Unions Forget Its History--Again

So, it appears my union, Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation (S.M.A.R.T.) Local 104, learned nothing from union history. Our district in California is having a special election Aug. 27th and there are four Republicans and one Democrat running. My union decided to back a Republican, a Republican who refused to sign a questionnaire of support for unions. A Republican who appears to have less experience and knowledge than the Democrat running. S.M.A.R.T. chose the wife of a Republican, who left this office for the state Senate. The flyer is sent out read: “Local 104 is proud to endorse Megan Dahle for Assembly. With Megan’s experience and understanding of state government she will hit the ground running. Megan and Local 104 are committed to bringing Apprenticeship opportunities to the North State as they rebuild after the devastating wildfires.” Dahle’s Republican husband, while in office, did nothing to bring apprenticeships to the North State, and, full disclosure, while I fully endorsed Brian in the last election because he was the lesser of two evils, I advocated endorsement of the Democrat, Elizabeth Betancourt, running this time as she has years of experience and contacts from working in Sacramento. According to the votesmart.org website: Megan’s experience includes: former co-owner of Big Valley Nursery. Her memberships include: former president Big Valley Joint Unified School Board. No education is listed. However, Betancourt’s experience includes: chief, Cannabis Permitting and Compliance Unit, Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, 2017 to present; legislative/policy coordinator, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, 2015-2017; consultant, Forsgren Associates, Incorporated, 2011-2015; program manager, California Urban Water Conservation Council, 2010-2011; and Watershed Coordinator, El Dorado Irrigation District, 2006-2010. Betancourt’s education includes: master’s in Forest and Source-Water Management, Colorado State University, 2004-2005; bachelor’s in Science and Resource Management, University of California, Davis, Her employment includes: founder of Redding Women’s March, 2017 to present; member of the Community Development Advisory Committee, City of Redding; director and vice chair of Western Shasta Resource Conservation District Board, 2015-2019; and trustee, Sacramento River Watershed Program, 2012-2016. While Dahle hasn’t yet filled out the questionnaire on the Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection website, Betancourt has. Her answers are as follows: What would be your top three priorities, if elected? Forest health and watershed investment. Access to better and more options in healthcare and education. Workforce development and jobs in rural communities. What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? Forest and watershed health is key to increasing investment in our rural communities while ensuring our community safety. I have worked for nearly two decades to improve forest health investment. These actions will also address climate change impacts and help us in being more resilient economically, environmentally, and as a community. Water supply and management is important to me, and is something that I've spent most of my career on. As California's through-Delta water conveyance is redesigned, having someone in Sacramento who knows the system, the issues, and the players is incredibly important. Rural access to healthcare and education is a huge component of our quality of life. We need more services, including mental health services, and we need to be thinking creatively about how those services are delivered. There are a number of community colleges in AD1, but no public universities. The state should be investing in our region as a place of innovation in forestry and lands protection, and should be helping to teach our children how to do this work and provide for their families, strengthening our rural communities. Workforce development and jobs are integral to community health. These would undoubtedly be strengthened by increased investment in our communities through forest and watershed stewardship and increased in-region educational opportunities. What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official? Authenticity Optimism Hard work and discipline Faith, dignity, and equity Conservation Responsibility of citizenship Rumor has it the head of one trade union is a friend of Brian Dahle’s and influenced S.M.A.R.T. to back a Republican over a Democrat. When will unions learn Republicans are not our friends and will screw unions over every chance they get because the GOP is hellbent on destroying anything and everything that makes life easier and better for the working person. A crash course in history gives us a couple of examples: Richard Nixon promised the unions, if elected, he would support the Common Situs Bill, legislation that would allow other unions to walk off the job in support of a striking union. During the course of Nixon being in office, the Teamsters and American Federation of Government Employees and the National Association of Letter Carriers had endorsed him in exchange for his support of those unions. He didn’t. This refusal prompted Hubert Humphrey, former senator and vice president of the United States, during an appearance at the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council convention in 1976, “And the recent seven sad years of the Nixon-Ford Administration have clearly demonstrated that Republicans are incapable of running the country in the interest of all the people. The Nixon-Ford team has been in charge since 1969. So, if there is a mess in Washington, it's their mess. If there are too many regulations, they wrote them. If no one is listening, its their ears that are plugged. “Republicans can't run away from 96 Nixon-Ford vetoes which say No! No! No! to the hopes and aspirations of the American people. And the Republicans cannot run away from their promise made in the heated days of 1968 that they would bring law and order to the Republic. “Instead, they brought lawlessness and corruption to the sacred precincts of the nation's highest office and crime in the streets has reached unprecedented levels! “The election of 1976 marks one of those historic moments in the history of American politics when the people will demand an accounting. I predict they will say, loud and clear, "No more, we've had enough.” “If we believe in work and a productive America, then our government must be committed to full employment that assures decent jobs at decent wages. Work, not welfare paychecks, not the dole. “For many reasons, the trust and confidence of the American people in their government has been seriously eroded. We are experiencing a crisis of confidence in our national leadership unprecedented in modern times ... and for good reason. “All of you know the sting and the hurt of a President who has gone back on his word, a President who vetoed vital legislation -- the Common Situs Picketing Bill -- after having promised you that he would sign it. A man that is not as good as his word is not good enough to be your President. “The time is at hand to use your vote to elevate to public office men and women whose word is a sacred trust, whose vision of America includes you and your families, whose commitment to the well being of America's workers is not a subject for public debate but a matter of public record.” Not much as changed. Some of you may be too young to remember the air traffic controllers debacle. In 1968, during Ronald Reagan's presidency, the controllers unionized as the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization or PATCO. The group wanted to be known as a professional association, but the U.S. Civil Service Commission ruled in 1969 that PATCO was, in fact, a union Working under tremendously stressful conditions, the workers went on strike in August 1981 seeking better working conditions, better pay and a reduced hourly work week because keeping airplanes from crashing into each other can be a bit nightmarish. What they got instead was fired. Reagan, who was president at the time, declared the strike a “peril to national safety” and ordered them back to work using the Taft-Hartley Act. It was decided the union had violated Title 5 of the U.S. Code that prohibits government employees from striking. Before crushing the workers, Reagan read the following justification for firing the PATCO workers, “‘Let me read the solemn oath taken by each of these employees, a sworn affidavit, when they accepted their jobs.’ ‘I am not participating in any strike against the Government of the United States or any agency thereof, and I will not so participate while an employee of the Government of the United States or any agency thereof.’” When PATCO workers refused to return to work, it was fined $1,000 a day organized replacement workers and started contingency plans. Flights were prioritizing and cut severely, and methods that PATCO had previously advocated for were. On August 5, when PATCO workers still refused to return to work, Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers and banned them from federal service for life. This was the gratitude Reagan, a Republican president, showed the union that had supported and endorsed his candidacy for president.