Union Perspectives

What type of union person are you? Have you even thought about this? There is a theory put forth in 1956 by DL Tagliacozzo is that union members are broken into seven groups: 1. the ideological unionist; 2. the good union member; 3. the loyal but critical member; 4. the crisis activist; 5. the dually oriented member; 6. the card carrying or indifferent member; and 7. the unwilling unionist. In some cases the types tend to merge, making the count arbitrary at times, but on the whole most members fit into one of these seven categories. The ideological unionist is distinguished from the others by articulate, political and social philosophy. They will know and study union history, and be willing to consider personal sacrifices in order to strengthen the union. The good union member will protect and advance the union’s prestige and power. They will strike and walk picket lines when called upon. They are usually preferred by leaders when an office within the union is to be filled. The l

Young people who are not yet in the work place will get their first impressions of unions from sound bites or negative reports from anti-union sources like the Republican party and GOP corporations and the media they control. Labor is missing a lot of chances to educate potential members by putting a positive spin on what labor unions are and how they can help workers. Most of our public education system is taught by union teachers. They could tell their students indirect or innocuous stories about how unions have effected their lives and that of the students. For instance, a teacher/professor could say, something like, ‘union negotiations have kept class size down so that, as a teacher, I can have more time with each of those students who might need more help.’ Or, like I’ve heard, ‘Before our teachers unionized, I had to work a second job to make ends meet.’ Teachers could also incorporate labor history into U.S. history, such as when describing the Great Depression or how children

To be a labor organizer under the ‘slave labor act’ otherwise known as the Taft-Hartley Act of 1946, the ideal organizer should have the essential talents of a variety of occupational specialties. He or she should be part missionary, part salesperson, part politician, part counselor, part teacher, part psychologist while also being connected and be part lawyer. This is what is needed to be done. United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes ruled on the National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp 301. In his ruling, he said, “Long ago we stated the reason for labor organizations. We said that they were organized out of the necessities of the situation that a single employee was helpless in dealing with an employer that he or she was dependent ordinarily on his or hers daily wage for the maintenance of themselves and their family; that if the employer refused to pay him the wages that he thought fair, he was nevertheless unable to leave the employe

Our country could go from a democracy to a dictatorship if the Republicans take the House, Senate and Presidency starting on Tuesday and into the 2024 elections. If the Republicans win, we could conceivably lose all of our social services, Social Security, Medicare, right to unions, among others. Should the working people, retired and unions members just wait for this to happen or start planning on how to keep our democracy or return fully to it? We will need a strategy on how and what we need to do. But first, we must find the right-wing GOP’s Achilles Heel. The Classical Greek myth illustrates well the vulnerability of the supposedly invulnerable, the warrior Achilles. The myth states no blow could injure and no sword could penetrate Achilles’s skin. When still a baby , Achilles’ mother dipped him into the waters of the magical river, Styx, resulting in the protection of his body from all dangers. There was however, a problem. The mother held Achilles by his heel and the waters of t

Your unions are only as strong as your participation. All union members of all unions need to read and understand their union contracts , and the rules and regulations. They need to know all elected officials of their unions, local and national. Are your dues paid to the local or national union coffers? Also, where, exactly, do your union dues go? What are unions’ supporting or investing our dues in? Trust but verify. When and where are your union meetings held? When are the election of your officers? What elected jobs are there and what volunteer jobs are there in your union. What is happens if a union member is charged with a violation of union rules? What training is there for your union? When you have the answers to the above questions, then it’s time to learn about your union’s history and the labor movement. The good and the bad because you cannot defend your union if you don’t know all bout your union’s history and the history of the labor movement. Just like the Art of War

All union people should become an organizer when speaking to other working non-union people. For example, one of the most common misconceptions being said by non-union workers say is that they don’t want to pay dues to a union. This ignorance is why communication skills are so important. This person has bought into the misinformation that dues are used to promote the union and not for the workers’ retirement. One thing to keep in mind when speaking to other workers is the basic differences between the leader and the organizer. The leader goes on to build power to fulfill his or hers desires, to hold and wield the power for the purposes for both social and personal. He or she wants power for themselves. The organizer finds their goal in creation of power for others to use for their benefit. The organizer must be good at communication and be able to communicate with others, which takes place when the other person understands what you’re trying to get across to them if they don’t underst

Ignorance is the corporations’ biggest tool against the workers and uninformed. Employment at 4 percent to zero is good for the workers because workers can ask for more wages and benefits, and unions can ask for more and not worry about no one being able to find work if they lose their jobs. Unemployment at 5 percent to 10 percent is good for the corporations for the corporations would have a reserve army of labor force who are desperate enough to agree to whatever work at whatever wage they can receive. Unemployment plays a critical role in the capitalist system, preventing wage growth from threatening the profitability of the corporations. A tight labor market opens the best way for organizing unions, like Starbucks and fast food, and Amazon as well. According to former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, “Corporations tell us they have ‘no choice’ but to raise prices. Meanwhile: Corporate profit margins soared to their highest levels since 1950. Stock buybacks are expected to reac

California is first in labor again. Unions are back and have been driven by the low wage fast food worker. They fought hard for $15 an hour and it looks like, with the new California fast food law. They could be looking at $22 an hour, and a chance to unionize the enter fast food industry. Next step would be healthcare, pensions and vacation. If this happens California, the next states are Florida, Texas, New York and Idaho. In California, there are a half million fast food workers. This law targets bonafide abuses, but also furthers unions’ goals of collective bargaining with the entire industry instead of trying to organize fast food restaurants one at a time. Workers are now thinking about what is best for their families and are willing to fight for them and joining or forming a union is the best way, and the more that do the more will join for all like to be on the side of the winning team. But California unions now need to go out into the country. We have the large cities, but hav

Unions are making a comeback and have been driven by the low wage fast food workers, the ones who suddenly became essential workers during the pandemic. They recognized their worth and began the fight for $15-an-hour wages. It looks like with the new California fast food law, they could be looking at $22 an hour and a chance to unionize the entire fast food industry. The next stop would be vacations, healthcare and pensions. If this happens in California, the next states to follow would be Florida, Texas, New York, and Idaho. In California, there are a half million fast food workers. This law targets bonafide abuses, but also furthers union goals of collective bargaining with the entire industry instead of trying to organize fast food restaurants one at a time. Workers are now thinking about what is best for them and their families, and are willing to fight for them adjoining or forming unions is the best way to go. The more workers that join unions will join because people tend to fol

The sheet metal unions are losing the war against nonunion sheet metal shops: Local 36 lost five shops; Local 170 lost two; and Local 18 lost three. We should be adding union shops and members not losing them. Are sheet metal unions giving up on organizing union shops and acquiring new members? I live in northern California, specifically Shasta County, north of Marysville, in the jurisdiction of Local 104. There are now no union shops north of Marysville. The nonunion shops number about fifty to sixty shops and that is a lot of union work lost. We, in Shasta-Trinity counties, just passed a $138 million school and union college prevailing wage jobs and no union workers received any of the $138 million in jobs. I have never seen any union reps on the jobs, checking prevailing wages or talking to the nonunion workers about unionizing. It appears like sheet metal unions have just given up the entire northern section of California, where the nonunion shops will just get stronger and keep e

Unions are being organized at Starbucks, Amazon, Apple and elsewhere. Applications for union elections this year are on pace to approach the highest level in a decade. The people who are organizing are college students, who are taking jobs with the intention of organizing workers. Years ago, unions used college students to help with the groundwork in unionizing companies, and these individuals were referred to as “salts,” and their use as “salting.” This practice was started in the 1860s when the Rochester Trades used “salts” to organize construction jobs. The “salts” educated the less-informed and scared employees of how their work and bodies are being exploited to make the owners wealthy. Once a targeted company has been identified, a college student obtains employment with the company with the full intent of organizing it for a union. According to the National Labor Relation Board, it is illegal to fire a “salt” or refuse to hire a person who makes it know their intentions. Unions

If passed, Assembly Bill 257 would give the 725,000 franchise fast food employees real bargaining power. The Service Employees International Union is pushing this bill, which would give unions a foothold into the low wage, no benefits industry where unionization has long been elusive. California has been a proving ground for the unions’ efforts to advocate for low wage, no benefit workers. Los Angeles adopted a $15 an hour minimum wage in 2015, and the state followed suit in 2016. There has been some success as these workers wake up to the fact that they hold the true power in their jobs, without them, the franchise holders have nothing. At Starbucks, the employees are voting on unionizing at more and more stores across the country. The difference is, Starbucks is owned by one corporation that does not have franchises. The Assembly Bill covers franchised workers and gives these employees a direct voice with their employers. does have to answer to the National Labor Relations Board.

The only power the working class has is the power to produce wealth—for someone else. The unions’ purpose is to organize the workers to control the use of their labor so that they will be able to stop the production of wealth except upon terms dictated by the workers themselves. This can be done by just putting their hands in their pockets until their terms are met. It looks like the workers are now seeing that they can have unions and even workers at the big corporations, who pay low wages like Starbucks and Amazon. And the more wins there are the more will come for it’s not uncommon for people to want to be on the winning side. So, who will be next? Will it be Walmart, McDonald’s, or Tesla? There will never be a better time for workers in our life time to make gains for workers. The stars have aligned in the workers favor and we can credit the pandemic, which showed the weaknesses that company owners actually have; and in all adversity there can be opportunities to take advantage of,

The consequences of losing your county government to anti-government maga people is that, one: they don’t like or want unions in government jobs; they want to control all of the county jobs, such as the elections department, so they can get their hands on your ballots. They want to control the county school boards and the county school superintendent’s office and dedicate what is taught. They also want to control of the Shasta County District Attorney’s office and the Health Department. How can this be done? One way is just by buying the County supervisors with lots of money from outside our county. In Shasta County’s case, it was and is out of state money, which supported a recall of three supervisors, which were all Republicans members, but were not maga trump people. Two of these supervisors were not recalled, but have vowed not to run again and one was recalled, giving the maga supervisors a majority vote of three to two vote to fire the County’s Health Officer, and they will not

The dream of Eugene Debs and the rest of the old union warriors fighting for unions are back. The working people have awoken to the Have Nots and Have Littles and are willing to take on the big boys and win by just staying together and using the existing labor laws to their benefit, knowing the old union organizers bleed in their fight to achieve these protections. Six Starbucks stores in New York signed cards to unionize in the last two days and employees at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York put the first crack in giant’s shield by becoming the first warehouse to unionize. The working people, which some call the working poor, have seen that they can win and who does not want to be on the winning team? All unions need to be supporting each other for a win for one union is a win for all unions. This opportunity results in a life time of changes for the Have Nots and Have Littles. It did for me. Our union leaders at the AFL/CIO should not lose this momentum that we have at

Union Theological Seminary (UTS), thought to be a progressive institution that promotes racial justice and care for its workers, is being accused to union busting tactics against the security guards, who make $17 an hour living in New York. During the worst part of this pandemic, while other employees were hunkered down in the safety of their homes, the guards were expected to keep working to save the Seminary grounds. However, when the guards contracted Covid-19, the institution did not support them. One guard was hospitalized with his Covid and missed a month of work. He says the institution did not support him in any way, especially financially. The guards get one week of paid vacation, he was in the hospital four weeks. The guards were essential enough to remain on the job, but not essential when they inevitably became sick. Once healed, this guard began organizing his co-workers to unionize. His efforts paid off with a 95 percent return of signed cards, they can now petition to un

This is the best time in the last fifty years for the union people to get better contracts and for the nonunion workers to get their first union contracts. The stars have alined in the workers’ favor with unemployment at its lowest and lots of jobs not being filled. There are lots of jobs not being filled. There are lots of low-end jobs out there ready to be filled so now is the time for the $15 to $24 hour wage to be established. If employees don’t receive this then they should strike like the food workers—essential workers—at Ralph’s, Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions. The owners offered employees a 60 cent per hour increase. The workers want $5 per hour. This walk out would be grocery clerks, meat cutters, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. They are represented by seven locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union with 47,000 workers in all. Albertsons owns Safeway, which became unionized beginning in 1935. Despite Albertsons making better-than-expected qua

Finally the Building Trades have taken a look back at union history and have seen how union shops have started, which was mostly by union members who wanted to be their own boss. These people already knew what the union was about and knew the trade, and if treated properly, they’d become good union shops. One way to get a union sheet metal shop in their area is for workers to start their own shop. It’s not as hard as it might seem. I started out as a so-call shop boy and then I became a journeyman sheet metal worker. After gaining some experience a friend and I opened our own sheet metal shop. We did stripe malls, custom houses, housing tracts, and multi-story apartments. We were and stayed union and had good union workers. It’s not as complicated as it might seem. The person who hired me as a shop boy was a sheet metal worker and started his shop, True Temp in Ventura County. Then there was a shop started by a worker in Oxnard-Ventura County, and there were four shops started by sh

When Starbucks and Amazon go union they should have no crafts, the union contract should be one union for all Starbucks shops. But, if there are crafts, their contracts should end on the same date or there will be no power for them to weld and there will be no power for sympathy strikes. A crucial elements since Starbucks and Amazon have so many stores or warehouses throughout the United States, it is imperative that the different entities stay in contact with each other. The employees from both these businesses work hard, and they deserve the security of a union. The other way is to not have contracts, just sign a truce for a period of time. This could remedy some of mistakes in past years, such as the meat packing plants, which had 56 different craft union contracts. So, when the craft contracts expired at different times leaving the different crafts with no power and no help from the other unions within the same business. The same thing happened to the street car workers. First they