on effective communication with members. California locals made plans for participating in May Day, and discussed how to support Local 1077 in their upcoming negotiations with Hallcon and also Lanterman workers' first contract struggle.
A reception and raffle Saturday night raised $2193 for the Western Region’s Member Action Fund, and on Sunday morning UE members heard more shop reports, as well as reports about members’ participation in the union’s international solidarity, political action and education work.
At the end of the council meeting on Sunday morning, the council honored long-time UE leader Karel Hoogenraad, who is retiring after 47 years as a member and leader of UE Local 1139 in Minneapolis. President Rosen praised Hoogenraad as "a very steady and thoughtful voice" in the union, who "has been a model for the rest of us, of what it means to really be union and really practice union solidarity." Retired Local 1111 President Bob Rudek, International Representative Greg Cross and Local 1110 President Armando Robles also offered tributes to Hoogenraad, who was presented with a plaque “in recognition of many years of leadership and selfless effort on behalf of UE members and all working people.”
The Western Region also conducted elections. President Carl Rosen, Vice President Becky Dawes, Local 893, and Secretary-Treasurer Charlene Winchell, Local 1121 were all re-elected. Delegates elected an executive board consisting of Joni Anderson, Local 1107, David Betsworth, Local 893, Ashley Clemons, Local 1004, Joel Faypon, Local 1008, Malik Grant, Local 1135, Lacey Harry, Local 808, Tim Holmberg, Local 1187, Larry Hopkins, Local 1177, Laura Johnson, Local 1077, Bryan Martindale, Local 1421, Justin Mikel, Local 770, Sharry Niedfeldt, Local 1161, Mike Plachy, Local 1139, Laura Szech, Local 896, and Teresa Willibey, Local 735. Delores Phillips, Local 1118, Jesus Rodriguez, Local 1172, and Carmine Ziccarelli, Local 1137 were elected as trustees, and Sheila Thompson, Local 893 was elected as alternate trustee. Becky Dawes and Bryan Martindale were chosen for the at-large seats for the General Executive Board.