Labor Day During the Pandemic of 2020: Hoping for the Best While Preparing for the Worst

I was asked recently, What does Labor Day mean to me, and does it still have significance in 2020?  

What a question.  

What we are watching today is precisely what Labor Day calls upon us to remember: The Great Struggle.

Whose struggle?  

Everyone's struggle.  The Great Rainbow of Struggle embraces all colors, and shines brightest when pushing the edge of a thunderstorm.  There, too, one finds the Lightning and Thunder.  

The Reverend Dr. King spoke of the Great Intersection of Race and Economics.  We have since seen many intersections crop up, anywhere people combine the various flavors of humanity into their self-identification, and anytime others choose to judge those identities.  Indeed, it is intersections all the way down, but the Great Intersection of Race and Economics is one we all must navigate.

Labor Day?  Labor Day celebrates the crossing guards patrolling this perilous environment.  Labor Day honors those who did not survive the crossing. Labor Day retells the tales of those who blocked the traffic. Labor Day recalls what lies across the street: a better world, made possible if only we can survive this intersection.  Cross it we must!

Rules have been written to clearly mark the crosswalk, who has the right of way, and make sure it is sufficiently well lit during the darkest hours of our lives.  Those rules get forgotten or ignored.  The lights burn out.  We pay the price.

And in 2020, we are watching the same forces, Race and Economics, play out with the same violence it always chooses.  Not along party lines, though it looks that way if you are incurious.  This breaks clearly along class lines.  They don't want us to see the class lines, they want us only to see the color lines.  Or to argue the party lines.  Don't be fooled, it is all about class.  Don't be fooled, the violence comes to us.

There are many movements in Labor, historic and contemporary, that are non-violent, and honorable they are in their intent, but our history tells a darker tale.  Our progress and victories can be measured in obituaries and in families (and communities) torn apart.  We exercise our rights, we pay the price, and we get the blame.  They remind us they would not have to hit us, if we would just remember our place.

Everything we have gained in the Labor Movement involved violence; including property damage, and economic interruptions.  Everything was secured through a promise to end the violence.  But the violence returns every time this lesson is forgotten.  Watch closely where the violence starts.  N'oublie pas l'agent provocateur.

For Labor Day 2020, we are watching the marginalized communities remind the System that they, too, are struggling.  That they, too, have rights.  We would be wise to support those in the throes of their moment in the Great Struggle.  Because it is our Struggle too, and the violence will be close to follow; violence to remind the rest of us to stay quiet.  For violence is the only thing the Dogs of Racism know.

It is up to the rest of us to mind the rules of the crosswalk, to ensure we are not the reason others fall in the Great Intersection of Race and Economics.  Their turn to cross the Great Intersection does not diminish our share, we must help them pass safely, and not be the reason they fall short.  There is more than enough to go around and we are all in this together.

Utah's Laws Do Not Protect Utah's Workers

Safety Enforcement Coddles Employers

I have personally witnessed scaffolding fail, while workers and their supplies were on them.  This meant two men, buckets of mortar, bricks and decorative stones, and all the tools, went tumbling at least nine feet onto a paved driveway.  In Utah, if either had died, odds are nobody would have been fined.  Because, as Chris Hill, the acting director of Utah Occupational Safety and Health (UOSH) explains, “We’re not issuing punitive damages on these citations” and he doesn’t feel heftier fines would increase worker safety.

The Salt Lake Tribune, partnering with The Utah Investigative Journalism Project, ran this story examining Utah’s alternative to the more effective (though arguably still toothless) federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA).  The highlights?

• Utah struggles to meet the safety standards of OSHA
• UOSH just recently wrote the first procedural policy hand book
• UOSH is woefully underfunded and too understaffed to protect the 1.3 million Utahns working at the 92,000 businesses in Utah
• In UOSH’s 20 years of enforcement, the workplace fatality rate has remained unchanged

UOSH is a failure

In two decades, UOSH has rejected the proven deterrent of economic penalties.  There has been no noticeable reduction in work place fatalities. One can conclude the only tangible achievement has been writing its policy book of procedures, which was completed this January. 

RTW increases work place fatalities

To make matters worse for working Utahns, this is a Right to Work (RTW) state, which weakens the influence of unions.  In response to increasing popularity of unions in the mid 20th century, laws were passed that allowed states to “free” workers from the "tyranny of unions," and afford them the “Right to Work” union jobs, enjoy union benefits, and exercise their union protections, without actually paying their union dues.  70 years later, half of the states in the US have enacted these laws, and the results could not be more predictable: Fatality rates are higher in RTW states.

In addition to more accidents and deaths, states with RTW laws have depressed wages, reduced health care benefits, increased infant mortality, spend less on education, and have larger populations of working class poor.  

These RTW laws, always billed as necessary to attract business and keep or create jobs, do not actually deliver on that central promise.  In fact, virtually every aspect of RTW laws works against what “pro-business” advocates claim they need, except low wages.

National RTW will only kill more workers

Currently, the sole force buoying workers in RTW states like Utah, are the neighboring Free States that require either full union membership for those enjoying the benefits and services, or at least a fair share contribution to fund the Local unions administering the contracts.  A push is underway for a National Right to Work law to extend these union weakening laws to the remaining states.  Union membership is less than 7% of the US Workforce.  Despite the long list of rather urgent national needs, Congress' top priorities include NRTW.  

Unions are the only viable solution

We have forgotten our Union roots.  There are two groups who get targeted by Big Money: those who organize, and those who educate.  RTW laws expose workers to death and injury, lower wages, and decrease access to meaningful health care.  This leads to higher poverty and illness in the community, which increases infant mortality, crime, and suffering.  Those states with more influential unions not only experience lower rates of these social ills, but they also invest more in education, have healthier children, and can attract those employers who value stable workforces, and strong communities to raise healthy and well educated children.  To leave no rock unturned, RTW states are also notorious for lax environmental regulations, and have higher bankruptcy rates.  This is sold as the “pro-business” mentality.

Union Organizer’s perspective

Every organizing campaign has a life or death element lurking right under the surface.  Unions are the only force protecting these workers and the general public.  Every time a group of frustrated workers approaches Utah’s Teamsters Local 222 for help organizing, I hear the same nightmarish tales:  

• Faulty hoses spraying acidic solutions into someone’s face.  
• Hauling two 45 foot long trailers in windy and snowy conditions (despite clear laws requiring the driver to drop the last trailer), because the boss can punitively force the drivers to work unpaid on their days off to catch up.  
• Workers are afraid to call attention to unsafe conditions for fear of retaliation

The UOSH article should be a wake up call for our community.  These workers are our neighbors.  Their inability to protect themselves impacts Utah in many ways.  Please read this fantastic article by Eric Peterson for the Tribune, and understand how far reaching these “outdated” issues are.

Pensions, Retirement and Committee Bargaining

Greetings!

After much dragging of feet, UTA has finally fulfilled their court ordered obligation to furnish contact information to Teamsters Local 222 for the purpose of communicating with you directly. We shall see if their email filters foil our communication attempts.

If this is the first communication you have received from Local 222, then we invite you to review past communications at this LINK.  Those posts (Local 222 Responds & Common Concerns) respond to the main issues raised in the UTA meetings, and related questions.  UTA Drama responds to the statements of Rebecca Smith.  It is admittedly a little dramatic, but Madam Smith is a lot dishonest (and expensive!)  Parity & Clarity offers a look at what Unions have to offer in celebration of Labor Day.  

But there are some lingering concerns regarding the URS pension and retirement.  This needs to be cleared up:

1) Protecting your retirement is a core value of Local 222;

2) These concerns are being stoked by UTA’s anti-union presentation and are not supported by facts.

First, if you are vested in the URS Pension today, you are vested in it until you retire.  I cannot stress this enough: Local 222 cannot take your public pension away from you!

Nor do we want to.  We want it preserved, and ideally we would like to add to it by providing additional retirement options.  We want all of our members to retire with the most security possible and the URS Pension is a healthy fund.

Second, Local 222 participates in the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension.  All of the horror stories being presented about failing Teamster Pensions address a different fund, in a different region.  “Consultants” presenting pension “facts” to you are talking about the Central States fund, NOT the Western Conference.  It is a false comparison, and an attempt to discredit our success in the West while misinforming you. 

Third, the contract negotiation process that we utilize is a committee bargaining strategy based off of proposal or demand meetings.  This means the proposals for your contract come from you.  They are presented in negotiations with members from your work group sitting on the Union negotiating committee.  When a contract is tentatively agreed upon by the negotiating parties, it is brought back to you, explained, discussed, and then voted on.  At Local 222 we do not force our members to accept contracts; it is your contract, it is your decision.

Another concern brought to our attention is the provision to maintain the status quo during negotiations.  This provision protects recently organized workers from unilateral changes made by the employer, usually retaliatory in nature. The key term here is unilateral.  Local 222 is in full support of maintaining annual raise schedules during the negotiation stages of our contracts.  Local 222 does not block regular annual pay raises while a group in is negotiations.  

The goal of organizing is to bring rights and protections into the work place for employees to exercise and enjoy.  Rights that would otherwise not exist; protections you do not have today.  Local 222 has fought to gain you access to these rights and would be honored to continue fighting for you.  UTA has fought this opportunity every step of the way.  Is UTA fighting to help you? 

In Solidarity, 

The Alley Cat

PS - The SL Trib is now on the scene

Parity & Clarity

In Celebration of Labor Day 2016, I offer UTA Supervisors a list of the positive reasons to join a union, since there has been some question as to the benefit of joining a union:

Better wages and benefits

Across the board, Union workers typically enjoy:  

Higher wages (27% in 2014);  

Access to employer provided health insurance (94% of Union members vs 65% of nonunion);

Insurance they can afford to use;  

The ability to choose between being sick and keeping their job.

Real Retirement options

Pensions provide monthly retirement benefits, called defined benefits, for life. Whether it is the Western Conference of Teamsters Fund, or Utah Retirement Systems, etc, pensions guarantee income for workers after their careers have ended. 

Early Retirement plans give workers a choice to retire after 30 year career while they are still healthy enough to enjoy retirement.

Early Retirement Insurance covers health insurance for the years between early retirement and Medicare coverage.

Supplemental Retirement Strategies such as 401(k)s, Social Security and other similar defined contribution plans were never designed to be the primary engine for retirement.

Retirement security is the leading concern facing aging workers.  Pensions have traditionally been the best defense against elderly poverty. 

Contractual Protections:

Contracts provide protections most workers only dream about by negotiating working conditions.

Progressive Discipline and Cardinal Infraction language defines the rules in clear and consistent terms.  

Protected Language allows workers to freely express their opinions and observations regarding important topics like safety without fear of retaliation.  

Protected Work Rules do not change when a new manager takes over a work group.  

Due Process gives everyone a chance to plead their case.  

Union contracts provide protection from retaliation and intimidation, including retaliation for union activity or exposing safety concerns.  Not all work environments suffer from abusive managers, but jobs without union contracts have absolutely no protections.  A contract provides a structure to address these concerns quickly and without extra cost to the employee.  

Union contracts ensure equality and transparency.  Pay scales are consistent across skill levels, and are transparent across the board.  Workplace discrimination is outlawed across the country, but justice is slow in the legal world.  Union contracts put everyone on the same playing level.

A union contract gives workers a voice at the work place.  It is up to those workers how they choose to use their voice, but however they express themselves, Union Workers enjoy the greatest level of protected speech in the work place.  Here at Local 222, we think that is a critical protection, after all, it is the FIRST Amendment of U.S. Constitution.

One more link:

36 Reasons to thank Unions

UTA Drama: A Two Act Play with Monologue

The Role of a Union Buster

A Drama

Starring the illustrious Madam Rebecca Smith, and her inglorious Teamster career.

Act I: The Hero and Villian 

Scene I:  The Honorable Withdrawal Card - In addition to offering her Tax Filings, Madam Smith presents, for your inspection, her Honorable Withdrawal Card from Teamsters Local 631.  Madam Smith’s opening presentation is an attempt to win your trust, after all, she’s Honorable.  But she was escorted out of Local 631, without honor, in 2007.  We call it getting fired. 

Scene 2:  The Evil World of Unions - Powerful Unions (remember earlier in these meetings unions were shrinking and desperate) and their fake Democracy (one member, one vote), are deaf and indifferent to the needs of their members.  Before negotiations, Teamsters take a strike vote, it gives the Union leverage.  But then in negotiations, there is no leverage, it is all horse trading.  

Madam Smith needs to choose a line of lies and stick with it.  Union Officials only have power through the Solidarity of their members.  When every worker in a group stands together there is real power, but it is their power.  

The Teamsters consider the Union to be a Democracy because it IS a Democracy: One Member, One Vote, and we vote on everything.  At Local 222 we are also proud of our transparency.  We have hosted multiple meetings for interested Supervisors and at each meeting we have made available our Finances and our By-Laws.  We have nothing to hide, we do not need to conduct our business behind closed doors.

In the last three organizing campaigns and their contract negotiations, there has only been one conversation on striking, and those members chose this informational picket instead.  A solid show of unity and common cause throughout the work force is a much stronger form of leverage.  It is a leverage that allows negotiators to win better contracts without horse trading.  Leave it to Madam Smith of Nye County Nevada to mistake good faith bargaining for horse trading.  

Act II:  The Feint

Scene 1: Assessments - The Great Hidden Fees Lie! There are no hidden fees.  Local 222 charges members who cannot strike monthly dues of 2.25X hourly rate, plus $1.  $50 Initiation fees are waived for newly organized units.  There are $55 re-initiation fees if your membership lapses.  Local 222 has not levied assessments for arbitration costs, organizing costs, legal costs, or negotiation costs.  

Scene 2: Retirement - The Great Failing Union Pension Lie!! For Madam Smith to talk to potential Utah Teamsters about the Central States Pension fund is beyond the pale.  Madam Smith explains a pension fund for a different region.  If she spoke honestly about the pension fund covering Utah (and Nevada) she would tell you about the Western Conference of Teamsters, and how it is the best funded Union pension in this country.  There is no possible way for any UTA Supervisor to participate in the Central States Pension and Madam Smith knows this.  

Scene 3: Politics - Your Dues Will Go To Politicians!!!  No dues money ever goes to politics in Local 222! We have a political action committee (PAC) that is a VOLUNTARY contribution.  None of your dues money goes to politics, and Madam Smith knows this.

Scene 4: Strike Fund - Your Dues Will Pay For A Strike Fund You Can Never Use!!!!  This is a complete lie.  UTA Supervisors will be assessed 2.25X hourly rate, + $1.  Those who can strike are assessed 2.5X hourly rate, + $1.  That 0.25 hour difference is the strike fund; if you cannot strike, you do not contribute to the fund.  Madam Smith just cannot control herself when there are lies to tell.

The Soliloquy

{Madam Smith, alone on stage, delivers her Most Profound Monologue of Manure}

Thou Art A Supervisor! 

She declares you have the authority to Hire and Fire.  

She declares you would never be considered for her Local.

Reading from the actual By-Laws of Local 222, Madam Smith declares you will be barred from participating in Local 222.

 {The Stage goes dark}

“They don’t even really want you” she whispers. 

The Curtain Falls

Bravo!!

What drama!

What presentation!

What a performance!

What a load of crap.

Why don’t you just tell the truth, Madam?

At Local 222, we respect the truth, and it galls us to watch Madam Smith prostitute it out for her personal gain.

Local 222 values every worker’s right to receive Respect and Dignity at their place of work, which is why we fight for you and your right to join a union.

And for 2 1/2 years, UTA has fought you every step of the way.

Common Concerns for UTA Meetings

Common Concerns raised in the First Few Weeks

As a standard strategy there will be a lot of misinformation generated by any employer during the organizing campaign.  The less familiar you are with Unions in general, the easier it is to keep people fearful.  Here are the five most asked questions of this campaign:  

1. Retirement - The pension that UTA Supervisors pay into now, if you meet the vesting requirements, is your pension.  The only threat to that pension is the Utah State Legislature.  Those funds exist independently of this organizing campaign.  When it comes time to discuss retirement and the contract, the goal moving forward will be set completely by the UTA Supervisors.  If the group wants to remain in, and contribute to, the current pension, then that is what will be proposed in negotiations.  If the group wants to try a different direction, or multiple directions, then that will form the base of our proposals.  Local 222 is not raiding the existing pension’s funds, and if you are vested, then those funds paid to date are yours.
2. Relations with Management - Several comments have been made about how the relationship will change between the Supervisors and those in charge.  Doors may remain open, you are told, but you will not be able to settle any issues without the union.  Or worse, it is against the law for those in charge to deal with Supervisors directly.  Or that all communication between workers and managers must go through shop stewards.  At best, this is a misunderstanding of Direct Dealing laws.  More likely it is an intentional misrepresentation of Direct Dealing.  If a union worker has an issue that needs to be “dealt” with, and they take it “directly” to their boss, this is NOT Direct Dealing.  It is, in fact, what virtually all Teamster contracts require as the first step in resolving any disagreement or issue.  If you have to speak to your employer, you go and speak to them. The Direct Dealing that is outlawed in collective bargaining is an employer trying to make changes to the labor agreement by circumventing the union and negotiating contractual issues with the employees, directly.
3. Do we have direct control over how Local 222 spends the dues money? The fact is you have total control over whether or not you even pay dues.  In Utah, through Right-to-Work laws, you are legally entitled to enjoy all the contractual benefits and protections without ever paying a single penny in dues.  Even if you require active representation, you do not have to pay dues, nor any fees, to the Local.  You get it all for free.  For those who chose to pay dues, any purchase or sale of the Local’s assets over $5,000, needs to be approved by the Executive Board, the elected officers of the Local.  Any purchase or sale of assets over $10,000 needs to be approved directly by the membership.  Every monthly financial report must be reviewed and approved by both the Executive Board and the members in the General Membership meetings.  
4. First contracts can take over a year to negotiate - Yes, this is true.  First contracts require starting from nothing more than the current practices and moving forward.  Two of the last three units to organize saw their first contract ratified between 12 and a18 months.  The third is still in negotiation and has just passed the 12 month mark with negotiations scheduled through October, 2016.  It is important to get contracts done right, not done right now.
5. Dues, Fees, and Assessments - For this group, since strikes are outlawed, the dues rate is 2.25X Hourly Rate per month.  Assessments in Local 222 are $1/month.  Fees, namely initiation fees, are $50 for a full time employee, $25 for part time employees.  For newly organized units, the initiation fees are waived.  Lapsed membership can generate fees.

If you have other questions, anonymously post them below.

Britt Miller

Business Agent and Organizer

801.972.1898 ext 17

Britt@TeamstersLocal222.org

Local 222 Responds

We’ve been kind of quiet during the first half of the anti-union meetings conducted at UTA; we wanted to give UTA a chance to present its position clearly.  

And they have.  Clearly, they have no interest in seeing the UTA Supervisor Ranks join the Teamsters.  Clearly, they are willing to bend the truth and spend the money to stop this campaign.  Clearly they realize the stakes are high, even while nonchalantly dismissing this campaign as a trifle, a waste of effort, or of little consequence.

On the surface you are being presented a kind and understanding face, sympathetic to the frustrations you may be experiencing at UTA.  A friendly leader, urging you to seek out the truth, and be thoughtful and prudent in your conclusions.  Whether you feel you have a positive relationship with your employer or a negative one, UTA is not being truthful with you.  

UTA is bombarding you with lies, half-truths, and intentionally misleading statements to encourage you to choose against the strong representation possible through a Teamsters contract.  If there were truly no benefits in joining a Union, there would be no need to have extended conversations.  UTA is spending a lot of money to prevent this campaign from being successful, and they have fought your rights to organize every step of the way.  That is a lot of effort to put into something silly.

Why?

What is UTA afraid might happen?

Why is UTA hiring dishonest “consultants” who openly and freely tell lies?

What does this strategy say about respect at UTA?  

What does this strategy say about the value placed on you as en employee?

We wanted to give UTA the opportunity to take the high road and appeal to your concerns and address your issues.  But they have not.  Supervisors have been asking questions, only to be told people with answers will be around next week, but first listen to how awful unions are.  Simple issues continue to go unaddressed. 

Local 222 will now directly address issues.  For the next two weeks, Local 222 will provide links to specific issues that have been raised by not only the Supervisors, but also UTA Brass and the anti-union presenters.  Links are great because you only read what you choose.  If you do not wish to be contacted by us, just tell us so and you’re off the hook.

If you would like to contact us directly, feel free:

Britt Miller

Business Agent and Organizer

801.972.1898 ext 17