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NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , AUGTEMBER 2002
UNION DUES
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD
JOBS (& MORE JOBS)
BY NORM WALLEN
“It is useless for us to disguise from ourselves the fact
that, under the present arrangement of things, there exists a
perpetual antagonism between Labor and Capital.. one side
striving to sell their labor for as much and the other striving to
buy it for as little as they can."
-INTERNATIONAL TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION, 1850
The small businessman* still thinks he's the backbone
of America. He doesn't realize that he is on a very short leash;
only until Big Business gets around to gobbling him up (unless,
of course, that’s what he had in mind all along). Foolishly, he
thinks the answer is to copy their methods, thereby alienating
those workers, public servants and enviros who are his natural
allies.
The professor thinks of himself as an independent pro
fessional whose Brahmin status is justified by his vast expertise
He sees teaching as an unfortunate nuisance. He fails to recog
nize that his expertise is mostly seen as irrelevant and his poor
teaching is remembered. These account for public willingness
to watch from the sidelines as he is downgraded to just another
employee.
The physician believes his advanced training and
professed dedication justify his exorbitant income. He doesn’t
understand that people only care about what he delivers which
is often found wanting. So he is resented even as he is needed.
The craftsman doesn’t know what happened to him;
why his skills are no longer valued or needed He need look no
further than the assembly line and automation. Long ago, the
bosses concluded that people are an impediment to production.
The solution: get rid of him.
The human services caseworker starts out wanting to
help people. He ends up disillusioned and lazy as he realizes
society wants him to be a detective and paper pusher. He uses
his excessive caseload to justify his incompetence.
The lawyer wants to believe our system of justice works.
Gradually he comes to understand that justice isn’t its purpose;
the law is to maintain the social order as decreed by those in
power. He either accepts this “reality" and works hard for the
high-end lifestyle it can provide or tries to manipulate the system
to serve justice and/or takes to the bottle.
The university president is hurt that he's not regarded
as an intellectual leader. He thinks he can have respect at the
same time he mimics corporate CEOs; and usually winds up
wishing he was one.
The executive begins just wanting to climb the ladder
of success by being a hard working member of the corporate
family. By the time he is disgusted with the company's products
or methods it’s too late He fears loss of status and lifestyle
should he ever violate the bottom line
The stockbroker sees himself as a smart insider cleverly
playing the game while pretending the game is not just a crap
shoot. He rationalizes the cheating as "atypical" and pretends
his job requires high level intellectual analysis
The politician starts out either as a crook or a dedicated
public servant. The latter gets overwhelmed by complexity, the
power of the establishment and the rigidity of law and tradition
With rare and wonderful exception, he ends up tinkering around
the edges.
The banker tells his wife he simply provides essential
capital while protecting people’s money He doesn’t tell her that
since banking is a business, the need to show a profit to stay
competitive has made him timid, rigid and sometimes cruel
The speculator justifies his existence as being very
necessary to his god: The Market. The fact that he produces
*For the purpose of reading this article, assume the
overlay of she' or tier’ onto ‘he’, 'him' or ‘his’ whenever
appropriate
nothing of value while taking advantage of others’ misfortune
or ignorance, corrupting the rules or profiting from dumb luck is
nothing compared to the “killing.”
The civil servant, that faceless bureaucrat is, more often
than not, a competent hard worker who by choice or accident
ends up in the public sector. Over time he learns to do his job,
keep his nose clean and not question his bosses. Just like in the
private sector.
The preacher intends to do good for people, here or
later. Since he can’t preach without a religion he either preaches
louder as his doubts multiply, gets in trouble with his superiors,
becomes a counselor or starts his own church.
The dedicated teacher wants to believe he teaches
more than simple skills and memorization; he develops critical
thinking. He forgets that most teachers can’t do it and those who
control schools have almost never wanted it — too dangerous to
the establishment.
The judge pretends to temper precedent with wisdom.
But wisdom is hard to come by and those who have some find
themselves imprisoned by precedent.
The farmer loves his land enough to withstand its
unpredictability and the boom and bust of prices. What he
can't withstand are the relentless pressures of banks, corporate
agribusiness and developers, all driving him out of business.
The scientist prizes his independence in searching for
the elusive truth. He is depressed to discover that his findings
are used for technology of dubious merit as his independence is
increasingly compromised by corporate influence in its careless
search for profit.
The developer, after all, only provides what people
want: shopping malls, sports stadiums, the biggest possible
house on the biggest possible lot. It’s not his fault if, in the
process, communities are destroyed and the planet is paved
over And he has to fight those damned regulations and
NIMBYs. Who can blame him for cheating?
The investigative reporter’s job is to expose malfeas
ance; never in short supply. Nowadays his editors only let him
play around the edges — small business corruption, individual
malpractice. Never take on big government (not since Water
gate) or big business (leave it to Michael Moore). If you want to
do that, start your own paper and try and survive.
The artist just wants to create something new and
hopefully beautiful He must believe in his talent but can never
be sure of it. He has the ability, the inclination and venue for
undressing the emperor, but he must also put bread on the
table.
The athlete falls in love with the game His love withers
under relentless regimentation and fierce competition. He either
loses out to a combination of injury and competition or he gets
rich. Either way, it's never as much fun as it was.
The corporate part-timer, working his 30 hour week at a
nonlivable wage and little or no benefits, knows he's expendable
at any moment He also knows he’s capable of more than mind-
numbing routine designed to prevent any use of his judgment
But he needs the job Worst of all, he has to take part in the
“one big happy family" bullshit.
The engineer loves the satisfaction of building things
The bigger the challenge, the more fun. His heart swells as
concrete plugs rivers or reaches to the sky He is dismayed that
some think his beauties are evil.
The computer whiz sees his job as one endless puzzle
to solve It never occurs to him that it is a desecration to reduce
everything to two choices He does get lonely sometimes.
The political activist/organizer knows what he's up
against He must expect to lose most of the time. He must be
patient with all those who don't get it — or get it but are afraid
to risk Risking one's life he understands but afraid to risk
discomfort?
This article is reprinted from the famous Anderson
Valley Advertiser which is published in Booneville, California
Labor Day is the second bookend of the silly season, the
first being Memorial Day Neither holiday means much anymore,
although the first one will probably be gussied up to absolve and
perpetuate the new harvest of war dead Labor Day continues
to decay because workers who produce the GNP are consist
ently undervalued, which originally forced them to unionize
I was president for three years of a small company
union affiliated with a much larger parent union. I was not so
much an activist president as I was a caretaker attempting to
hold together an unpopular union that seldom had the support
or participation of its rank and file. I represented a membership
generally inactive and unhappy they had to pay union dues on
salaries barely above minimum wage, which the union was not
very successful raising.
I was president during two contract negotiations and we
did not score well with wage raises or benefits Management
stonewalled us with shrinking state social services budgets.
One year the rank and file rejected a contract in which they lost
benefits but received no wage raises in exchange (nor cost of
living). They accepted a second offering that did not raise wages
but at least retained the earlier lost benefits. Of course manage
ment awarded itself rather generous raises and benefits.
I wrote a letter to the wage slaves I represented admit
ting the union side of the table poorly negotiated the contract
and suggested they vote it down:
H/e gave away hardwon benefits hoping to raise wages
at every level to compensate for the lack of cost of living
adjustments, which did not occur... This year’s contract talks
demonstrated the power meager funding gives an employer
(which) spawns an iron fist and managerial power is almost
supreme as it dictates allocations of what it claims are sparse
resources, and employee wages and rights are hammered as
a result. Some of you believe the union is just another bureau
cracy that takes money out of your paychecks Most of you
rarely attend union meetings or participate in decisions that
affect you, yet the union is your opportunity to have a voice and
a measure of power over your working lives, the more so you
the more you participate. You can choose to vote down this
contract and demand we get you a better deal than we have,
which we cannot guarantee unless you show management that
you are actively involved to increase the union's strength and
potency Of much greater importance is that you take the power
the union offers you to determine your working future.
At the end both company and union engineered me out
of job and union. The parent union did to me what I thought the
company would do. It fired me.The company wished to be rid of
me as a result of my union activities and to decertify the union
entirely. The company spread poison among its employees
about the union, claiming it prevented them from receiving wage
raises the company was willing to give, and promised “scabs”
promotion if they succeeded in ruining the little support the
union had.
The dues problem might have been my undoing
with the parent union My company union members were paid
the least, making barely subsistence wages, yet our dues were
equal those paid three times as much. I argued for progressive
dues rates but union solidarity among the general membership
stopped at that point One union official said progressive rates
would put the burden on those paid the most instead of those
least paid, and that seemed to be the clincher argument for the
majority whose dues would have been raised.
A futile showdown over arbitration for a woman who
was fired for an act she denied was my last act as company
union president I characterized my presidency as a tightrope
act above two snakepits, company and parent union, and felt
I was snagged in a Darwinian swamp of bureaucratic savagery.
My small company union signifies much that beleaguers
unions these days Although grievously weakened and suffering
a tremendous loss of political power as a result of savage union
busting and massive layoffs begun during the Reagan years,
claims that the labor movement is dead are exaggerated and
labor might actually be reviving because, as the man says,
“Unions are bad, but without them its worse." That perception
is all too apparent when tens of thousands of workers lose their
jobs and pensions to massive endemic corporate corruption, the
discrepancy in wages and benefits between management and
labor is obscene, and the people who have jobs are required to
produce more for less pay with little or no job security.
The bottom line in union work is representing the rank
and file There is a tendency in unions as in management and
any other group for power to flow to the top and for elected
union officials to form a clique of sorts that distances itself
from the rank and file, exacerbated by contact with paid union
officials whose business is generally with local union leadership
instead of the membership It does not matter whether a union
officer likes or despises the rank and file; they pay dues to be
adequately and fairly represented whether they are active or a
bunch of deadheads grousing about union dues extracted from
their paychecks. And regardless if only three or four participate
in elections, attend meetings and act active, a union’s job is to
represent them all
“Perhaps most of you are vague or do not particularly
respond to what to what our ancestors considered necessary
fundamentals for maintaining personal and political liberty, but
erosions of them will eventually ruin your lives," I wrote in my
letter to my former rank and file “Democracy is always in flux
between those who wish to protect and enlarge it and those who
reduce and confine it. We are in a period of severe (decline) of
the personal and political rights of people who work for a living,
which makes it imperative we understand what is at stake on the
job and in the democracy at large."
- michael M c C usker
VINCE MORRISON
I
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