United Electrical Workers (UE)

There's a lot at stake for workers in today’s presidential election, from workers' rights and the continued offshoring of jobs to health and safety (especially during a pandemic), and the courts where anti-worker justices can take away rights with the stroke of a pen. Don’t forget to vote today!

UE General President Carl Rosen emceed a press conference this morning of Chicago-area labor leaders expressing their determination to ensure a fair election. We believe that every vote counts, and that they need to count every vote, whatever amount of time that takes, Rosen said. We’re going to make sure that all of those votes are counted, and we’re going to take whatever steps we need as a labor movement to make sure that democracy stays in place in this country. Chica...go Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said, Our world is upside down and inside out in this moment, noting that the West Coast is being ravaged by wildfires, in the South people are being displaced by hurricanes, and in cities and in states across this country, we have a pandemic that has killed over 230,000 Americans. The way to shift the trajectory of this state of affairs is through voting, Davis Gates said, but she warned, Every single vote has to be counted. That’s not an if, there’s not a but, there is an expectation, there is past precedent, there is law that undergirds the sanctity of our vote in this country. Our democracy depends on it, our freedom depends on it, our lives literally depend on it. Shantonia Jackson, a nursing home CNA and member of SEIU Healthcare Illinois said that she is voting for her co-workers who died from the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m voting for them, she said, noting that nursing home workers often work 16-hour days, risking exposure to the pandemic, to take care of the loved ones of the American people. SEIU Local 73 President Dian Palmer said, The labor movement has a proud history of standing up for democracy and fair elections around the world. Palmer continued, We intend to stand up and speak out peacefully and legally to protect every single vote.

LABOR MUST DEFEND DEMOCRACY Statement of UE Officers, 10/29/20 As the presidential election draws near to its conclusion, there is growing concern around our nation that our current president will not accept the results if he is not re-elected. If this does happen, we encourage all UE members to be prepared to defend our country’s democracy. ... These concerns are rooted in explicit statements made by the current administration and Republican strategists that they may attempt to disrupt the full counting of ballots, dispute the legitimacy of the results, or even try to get a state legislature to send a set of electors to Washington DC for the candidate who lost the vote in their state. Every vote counts and every vote must be counted and respected, whether cast by a Democrat, a Republican or anyone else. The labor movement has a special obligation to defend democratic government. Corporations and the wealthy already are able to buy influence on government policy. One of the few counterbalances to this is the fact that politicians have to face the mass of voters every two, four or six years. If incumbents can simply declare that certain voters’ votes don’t matter, corporate influence on our government will only increase and the working class will suffer even more. UE prizes our democratic traditions as a rank-and-file union. If union members do not approve a contract through a democratic majority vote, union officers do not have the right to impose it on them. Similarly, without the support of the general public, elected officials, whether a mayor, a senator, or the president, have no authority to govern. It is necessary for the labor movement to play a leadership role in affirming our democratic institutions. We have material resources, we are organized, and we have the ability to withhold our labor. We encourage all union members to plan to participate in mass actions on November 4 and 7, currently being organized by Protect the Results and others, to ensure that all ballots are counted and that the results are respected. And we will need to be prepared to take further action beyond that as needed. Carl Rosen General President Andrew Dinkelaker Secretary-Treasurer Gene Elk Director of Organization RESOURCES FOR TAKING ACTION Find a Protect the Results action near you: https://protecttheresults.com/ (NOTE: there are many more actions than the initial map can handle, making some areas of the map seem blank even though there are, in fact, actions planned. Enter your zip code to find an action in your area.) Take the Labor Action to Defend Democracy pledge: http://bit.ly/LADDpledge More resources from Labor Action to Defend Democracy (memes, local union resolutions, etc.): https://docs.google.com//1pmoU88P_E3IBD1Wcx0J5LWCwBwp/edit

In recertification elections held over the past two weeks, UE Local 893 and UE Local 896/COGS won support from over seventy percent of their bargaining units. The two locals represent over 4,000 Iowa public-sector workers. This sends a strong message to Governor Reynolds and the Republican-led legislature that we won’t stand down while they attempt to take away our hard won rights and benefits, said Local 893 President Becky Dawes. We did it together and with grassroots or...ganizing. Because of the pandemic, we weren't able to visit workers in person, which made GOTV harder, said Local 896/COGS Publicity and Education Chair Elizabeth Handschy. But we're so lucky to have so many members passionate about COGS who put in countless hours phone banking. With our collective effort, we were able to ensure graduate workers at UIowa have collective representation for two more years! The elections are a product of Iowa’s 2017 anti-union law, which stripped public-sector workers of most of their collective bargaining rights and requires unions to hold recertification elections, at their own expense, prior to each round of contract negotiations. The unions must obtain yes votes from an absolute majority of the entire bargaining unit (making not voting equivalent to voting no), a feat that few politicians could manage from their electorates. Dawes noted the importance of political action in order to reverse this situation and restore rights to workers. Don’t let your activism end here, she emphasized in an email to Local 893 members announcing the victory. Please get out and VOTE on or before November 3rd. Help us to elect people who will stand up against the attacks on Iowa’s dedicated and hard working Public employees and urge others to do the same. Local 893 represents over 2,000 social workers, income maintenance workers and scientists who work for the state, as well as county road crews, school support staff and community college workers. Local 896 represents over 1,800 graduate employees at the University of Iowa.

On Saturday, UE Local 506 member Bryan Pietrzak spoke at a get-out-the-vote rally with Bernie Sanders at the historic Carrie Furnace site in Rankin, PA, just outside on Pittsburgh. Despite our contributions to the economy, Pietrzak said, President Trump has failed working families by refusing to implement a plan to contain the virus, reopen our community that protects our health and livelihoods. The truth is, over many decades now, the Republican Party has worked to under...cut unions, organizing, and collective bargaining as well. These attacks have increased under President Trump, who has no problem with our families struggling day in and day out so long as his friends and cronies on Wall Street see the numbers in their bank accounts go up. As a result, we've seen inequality rise, and no matter how hard we work, it's increasingly difficult to keep up. The rally was a socially-distanced car rally. In addition to Senator Sanders, the speakers included State Representatives Summer Lee and Sara Innamorato, two women who successfully defeated incumbent establishment Democrats in 2018, with UE support (Lee addressed the 2019 UE convention in Pittsburgh). Lee and Innamorato are two of the insurgent Democratic candidates that UE’s General Executive Board declared can move forward a pro-worker agenda, both in the halls of government and in the streets once Trump is removed from office. Watch video of Pietrzak's remarks at https://youtu.be/FTOqyqOh7qs?t=4586 (photos by retired UE NEWS Managing Editor and Local 506 member Al Hart)

When workers at Augie’s Coffee demanded recognition of their union last summer, their bosses responded by shutting down all five coffee shops, effectively firing 54 workers. Taking to heart the old Industrial Workers of the World slogan, The boss needs you, you don't need him, the workers have now formed a worker co-operative, Slow Bloom Coffee. The union organizing drive at Augie's was born out of good faith with the intention of restoring dignity to workers that had been... denied a voice, said Matt Soliz, one of the leaders of the organizing drive. When our bosses responded by trying to dismantle the business that our labor had built, it just drove home something that we'd known all along. We don't need them. Slow Bloom is our expression of workplace democracy. It's us recognizing that the people who do the work should have a voice in how it is done. Support the Kickstarter campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com//slow-bloom-coffee-cooperative Read more about the co-op: https://www.ueunion.org//coffee-workers-form-worker-co-op-

Take action today in solidarity with Mars warehouse workers! Mars Wrigley is the largest and most profitable candy-maker in the world. But when 100+ warehouse workers in Joliet, Illinois demanded safety protections and hazard pay during this pandemic, the corporation and its third party logistics contractors not only denied their requests, but fired several workers for coming together and speaking out. These working people are being systematically denied paid sick leave durin...g the pandemic and basic safety protections such as socially-distanced work stations, screening and adequate warehouse sanitation. Mars Wrigley has also denied their warehouse workers common-sense hazard pay for taking on the increased health risks during this crisis. Take a minute today to call Mars Wrigley Global President Andrew Clarke at 312-794-6200 to demand hazard pay, adequate PPE, paid sick leave, clean workplaces & no more point system for Mars Warehouse employees!

Addressing a COVID-19/Medicare for All town hall with Representative Jesus Chuy Garcia on Monday, UE Local 1077 President and Western Region Vice President Larry Hopkins told the town hall that I will continue to fight for Medicare for All. Hopkins detailed the difficulty that he and his co-workers at Hallcon have getting the health care they need. My employer provides an insurance plan that most hospitals and clinics do not accept. Many of my co-workers I talk to do not... have access to health care and my employer offers an expensive plan that has no upper limit in costs and it will come out of our pockets. UE represents approximately 2,000 Hallcon drivers, who transport rail crews for the railroad industry, in over a dozen states across the country. Our members deserve good health care, which we do not have at this present time, Hopkins told the town hall meeting. We need to introduce and pass a bill to provide medical services to all. He also referenced the resolution Healthcare for All passed at last year’s UE convention. Rep. Garcia, a long-time ally of UE in Chicago who was elected to Congress in 2018, introduced the town hall by noting that Whether it's a loved one who has lost a job or died from COVID-19, this year has tested us more than we ever imagined and, regrettably, it didn't have to be this way. For the millions of people in our country who lost their jobs because of the pandemic, losing a job also meant losing their health insurance. In fact, tens of millions of Americans have lost their health insurance in the middle of a pandemic, and when they need it most. COVID-19 has exposed a deeply flawed and unprepared health care system in our country. If there's anything that we have learned so far, it's that never again should health insurance be tied to employment. It is a recipe for catastrophe. Other speakers at the town hall included Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, a former activist and organizer with the Chicago Teachers’ Union, Chicago City Council Alderman Matt Martin, retired Cook County physician and Physicians for a National Health Plan president-elect Dr. Susan Rogers, physician and small business owner Dr. Pamella Gronemeyer, insurance industry whistleblower Wendell Potter and Sheilah Garland-Olaniran of the Illinois Poor People's Campaign.

TONIGHT! Join the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee and AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson for a discussion about how working-class mobilization can preserve our democracy. (RSVP at https://actionnetwork.org//what-can-workers-do-to-stop-tru) For the past several months Bernie Sanders and others have been ringing alarm bells about the very real possibility that Donald Trump and his administration may attempt to contest the results of the U.S. election and refuse to leave o...ffice. Labor unions are a bedrock institution in any democracy and have always had a special role to play in defending democracy in society, UE President Carl Rosen recently told Labor Notes. This is especially true in the U.S. today. Unions should be at the front lines in defense of American democracy and should be prepared to take decisive action if our democratic traditions are threatened. Read the Labor Notes article here: https://labornotes.org//unions-are-beginning-talk-about-st

UE Local 222-92 member Ann Pulisz, a school food service worker in Wallingford, CT, spoke to Huffington Post reporter Sarah Ruiz-Grossman last week about what it is like to work in schools as they re-open during the pandemic. Some excerpts from the article: Ann Pulisz, 49, has also been working harder than ever before as a cafeteria worker at a Wallingford, Connecticut, primary school. With hundreds of kids and staff back in her school, she and her co-workers not only prep...are food in the kitchen but also deliver the meals to classrooms now that children no longer gather in the cafeteria. They’re constantly changing their gloves, washing their hands and they’re short-staffed because some workers didn’t return due to the health risks. [ ... ] Pulisz is worried about schools not being able to tell if kids have the flu or the coronavirus. And if they close schools because of an outbreak, are they going to pay us? Are they going to prorate our pay, because they did the last time? And if they don’t, how am I going to pay my bills? [ ... ] Pulisz noted that cafeteria and other support workers are not noticed. But you can’t run the school without support staff, Pulisz said. I know our bus driver, because my daughter had him for four years. How do you thank this person? she added. You’re putting yourself in danger to make sure my kid gets to school safely. The custodians are cleaning up after my kid so he doesn’t get sick. How do you thank a person for doing that? What bugs me most is when people think of others’ jobs as being menial but where would anybody be without the people doing these jobs?

As the Senate holds confirmation hearings for Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee in four years, it is clear that Trump’s most enduring legacy will be his court appointments. If Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed, and especially if Trump wins another term (or successfully retains the office despite losing the election), that legacy will be even worse for working people than it already is. The signature anti-union decision of the Court in the Trump era is Janus v. AFSCME. Trump’s ...Continue reading

UE International Representative Mark Meinster writes in Labor Notes this week about how labor can prepare for the sort of upsurge where unions grow dramatically: 1. More strikes: Dramatic growth in unions is almost always linked to a strike spike, both before and during the upsurge. ... The willingness of at least part of the labor movement to take risks in the form of sustained, militant, and sometimes illegal action appears to be a necessary component in turning a moment... into an upsurge. 2. Large numbers of workplace leaders ready to move: An upsurge can’t be driven by union staff. You need politically conscious working-class leaders who have experience in militancy (see #1) and a view that the existing system is illegitimate. 3. Independence from the mainstream: It’s unlikely that large, established unions will support the type of militant, risky action that characterizes the beginning of an upsurge. Many union officials simply aren’t willing to run open-ended, majority strikes, outside of rare circumstances. Others don’t want to risk legal sanctions. So where does organizing capacity come from in an upsurge? Historically, three places: a) the minority of unions willing to take militant action, b) new formations that come together during the upsurge, such as the new CIO industrial unions in the 1930s, and c) people fighting for profound changes in society, such as the civil rights movement of the 1960s, socialists in the 1930s, or anarchists in earlier periods. Waging more strikes and developing thousands of new workplace militants will take a lot of work, and at times will require exactly the type of sophisticated organizing methods discussed earlier. But it will also require something else: a labor movement with a class-struggle orientation. Read the whole article at https://labornotes.org//how-unions-can-lay-ground-next-ups

Joni Anderson, a recently-retired member of UE Local 1107 in Necedah, WI who served that local in many capacities over the years, is running for state senate in Wisconsin’s 14th senate district. Her pro-worker program includes workers’ rights, healthcare for all, and stronger democracy. Her website proudly displays a photo of Anderson wearing a UE shirt at the state capitol, and she has been endorsed by both UE’s Western Region and the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. Anderson told t...he UE NEWS, I am running on a workers’ platform. It’s been a long time since our minimum wage has been increased, around 11 years or so, and I think we need a $15 minimum wage. Improving healthcare and making it accessible to everybody is an important part of my campaign. Especially with this pandemic that’s been going on, it’s become even more obvious why people need a universal healthcare system in this country. Read the whole interview with Anderson at https://www.ueunion.org//joni-anderson-wisconsin-senate-14, and learn more about her campaign at her Facebook page, Joni Anderson for Senate 14.