King County Labor Council

Labor's Voice
Spring 1999

Your "Right to Organize"
Workers everywhere are struggling just to get by. Many are turning to unions for help. Today’s labor laws are slanted so heavily in favor of employers that the right to form a union, recognized around the world as a basic human right, has all but disappeared from the American workplace. Law-breaking bosses lock out workers who are organizing, harass and fire union supporters, delay union votes and deny workers their voice.

In response, the King County Labor Council adopted a plan of action on March 17th to begin to re-establish a worker’s right to organize (RTO). Within one week, the labor movement in King County put elements of the plan into action to support 24 construction truck drivers who were locked out by their employers.

To understand the significance of the right to organize movement, it’s important to understand that the labor movement has undergone a pretty major overhaul over the past few years. In 1997, local union members and community allies launched Union Cities to rebuild our labor movement from the grassroots. Union Cities challenged us to educate and activate our members, unite with community allies and launch more ambitious, large-scale organizing campaigns.

Now, nearly two years later, we are building on the base of Union Cities and focusing increasingly on specific ways we can fulfill the commitments that we, as a labor community, made when we signed on two years ago. Many of the elements of Union Cities focus on organizing, so here at the King County Labor Council we’ve been busy pulling people together to work on ways we can expand our membership base to increase the power of the labor movement and, most importantly, the power of our members.

In partnership with the national AFL-CIO, the King County Labor Council has launched Seattle Union Now (SUN), an organizing project which focuses resources here in King County on developing a support system for local and international union organizing campaigns. King County unions are mounting more organizing drives and infusing them with remarkable amounts of energy, thanks in part to the efforts and support of SUN and its staff.

The adoption of the Right to Organize plan in March brought us one step closer to becoming a true Union City. Organizers and activists, elected union leaders and key community and religious allies came together on February 12th to develop the plan in an all-day session that was attended by over 100 participants. They worked together to strategize and brainstorm toward the final goal of assembling an RTO plan to guide our organizing work in the years ahead.

They agreed on two major goals:

1.) Establish and develop the Right to Organize as a commonly recognized civil right, and

2.) Develop workers’ power by mass union organizing in King County.

Listed steps to achieve these goals include building community support, mobilizing members, forging ties with community groups, focusing the media on the plight of workers and gaining political support. KCLC delegates unanimously backed the RTO plan at their March 17th meeting, adopting steps and timelines to establish rapid response teams, bring together activist databases and expand the Workers Rights Board.

According to Ron Judd, KCLC Executive Secretary, the RTO plan has the potential to revolutionize the way we think about and carry out organizing drives. "As we implement our Right to Organize plan and customize its elements to fit individual campaigns, I’m confident that our goal of organizing more workers and giving them a voice on their jobs and in their communities will be successful."

Together with Jobs With Justice and our community and religious allies, we will continue to build a strong voice for King County’s working families.

SUN: Organizing on the rise!
When drivers at three Seattle-area construction firms started to organize a union in March, their bosses defiantly locked them out, threatening to close up shop in retaliation, then tried to hire scabs to replace the workers.

The 24 drivers at Gary McCann Trucking, T-Max Construction and Silver Streak Construction (all con-trolled by the McCann family) have been forced out on the picket line for exercising their right to organize.

With the coordination of Seattle Union Now (SUN), the labor community has rallied around these workers. In the first two weeks of the lock-out, activists, led by the Building Trades, have engaged in activities that have effectively stopped the company in its tracks:

• The labor community put together a "rapid response" rally on 24 hours’ notice that drew 125 activists.

• Locked-out workers and supporters established roving pickets, following the scab trucks around. Union construction workers exercised their right to honor the picket lines, preventing the scab trucks from doing their work.

• TOPS Building Trades organizers leafleted union construction sites, informing members about the struggle and their right to honor picket lines.

• The Building Trades, the King County Labor Council and the King County Labor Agency all helped with financial assistance for the workers.

"This is exactly the situation we envisioned when we adopted our Right to Organize plan," said KCLC Executive Secretary Ron Judd. "These workers played by the rules. They asked for their basic rights and they got the door slammed in their faces."

According to Jonathan Rosenblum, SUN director and lead organizer, this is not the only campaign SUN is helping to coordinate.

SUN Mobilization Organizer Louis Harris and Jobs with Justice Organizer Rosalinda Aguirre have been mobilizing picket line support for striking Civic Light Opera musicians, who were forced to strike for union recognition late last year. Picketing in February deterred many would-be theater-goers.

SUN organizers have been working to support SEIU’s campaign at Medalia Healthcare, a Catholic-operated clinic system. SUN’s Community Outreach Organizer Craig Shimabukuro and Organizing Intern Mary Tran-Thien, with JWJ’s Aguirre, are organizing church support for the workers, including a mass on May 1st.

Shimabukuro and KCLC Union Cities Organizer Verlene Wilder have been garnering political support for the Medalia workers. More than 60 elected officials have written letters to Medalia in support of the workers. Snohomish County Labor Council Executive Secretary Mike Sells has also collected letters of support from elected officials in Snohomish County.

CWA’s campaign to organize high tech workers is advancing, with more workers joining WashTech every week. Tran-Thien assisted WashTech organizers in spon-soring a forum for women and people of color in the high tech industry.

Port truck drivers are organizing a union with Teamsters Local 174. SUN Research Organizer Julie Farb and Organizing Intern Hop Hopkins, with the KCLC Worker Center’s Phil Tomescu, have been surveying truck drivers and developing materials to support a public fight for workers’ rights on the waterfront.

In March, SUN Training Organizer Jackie Van Anda, in tandem with staff from the AFL-CIO’s Organizing Institute, conducted a three-day organizing training for union members and community activists that was well-attended and may lead the way for more local trainings.

SUN Communications Organizer Gretchen Donart has been supporting the campaigns with literature and press materials. She has also been working with SEIU’s Childcare Union Project and other unions on media training.

On the administrative side, Lee Kane manages the SUN office, located at 2505 Third Ave. in Seattle. You can contact SUN staff at 206-956-0494.

Dreaming about a home of your own?
Last spring, the King County labor movement announced the Homeownership Opportunity Initiative, a unique affordable mortgage program that helps union families and municipal workers buy homes in this area. The program is sponsored by the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust.

Local homebuyers will benefit from $25 million of the $250 million ear-marked for this 14-city national initiative over the next three years. The money will help moderate-income union members and government workers to purchase existing homes in King County by providing an attractively tailored mortgage financing package. Lower down payments and reduced monthly payment costs work together to make purchasing a home more affordable.

Program features include a down payment as low as 3% of the purchase price, with a maximum down payment of 5%. The Initiative offers relaxed qualifying criteria, savings on mortgage insurance, reduced loan fees and closing costs and a rate "buy down" that reduces mortgage payments by half a percentage point during the first five years. These features can increase purchasing power for a union member by as much as $37,000. The maximum mortgage loan offered by this initiative is Fannie Mae’s limit of $240,000.

Continental Savings Bank also has a program to assist with down payment and closing costs for families with incomes under $60,000 for a 1-2 person household and $70,000 for a household of three or more.

"Union members now have an exceptional opportunity to become homeowners through this initiative," says Ron Judd, KCLC Executive Secretary. "It makes home buying more affordable for people who might not qualify for a traditional mortgage loan. We’re proud to help bring this innovative program to King County’s working families."

The program in Seattle is a partner-ship between the King County Labor Council, the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, the City of Seattle, Fannie Mae and Continental Savings Bank, who is handling the mortgage applications. Interested persons should call the Hometown Lending Center of Continental Savings Bank at
206-628-0207.

News from our affiliates
APALA event to honor workers: On May 27th, the Seattle chapter of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) will be hosting Asian Pacific Workers: Our Past, Our Future. This will be an event highlighting the accomplishments of Asian Pacific American workers in the Pacific Northwest.

Isangmahal, the Filipino Arts Collective, is developing a multi-media performance and will also perform some original works based on the experiences and struggles of these workers. Kent Wong, founding president of APALA and director of the UCLA Labor Center, will speak about current working conditions of Asian Pacific American workers. He will also discuss the right to organize and the role that we can play in ensuring that the voices of these workers are heard.

The event will take place from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Asian Resource Center (10th & King Street) in Seattle’s International District. Call Cathy at 206-624-7184 for more information.

Sound Ford signs on with IAM: Sound Ford in Renton was organized in September 1997 by IAM District Lodge 160. Contract talks began in February 1998, with union and management representatives meeting regularly over the next few months to hammer out a first contract.