Labor Notes Day 3 - Chicago - April 8th

CUPE Crew - Marc, Sarah, Archana and me in front of the Trouble Makers banner!

Here we go - the last day of the conference. First thing I do is check out the booths - I wanted to pick up some books, and well..yeah, I came home with 9...#nerd

  • Secrets of a Successful Organizer - Labor Notes
  • Democracy is Power - Labor Notes
  • Women and Socialism - Sharon Smith
  • How We Get Free -Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
  • Electric Arches - Eve L Ewing
  • From #blacklivesmatter to Black Liberation - Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
  • Black Girl Magic 
  • The BreakBeat Poets
  • Solidarity: Selected Essays - Dan Gallin

Creative Enforcement Tactics


This session was about how workers centres and like organizations are fighting against wage theft, weak labour laws and building enforcement campaigns in New Mexico, Toronto and Nashville. First up were Marcela Diaz and Jose Olivas from Somos un Pueble Unido in New Mexico. Jose told the story about how he and his wife were victims of wage theft. They moved from Mexico to Gallup, NM - to make a better life. After not getting paid for over a year, Jose though his ex-boss was finally going to pay him (he owed them over $40+k). When we went to the restaurant to meet up, he was met with the Sheriff who told him to stop harassing his former boss or they would deport them back to Mexico. Not knowing what to do they went to the state Department of Labor and were told they couldn't do anything because a) the one year cutoff had passed and b) the amount they were owed was well past the cap of $10k. Horrible. Somehow they hooked up with Somos un Pueblo Unido and eventually sued the DOL. 

They won! 

The outcome of the lawsuit was:
  • will adopt new rules to stop the practices challenged in the lawsuit
  • will adopt investigation manual and trail ALIs  - Somos has to approve the manual
  • will identify and re-open wage claims
  • will provide resources in rural communities
  • will go back to court and ask the judge to intervene if DWS doesn't follow the agreement
  • statue of limitations gone
  • cap of $10k gone
It shows that you can win when you stick with your convictions. Jose said "I'm not fighting just for my money, I'm fighting for the cause - now we can hold the state accountable and monitor the government to do their job."

In addition to the lawsuit - Somos also reached out to other workers in the area to gather more stories (they knew they were out there). They built a relationship with the Navajo Nation where their people had also been victims of wage theft. As they collected stories they also thought to embark on a community-based research project about health impacts wage theft has on people. By elevating the stories of these workers they were able to create a snapshot on rural communities and to inform decision makers and community leaders to change policy. The relationship Somos built with Navajo has resulted in strong support because at the Navajo's health and human rights committee, they've passed a resolution to support the recommendations to enforce the law moving forward. 

Incredible.

Next up were two workers from an organization called Worker's Dignity from Nashville Tennessee. They are a workers centre who started by supporting hotel workers (housekeepers, cleaners) who were experiencing wage theft. They've been successful in recovering $200k of workers' wages and benefits over the past 8 years.

Deena Ladd from the Workers Action Centre (WAC) in Toronto shared the story of Ontario's Fight for $15 campaign, in particular the recent drama started by the Tim Horton's in Cobourg, ON. The Tim Horton's there was owned by the children of Tim Horton's himself - rich people, living in Florida who sent a memo to their staff saying that the $15 minimum wage means that they had to cut their hours and benefits. The memo went viral.  The outrage from the public was unbelievable. The WAC folks orchestrated a great campaign for Tim Horton's workers On February 13th, for Valentines Day. They would go into a store and bring a card and chocolates for the workers and then read out employment standards. The workers felt appreciated and the customers in the store would stand up and clap to thank the workers for their service. It was a great way to show that minimum wage workers play an important role in our communities and that the people who serve our coffee and donuts deserve a livable wage. 

In Canada we don't do a lot of direct action but it's a great reminder that used strategically, it can work. Since all of the hubbub they've seen Tim Horton's franchises come out proactively to state "we're not doing that." Their shares on the TSX dropped as well. 

I also met workers from Sacramento who work for Driscoll Berries who are fighting for fair wages. I'm reminded of the story I heard last year about the Driscoll's workers in Bellingham, WA who started a successful boycott and won recognition with their employer and were able to negotiate terms and conditions of employment. I hope those workers I met from California win and I hope we in BC finally achieve farm workers rights (they're not covered under the current labour code so they are often exploited, working under shitty conditions). 

Bargaining Trans* Inclusive Language

I was really excited to attend this session. We all go into the public sector bargaining next year so I thought this would be a good session to pick up some tips. 

The session focused on 2 campaigns - the ones at Babeland and Pleasure Chest (RWDSU) as well at the University of California (UAW 2865). 

First off - I had my privilege checked right away. The context for the session all started with some very sobering statistics. That 200 bills have been tabled in government to restrict the rights of trans* people in the US. It's still legal to fire someone just for being trans*. They don't really have human rights codes, Title IX only goes so far and we are at the ultimate peak of the intersection of capitalism and militarism given the bills put forward to ban trans* from the US military. Our local has had non-discrimination language in our collective agreement since 1974. 1974. And we have the BC Human Rights Code along with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That's our context. Anyway, back to the session.

UAW 2865 - Grad Students - University of California


17k student workers (grad TAs, undergrad tutors) on the 9 campuses of the U of C system- that's a lot of workers! In 2009 a student movement was growing in response to UoC's growing austerity agenda. Layoffs, tuition increases, minimal wage increases, workload issues - pretty much everything was thrown at the union. They began to become more militant and a demographic shift was happening within the rank and file leadership. They formed an Anti-Oppression Committee as well as changed to an open bargaining process. 

Open bargaining kept coming up at this conference. I've been conditioned to keep bargaining cards close and to never discuss what's said at the table unless it's been mutually agreed upon by the union and the employer. A lot of unions in then university sector in the States seem to go by this open bargaining process where everything is shared with the membership and the public. Sessions at the table are open to bring crowds of people, some suggested streaming the sessions, and union communication included details said at the table even before sign off. Totally open and transparent. I'm both uncomfortable and intrigued.

As part of their renewed union they launched an all-gender bathroom campaign. They invited their queer and trans* members to come forward to talk about their experiences in using gendered bathrooms. The stories were awful. Some students would have a difficult time getting to class because of the distance between the bathroom and the classroom (sometimes in different buildings on the other side of campus). There were also stories of the health impacts on having to "hold it" all day because there wasn't a safe place to go to the bathroom. (Again privilege checked - something I've never had to think about). 

The union utilized some creative tactics to get the word out. They had a satirical newspaper and used satire to paper over existing signs. The "bathroom brigade" would line up cups of lemonade outside the entrances to buildings to prove their point (usually with a sign that would say something like "where was I supposed to go?"). They petitioned and eventually they won all-gender bathrooms in 5 of the largest academic buildings.

RWDSU - Babeland and Pleasure Chest


I've already told the story about how they organized at Babeland and Pleasure Chest, this is about the reasons why and what they bargained into their contract. So what is a trans* issue? Job security and safety were the number reasons they organized and the main issues they wanted addressed in the collective agreement. 

Their top issues in particular were: job security, just cause, progressive discipline, safety protocols. 

They were able to negotiate safety training and de-escalations - why? Because of the high number of customers who harass the staff. Often, people feel entitlement to act in a certain because of what the store sells. It's not unusual for customers to pretend to masturbate in front of a worker or to ask intimate questions about their sex lives. In the past, their only recourse was to call the police. Reliance on calling the cops wasn't safe for the workers. At the end of the day they won a contract that improved their working conditions and job security. 

Someone asked about carceral violence and how we can build it into our collective agreements.  U of C is looking at putting proposals on police violence in their next round of bargaining. 

After we heard these two stories we went around the room and talked more queer theory and bargaining. It's so great to be in sessions with diverse panelists and diverse participants.

Closing Plenary - Union Reform





Mercedes Martinez - Federacion of Teachers of Puerto Rico

The union was decertifed by the government but that hasn't stopped teachers in Puerto Rico from mobilizing for better public education, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Teachers feel that their job is to defend public education against the evils of capitalism and neoliberalism. There are around 45k members who have been facing lay-offs, cuts to programs like arts/PE/health, miserable salaries and budget cuts. 

Strikes are illegal. In order to improve things they knew they had to engage in work stoppage. They took a vote and unanimously decided to go on an illegal strike to defend public education. They were not going to see the decimation of curriculum, nor were they going to sell out their students for the proliferation of charter schools. She simply stated - WE ARE NOT FOR SALE!

Even all these months later, the aftermath of Hurricane Maria continues to devastate the country. Access to food, water, communication is still lacking. They have blocked access to the schools, where they know water and food are inside. In order to deal with the situation, they have cut Teachers' pensions, increased tuition for university students, layoffs of 100k workers and the shutdown of 300 school. People are desperate - access to energy is a problem - no generators - people are dying because they can't get their ventilators to work. Oog. Things are dire. :(

People need normalcy after a disaster and there is an urgency to open the schools so that life could be a little more consistent. The Secretary of Education refused - so teachers went down to occupy her office and...well..they arrested 21 teachers!! People are angry - they were angry that the government arrested those teachers and now they are converting that anger into power. On March 16th, 16k teachers took to the streets and shut the country down to defend public education. 

They are still facing serious challenges. 283 schools to be shut down and then an increase in the number of charter schools. 

She ended off with this MLK quote:  "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." 

WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED!

John Palmer - Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) (San Antonio, TX)

I actually thought this was pretty interesting. This was an indictment of Teamsters International and the corruption that exists in their union and how a progressive caucus tried to take over. In fact he referred to the structures of most national unions as "top down replicas of corporate America" - totally agree. The bureaucratic nature of our organizations has moved our trade unions into businesses in the world of labour relations. The Teamsters are bad though - union leadership requiring members to sign NDAs...

He told the story how TDU came to be since so many people felt so frustrated with their union. They were tired of leadership being so white and male and top-down. TDU wanted to build a movement from the ground up so that rank and file members would start to take ownership of their union. They ran a slate, and got 6 people elected and plan for a takeover the next election. 

Barbara Madeloni - Massachusetts Teachers Association

Barbara was awesome. 116,000 members!! That's a big union! And another example of membership tired of the old guard and the old culture so they ran a progressive candidate for President and she won! The platform was simple - a democratic rank and file movement.  

No one expected her to win - and she encountered a lot of resistance at first. Things like being left out of communications and meetings. She said it straight out - this was a business union. One of her goals was to break down the fiefdoms of the local presidents and to put back the control into the hands of the members. 

One of the first things she did as president was to bring Labor Notes in to do leadership development to build power at the work site. They also held an open bargaining summit where they invited unions reps from Portland, St. Paul and Chicago to participate and impart their wisdom. It went over well and more rank and file teachers are involved than ever as they keep working on union democracy. 

Her take aways for union reform:
  • caucuses are essential
  • be the union you want to be!
  • use Labor Notes
  • workers know what's right and are capable of organizing themselves to make a better world.
  • history is calling and be ready to occupy your space in history and speak to a better world
Karen's Learnings

I loved this conference. The energy was amazing, the activists were inspiring and there was so much selection in the programming. Democracy was at the core of every session and plenary. We don't have anything like this in Canada.

This conference also levels up. They plan sessions that will appeal to people brand new to the movement to complicated quasi-academic, legal or complicated economic subject matter geared to more experienced folks. The bar it set high with the understanding that people will rise to the occasion - I was very impressed by the depth and breadth of each session stream. 

This was planned by rank and file, organized by rank and file, led by rank and file, panelled by rank and file, moderated by rank and file...you get the gist. At no point was the spotlight on any one leader and paid union leaders were no where to be seen or found. It was refreshing because it was about the workers' agenda. By having frontline workers and activists (not staff who've been off the shop floor for years) plan the agenda, it meant that everything was grounded. Rhetoric was off the table and experience was highlighted.  The politics in the room were actually on the left - not just slight left like we're used to - I'm talking socialist, progressive left. The combination was what I needed to recharge and I got the rah rah that I had been looking for!

I highly recommend attending this conference.

I can't wait for 2020 - it's going to be amazing! Hope to see you there!

That is all.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

2019 BCNDP Convention - Women's Rights Committee Convention

Labor Notes Comes to Town: Vancouver Trouble Makers School!

Women Deliver: The Power of Integration and Scale