King
County Labor CouncilKing
County Labor Council
Williamson
joins KCLC as former executive secretary Judd moves on
Ron Judd said goodbye to the King
County Labor Council on May 31st. After seven years as our executive
secretary, Ron has moved on to his new role as director of the AFL-CIO Western
Region Field Mobilization Department.
Steve Williamson from Teamsters Local 174 was appointed on June 7th to act as interim executive secretary until the regular election of officers and executive board members in September. Brother Williamson brings with him many years of experience working within the labor movement. He has worked with the Teamsters since 1995 and previously organized for SEIU and the Machinists. His first union job was as an apprentice bricklayer and marble mason in Denver in 1982. Williamson traces his motivation to his rank and file roots while on strike as a journeyman bricklayer. Check out his column on the next page.
In order to send Ron off in style, we sponsored several functions to give people the chance to get together and wish him well. A reception benefiting the King County Labor Agency was held before Ron’s last evening delegates meeting, raising over $400 for the Agency. For the event, the Seattle Labor Chorus wrote and performed a special song honoring Ron and his work.
The ‘roast and toast’ on May 18th at the SeaTac Radisson Hotel was a great success. The evening included dinner, numerous roasts offered up by Ron’s friends in the labor community (accompanied, of course, by sincere toasts), and incomparable entertainment courtesy of Musicians Local 76-493 member May Palmer and her trio. Several highlights of the evening included KCLC Union Cities Organizer Verlene Wilder’s special presentation of a ‘hand-woven’ hair-piece for Ron to take with him to his new job, and a special one-time ‘labor-management coalition’ of Seattle City Councilmembers, City Council staff, Mayor Paul Schell and city labor reps singing a WTO song to the tune of ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’.
We were able to keep ‘roast and toast’ tickets affordable thanks to contributions from affiliates, including Communications Workers Local 7800, Machinists Lodge 751C, Professional & Technical Engineers Local 17, Laborers Local 440, Teamsters Local 117, Carpenters Local 131, and Service Employees Districts 1199NW and 925.
We would like to wish Ron the best of luck in his new position with the AFL-CIO, and welcome Steve aboard as our new leader.
Executive
Secretary's Report
"I dare you." Challenging
words that children hurl at one another unthinkingly? Or leadership?
I met two Australian trade unionists last month proudly sporting their union’s logo on their jackets: "Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!"
It reminded me of advice I once received when I was playing it too safely: "Of course workers want to win. We understand we won’t win every struggle, but for crying out loud, we can’t understand not fighting back. If we don’t fight, how are we ever going to win?"
I want to thank Ron Judd for daring us to fight back. We took on some struggles with Ron that we knew we could have lost… and we won. For me, that’s Ron’s legacy: our labor movement’s got a fighting spirit that is grounded in union principles.
Advantages of struggle include:
• the emergence of new activists,
• allies inspired to join us,
• opportunities that reveal themselves, and
• rediscovering our principles.
Just ask the striking television commercial actors, members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). Veteran movie star and budding union activist Elliott Gould stepped forward when we marched on one of the talent agencies that’s been using scab actors. The owner agreed to talk when our post-rally marchers chanted outside his locked door on July 7th. He insisted on meeting only with the union rep, Joan Kalhorn, but Gould wouldn’t hear of it.
As a newly inspired rank and file activist he wouldn’t be turned away. The rest of us left to march on another agent while he and Joan began negotiations. The SAG/AFTRA rally was the first of its kind in anyone’s memory in Seattle, but it is obviously just the beginning. Actors from every sector of the industry are uniting. Most aren’t rich or famous — they’re just trying to cobble together enough jobs to earn a living. It’s an inspiring struggle that’s rebuilding their unions.
I’d like to thank the Executive Board for appointing me as executive secretary. Thanks also to those who dared me to go for it. Ready to fight for workers’ rights? I double dare you.
Workers march to show
pride
The annual Pride Parade and Freedom
Rally on June 25th drew a large labor contingency, which joined the
march down Broadway in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood in solidarity with
the Out Front Labor Coalition, the local chapter of Pride At Work, AFL-CIO. KCLC
Executive Secretary Steve Williamson marched with the group and spoke at the
rally that followed.
In talking to the crowd, Brother Williamson assured participants that the labor community in King County will continue to support the issues of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered workers, because defending workers’ rights must be a top priority and must be inclusive of all workers. Unions are developing a strong voice for human and civil rights, standing in solidarity with workers against attacks from ultra-conservative organizations, legislators and initiatives.
He presented the recent victory of securing domestic partnership benefits for state employees in same-sex relationships as a shining example of what we can achieve by working together.
Providence Unions
Together - a successful coalition
Health care workers are being
squeezed as the industry continues to consolidate at an alarming rate, merging
into fewer — and more powerful — employers. Just this past spring, Swedish
Medical Center announced it was buying out Providence Seattle Medical Center.
In response, unions with members in health care are organizing more aggressively. And by organizing in coalition, workers are seeing that they have more power in numbers.
In January, workers at Providence facilities in western and central Washington began coordinating their organizing and bargaining strategies. They all faced stiff opposition from their common employer, which is based in Seattle.
At Providence Everett Medical Center, more than 900 workers represented by OPEIU Local 8 and UFCW Local 1001 won a first contract after a year-and-a-half-long fight. In May, the workers led a successful one-day strike, supported by the Snohomish County Labor Council, local unions and the King County Labor Council. Following worker threats to carry out a two-day strike, management reached an agreement with our sisters and brothers. Contract highlights include wage increases, off-shift pay differentials, increased compensation for on-call work, overtime and lead work, and improved grievance procedures, to name a few.
Also this spring, workers at Providence Yakima Medical Center staged one-day informational picketing actions, with bargaining scheduled to resume in mid-July.
In addition, SEIU Local 6 members are in contract negotiations with Providence at St. Peter’s Medical Center in Olympia, with more sessions planned for late July.
Organizing staff from KCLC and Seattle Union Now, AFL-CIO — a joint project of KCLC and the national AFL-CIO — have been assisting the Providence unions.
Closer to home, 125 technicians at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center voted overwhelmingly in May to join UFCW Local 1001. The victory came after an intense anti-union campaign by the employer.
The results achieved by these unions working together distinctly show the value of coalition building. KCLC Executive Secretary Steve William-son remarked on the cooperative effort, "These unions have proved that solidarity, not just among one union, but among the members and leaders of all unions, can be an incredibly valuable tool in our struggle to gain representation for workers everywhere."
7 Days in June
In all corners of King County, unions
marked ‘7 Days in June for the Freedom to Join a Union’ with multiple
rallies, a forum and a march. These events were part of the nationwide week of
action called for by the AFL-CIO. Nowhere was the need to defend the right to
organize a union better demonstrated than at the first event, a pre-election
rally for Waste Management employees who are organizing with Teamsters 174.
The 18 employees of Waste Management’s Port-O-Let division learned on June 13th that their union election, scheduled for the next morning, had been cancelled.
"We’ve been working to build this union since October," said Ken Archibald, an 18-year Port-O-Let employee who first started the drive. "It seems really unfair that the minority of one boss can get the Labor Board to deny the will of the majority of us. This is supposed to be a democracy — do we check our democratic rights at the door when we go to work?"
On June 13th, acting on a last ditch appeal from the employer to stop the union effort, the NLRB in Washington, D.C. cancelled the election, claiming the bargaining unit was "not appropriate."
"It’s outrageous. Waste Management, with assistance from the federal government, is trying to deny workers a voice at work," declared Bob Hasegawa, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 174, speaking at a rally outside the Port-O-Let yard in Woodinville.
Workers, with the backing of community supporters, marched to the company’s administrative office and demanded recognition of the union. Management refused to speak with the workers.
This is a classic case of employers trying to block workers’ freedom to form unions. They’re scared of workers and scared of democracy. Waste Management and their manipulation of the NLRB is the best example of everything that is wrong with labor law today.
Janitors & supporters march in Bellevue: Janitors and supporters marched through downtown Bellevue on June 15th, with chants echoing off the hard metal awnings and polished reflective glass fronts of high rise buildings, cleaned every night by workers who earn $8.60 an hour — $1.65 below the area living wage for a single adult.
As the march progressed from building to building, delegations of union members met with building management. The first stop was a non-union building operated by Spieker Properties. Tom Medica, a janitor who works in downtown Seattle, said, "This was my second call on Spieker and the reception had warmed slightly from icy to cool, but they can expect us to keep coming back as long as they and other extremely profitable property managers on the eastside keep wages and general standards low for all of us in the industry."
"We’re trying to get it equal all the way around, so there’s not a second tier,’’ said Bonnie Miller, who cleans an office in Bothell. The Justice for Janitors action was also part of a campaign to bring wages in high rent eastside buildings in line with those in downtown Seattle. Miller was part of a delegation that visited with property management. They found a warm reception. "The building managers said we were the best and they support our campaign."
As Miller finished her report, supporters began chanting "What do we want? Contract! When do we want it? Now!" In the brilliant sunshine, window washers dangling on ropes 20 stories above the street on the glass wall buildings began swaying and swinging in time to the chants. Carpenters and other building trades workers from nearby construction sites then marched with members from a dozen different unions.
The rally was part of a wave of contract actions by service employees unions across the nation. For news on the settlement, see Affiliate News.
Religious-Labor coalition meets with Mayor Schell: That evening, hospitality workers joined religious leaders in a conversation with Seattle Mayor Paul Schell about low wage jobs in high rise buildings. Tom Quigley, Church Council of Greater Seattle, pointed to the growing disparity between rich and poor. In response to the housing crisis, the church council now spends half of its budget on low-income housing. "We are called to act with compassion," Quigley told the Mayor.
HERE Local 8 member Debbie Bielman, a suite attendant at Safeco Field, read a letter from Lourdes and Manuel Barredo, who both work at the Marriot, calling on the mayor to listen to workers’ stories. The Barredos detailed how their rent had been steadily rising.
Blanca Ramos, a housekeeping supervisor at the Hotel Edgewater, described how her rent was raised $300 a month when her building was sold.
"I used to work only one job — but now I must work two," she told the group of religious and community leaders gathered at Gethsemane Lutheran Church. "Now I don’t see my children much — it is breaking my family unity."
Tony Lee, a housing advocate with the Fremont Public Association, pointed to San Francisco as a possible model of how high-road development could mean hospitality jobs that pay a living wage.
In response, the Mayor said that the problems were complex and advocated accelerated depreciation — tax breaks — for affordable housing developers "to keep the money in motion."
Starbucks workers and supporters rally at the international chain’s first store at the Market: In a June 17th action, maintenance mechanics and technicians from the Starbucks roasting facility in Kent, who had organized with Operating Engineers Local 286 in November of last year, were joined by supporters for informational picketing outside the first Starbucks store at the Pike Place Market.
Jeff Alexander, a Starbucks worker and member of the negotiating team for Local 286, explains "While Starbucks profits were increasing, they cut our overtime, our holiday pay and medical benefits for our families. Then no one in the company wanted to listen to us. We knew we needed a voice at work. So we organized with IUOE Local 286."
They were supported by a strong presence from other local unions as well. Charles Bofferding, executive director of SPEEA/IFPTE Local 2001, immediately offered to be there with members to show their support for the workers. "We will never to able to repay our debt to labor," he stated of the overwhelming support SPEEA received during their recent strike at Boeing. "We will try to be there every time our brothers and sisters need us to be."
Brian Swanson, another Starbucks worker and member of the negotiating team for Local 286, explains, "The rally was a wake-up call for management. They now realize that we are still strong and we have the support of the community. They should listen to the needs of the workers."
APRI wraps up week of action with Juneteenth celebration: The last event of the 7 Days in June week of action was the Juneteenth celebration sponsored by the A. Philip Randolph Institute at the IAM 751 Hall. Juneteenth, which originated in Galviston, Texas in 1865, celebrates the day that slaves in that state were finally freed, approximately a year after the emancipation proclamation. This annual event, which is celebrated nationally, commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. The Juneteenth celebration in Seattle focused specifically on organizing and coalition building. f
Resources on the right to organize are available on-line. A few to check out...
National AFL-CIO
www.aflcio.org
Washington State Labor
Council
www.wslc.org *
WBAI Community &
Labor Radio
www.igc.org/wbai-labor/rightorg
* The WSLC site now includes daily news links of interest to union members at www.wslc.org/reports/latest.htm)
Affiliate NEWS
SPEEA joins
KCLC:
At the June delegates meeting, SPEEA presented their first per
capita check, becoming an official affiliate of the King County Labor Council.
They affiliated as IFPTE Local 2001, with 8,169 members.
"We are so happy to be part of the organization that supported us during our strike," said Charles Bofferding, SPEEA Executive Director. "We’re thankful for the opportunity to give back because we appreciate the support so much."
We would also like to congratulate SPEEA on their June 29th victory at the Boeing plant in Wichita. A unit of over 4,000 technical and clerical workers voted for SPEEA representation in an NLRB election, despite Boeing’s use of meetings, posters, billboards and an afternoon at a local amusement park to try to convince them not to opt for SPEEA. The victory brought a successful end to one of this year’s largest white-collar union drives.
SEIU Local 6 janitors win contract: Janitors won significant pay increases and improvements on time off, and narrowed the pay gap between downtown and suburban workers, when an agreement was reached on June 29th just minutes before their contract was to expire.
The contract was ratified the next day by workers.
"This settlement is a victory in restoring fairness in the workplace for the men and women who clean office buildings in the Seattle area," commented SEIU Local 6 President Marc Earls.
SBTC welcomes John Littel: John Littel has joined the Seattle/ Building & Construction Trades Council staff as assistant to Executive Secretary Peter Coates. John is a member of Carpenters Local 131 and serves as their recording secretary and as a delegate to the King County Labor Council. He also co-chairs the KCLC Diversity Committee. John has worked as an organizer and on various educational projects dealing with apprenticeship.
City counselors elect to join union: A group of about 60 counselors with the City of Seattle’s Human Services Department recently chose IFPTE Local 17 for union representation. Seventy-four percent of the group’s workers signed union recognition cards, enough for voluntary recognition by the employer. They are now organizing internally to strengthen their union.
Tom Warner, a counselor with the City for seven years, said "We’ve been talking about doing this for years, and I’m grateful to Local 17 for guiding us through this process. We are all very excited about joining the labor movement and gaining a voice on the job."
Get educated,
get motivated!
Have you taken advantage of the free
training opportunities available through the AFL-CIO and KCLC? If not, now is
the time to get signed up for one of the sessions scheduled for this summer and
fall.
Mobilization & Education
Classes
Sponsored by KCLC’s Education Committee and Jobs with Justice, these
new monthly training sessions are for rank and file members who want to learn
how to educate co-workers and build work site mobilization networks. The classes
are held days, evenings or weekends, so everyone should be able to find a
training that fits into their schedule.
Common Sense Economics (CSE)
This training program developed by the AFL-CIO is being offered on
September 27th, 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. at the Seattle Labor Temple.
The class is open to all members of affiliated unions and will focus on giving
workers a condensed, understand-able view of our country’s economy and the
knowledge to successfully talk about the benefits of unions.
KCLC Delegate Trainings
Beginning this fall, the Education Committee will present regular
training sessions for delegates before selected regularly-scheduled evening
meetings. The training is recommended for all delegates and will give an
overview of the structure of KCLC, the role of delegates, and how to get
involved.
AFL-CIO Organizing Institute
The OI will present their three-day intensive organizer training
October 13th - 15th. The session will teach activists how
to talk to unorganized workers about unions, how to deal with employers’
anti-union tactics and how to win campaigns.
For more information on any of these trainings, contact Verlene Wilder at verlenekclc@igc.org.
Retirees find strength in solidarity
That’s the launch date for the Alliance for Retired Americans, an organization conceived in a series of meetings between the national leaderships of the AFL-CIO and the National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSC).
Formation of the Alliance has now been unanimously endorsed both by the AFL-CIO Executive Council and by delegates to the recent NCSC Convention.
Plans call for each national AFL-CIO union to enroll its members in the Alliance automatically upon retirement. They would pay no dues, and would be entitled to an array of benefits such as insurance discounts and union-sponsored credit cards.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has emphasized that the new organization will welcome into its ranks NCSC members and other retirees from the community as well as those with union backgrounds.
At the local level, the King County Union Retirees Council, AFL-CIO, will confer with the Puget Sound Council of Senior Citizens to develop a cooperative working relationship within the framework of the Alliance.
Once the new organization is in place, the goal will be to tap the experience of millions of retired workers in legislative and political action campaigns. - by Will Parry, Puget Sound Council of Senior Citizens