Unlike many other so-called reform movements inside different unions, this one seems to be putting the emphasis where it really needs to be - on breaking with the team concept and standing up to the employer. The following are the comments of one of the insurgent candidates for office: This article contains a misquote from me. For some reason or another my original quote didnt make it into the final draft. As with just about every labor union at this point, there never was a time in recent memory when rank and file members of SEIU 6 really had full democratic control of their union. Before Sergio Salinas we had David Rofle as president (Rofle is now the head of the gargantuan state-wide SEIU 775NW) and those very same old timers and veteran janitors mentioned in this article had just as many irreconcilable issues with his agenda, his leadership, and his full time bureaucracy as they do Sergios. The sad fact is that many of my veteran old timers have never known anything relating to the good old days, or even times of heightened union militancy, better treatment, and overall success. Needless to say, these are the same veterans who are afraid that their sympathies for the Members Power and Democratic Reform at SEIU 6 will get back to Sergio and get them fired. If anything, the Members Power and Democratic Reform is attempting to trail blaze the path into new territory as far as my union and the rest of the organized workers movement is concerned. If successful, we will be attempting to lay down new traditions within both our union and the community around us, as I mention in my original quote below. But that being said, no ideas or traditions are ever really new, they are instead just reinvented or reclaimed. Ive said that this period in history is a very conservative one for the labor movement, so maybe if anything we are trying to reclaim our past in order to fight for our future. Regardless, we would do well as workers to study our own history, including the treachery and betrayals of business unionism and the team concept. Over the last few years it has become clear to me and many of my fellow stewards and coworkers adds Mike Ladd, a steward from Tacoma, that we have no other choice but to organize ourselves and transform our union from the bottom up. We have to return to the principles of democracy, solidarity, and workers power that made the Labor Movement strong in the first place, and Amelias candidacy for SEIU 6 president will be a good step in that direction. This struggle wont be easy, but when workers stick together anything is possible. ps. at our rally today calling for fair election at the SEIU 6 union hall in Seattle. I met an awful lot of community supporters who said to me privately, You know... I really need this to happen in my union.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:30:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015