Union Perspectives

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 endo...

Unions need to study labor history and reboot using the lessons learned by what has worked and not worked. Labor must only support people who are trusted-worker friendly and be very careful not to make mistakes, such as some labor leaders did when they supported Ronald Reagan. The records of some of our presidents: Abraham Lincoln valued organized labor; Grover Cleveland sent the Army to suppress labor movements; Harry Truman challenged the right to strike on the coal and steel mines, and railways; Lyndon Johnson acted on issues of the work-place safety. Reagan, an FBI rat known as #T-10, destroyed the air traffic controllers union, PATCO. This union and many others have never fully recovered at this time. The wage slaves, have nots, have little, and used to have are forging a comeback, but even so, we still have some reluctant workers who are still slow to step up to the plate. To those people, they must remember this poem by Martin Niemoller: “First they came for the communists, an...