NWLP-02-18-11:NWLP
2/15/11
9:54 AM
Page 8
...Dr. King: History is a great teacher
(From Page 1)
no one would be available….
History is a great teacher.… By rais-
ing the living standards of millions, la-
bor miraculously created a market for
its industry and lifted the whole nation
to undreamed of levels of production.
Those who today attack labor forget
these simple truths, but history remem-
bers them.…
Negroes in the United States read
this history of labor and find that it mir-
rors their own experience. We are con-
fronted by powerful forces telling us to
rely on the goodwill and understanding
of those who profit by exploiting us.
They deplore our discontent, they re-
sent our will to organize so that we may
guarantee that humanity will prevail
and equality will be exacted. They are
shocked that action organizations, sit-
ins, civil disobedience, and protests are
becoming our everyday tools, just as
strikes, demonstrations, and union or-
ganization became yours to ensure that
bargaining power genuinely existed on
both sides of the table. We want to rely
on the goodwill of those who would
oppose us. Indeed, we have brought
forward the method of nonviolence to
give an example of unilateral goodwill
in an effort to evoke it in those who
have not yet felt it in their hearts. But
we know that if we are not simultane-
ously organizing our strength, we will
have no means to move forward. If we
do not advance, the crushing burden of
centuries of neglect and economic dep-
rivation will destroy our will, our spir-
its, and our hopes. In this way, labor’s
historic tradition of moving forward to
create vital people as consumers and
citizens has become our own tradition,
and for the same reasons.
Unity of purpose [between the labor
movement and the Negro civil rights
movement] is not an historical coinci-
dence. Negroes are almost entirely a
working people. There are pitifully few
Negro millionaires and few Negro em-
ployers. Our needs are identical with
labor’s needs: decent wages, fair work-
ing conditions, livable housing, old-age
security, health and welfare measures,
conditions in which families can grow,
have education for their children, and
...SEIU organizes St. Charles Medical
(From Page 7)
izing made sense as a vehicle to put
workers back in the hospital’s business
plan.
The campaign was clandestine at
first, but came out into the open when
pro-union workers began gathering sig-
natures on a petition calling for the hos-
pital to recognize the union. Over 65
percent signed, but the hospital declined
to voluntarily recognize the union, so the
union filed for an election.
That’s when an anti-union campaign
kicked into high gear. Managers held
anti-union meetings on work time, had
one-on-one conversations with workers,
and mailed letters to workers’ homes.
PAGE 8
Workers were told they were not al-
lowed to talk about the union on work
time, but the rule was only enforced
against union supporters.
Some union supporters wavered, but
others showed courage by signing a
public “Vote yes!” petition. In the end a
bare majority came out in favor. Now
pro-union workers hope to win over
those who voted “no,” even as some
anti-union workers are rumored to be
planning a decertification drive.
[Legally, workers could vote again in a
year whether to keep the union.]
The last time a private sector union
election was held for a unit of such size
in Oregon was a 1995-1996 campaign
by United Steelworkers among 1,700
workers at Precision Cast Parts in Port-
land. But that campaign fell victim to an
employer anti-union campaign that in-
cluded numerous violations of federal
labor law.
At St. Charles, the next step is nego-
tiating a first-ever union contract for the
69 support and maintenance classifica-
tions that make up the bargaining unit.
By law, the hospital must bargain in
good faith with the union. Local 49 has
sent out a bargaining survey, and work-
ers are nominating members of the
union bargaining team. No bargaining
sessions had been scheduled as of press
time.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
respect in the community. …
Labor today faces a grave crisis,
perhaps the most calamitous since it
began its march from the shadows of
want and insecurity. In the next 10 to
20 years, automation will grind jobs
into dust as it grinds out unbelievable
volumes of production. This period is
made to order for those who seek to
drive labor into impotency by viciously
attacking it at every point of weakness.
Hardcore unemployment is now an
ugly and unavoidable fact of life. …
To find a great design to solve a
great problem, labor will have to inter-
vene in the political life of the nation to
chart a course which distributes the
abundance to all instead of concentrat-
ing it among a few.”
Where Every Wednesday
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Show your union card for happy hour
prices anytime on well drinks,
draft beer and house wine
Open daily from
11:30 am until midnight
1101 E. Burnside, Portland
503-233-1743 www.theguildpub.com
JANUARY 21, 2011