Change to Win unions share organizing ideas

Oregon locals of the Change to Win labor federation shared ideas for organizing in the Pacific Northwest — and pledged to support each other’s campaigns — during a daylong organizing workshop March 3 in Portland.

Nearly 125 delegates representing all seven unions that make up the Change to Win federation attended.

The keynote speaker was Geralyn Lutty, an international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers who also sits on the national leadership board of the Change to Win labor federation.

“There are no red or blue states in working America” Lutty said. “There is only a state of concern.”

Lutty said workers are ready to make a change. “We can go hide, we can close our eyes and stay the same, or we can create change. This is why Change to Win was created. The status quo no longer is acceptable.”

Union officials, staff, organizers and activists spent the day sharing organizing strategies and discussing how they can benefit by partnering with other unions, community groups, elected officials, responsible employers, and other allies around the state.

“It was an opportunity for us to have some personal interaction with various activists and leaders of other unions,” said Gene Pronovost, president of UFCW Local 555.

UFCW said Change to Win solidarity will play a huge role in its upcoming contract talks with grocers in Eugene and the Willamette Valley.

The Service Employees International Union said it can benefit from CtW resources in its campaign to organize 3,500 support staff at St. Vincent and Providence Hospitals. A candlelight vigil is slated for March 21.

“I’m not a union member (yet), but SEIU has changed my life,” said Jen Little-Reese, a certified nursing assistant who is in the middle of the bitter organizing campaign at the Catholic-owned Providence Health Systems. “A whole bunch of people I know are really scared. I’m just a CNA who had big ideas, but took no action. I had no power until one day SEIU came and knocked on my front door.”

Little-Reese said she hopes her message will resonate with the delegates at the Change to Win organizing workshop and beyond. “I’ll talk to one hundred of you, you’ll talk to a million others — and (together) we can make the world a better place. It is a life-changing event.”

UNITE HERE Local 9 leader Jim Grogan said his union will embark on a “Hotel Workers Rising” campaign this summer as contracts expire at major hotels in downtown Portland. Hotel Workers Rising is a national strategy that allies with community activists and elected officials to help improve working conditions and wages of hotel employees. In Seattle, UNITE HERE Local 8 recently ratified a five-year “standard-setting” contract at the Westin Hotel that includes employer-paid health insurance, no subcontracting of work, a 50 percent increase in pension contributions, and wage increases that will bring housekeeper pay to $14 an hour.

In San Francisco, housekeepers will make $19 an hour as the result of a new pact ratified there.

The Carpenters Union is bracing for contract talks with general contractors and drywall hanging contractors. The union is planning a “Taking Care of Business” rally at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland on April 15. Everyone is invited to participate.

Laborers Union locals said they have campaigns under way targeting asbestos abatement contractors and soft demolition workers. Municipal Laborers Local 483 is going after about 800 non-represented workers at the City of Portland. Business Manager Richard Beetle said non-profit corporations also are on their radar.

Change to Win’s ultimate goal is to “cross- fertilize” union organizing campaigns where-by each of the seven unions can share resources, ideas and staff to attract workers from several jurisdictions.

“Victory creates victories,” said Steve Witte of the United Farm Workers Union. He said it took five years to organize and get a first contract for farmworkers at Threemile Canyon Farms in Eastern Oregon. “The next group took five months.”

“We have more in common than we do differences,” UFCW’s Lutty said. “Our members grow, transport and sell the food America eats. They clean the hotels and take care of the elderly.”

The goal, Change to Win said, is to help make this sector of the the workforce America’s middle class.

CtW said it will not form a state federation or central labor councils that parallel those of the AFL-CIO. The goal, leaders say, is to build capacity within each union local. “As each union local experiences more change, as each union begins to focus more on growth, then the unions will sit down and find campaigns where they can work jointly.”

CtW wants to “cross fertilize” organizing campaigns. “We need to find those campaigns,” said Leslie Frane, executive director of SEIU Local 503.National drug store chains, Wal-Mart

Delegates brainstormed about potential targets, and how possibly they can share organizers and other staff when confronted with a particularly difficult opponent.

Jeff McDonald, said the transition is slow and that members are slowly accepting the union’s changeover from a “service” culture to that of a growth

“It’s market share that drives good union contracts,” Jeff McDonald.

“It’s not about SEIU workers, or Teamster workers. It’s about workers,” said McDonald.UFCW has targeted Smithfield food processing in North Carolina, the Teamsters are targeting Overnight, which recently was purchased by UPS. Also Port Security. teamsters want legislatation that would end independent contracts at ports.

Geralyn said nationally, the CtW is focusing on four major issues: immigration reform; health care; retirement security; and Wal-Mart.

Tony Andrews of Joint Council 37 said the Teamsters will help with manpower on other unions’ campaigns.

Carpenters said they are targeting contractors that do tenant improvements at downtown office buildings. Cliff Puckett said the Carpenters Union is signatory with many general contractors. Those general contractors sometimes subcontract nonunion. “If they’re subbing work nonunion we will hit ‘em. If not all Carpenters have work, they will be targets that’s the bottom line.

Carpenters have contract expiring for drywall hangers and general contractors. The union already is planning for negotiations. They have scheduled at Contract 2007 Rally Sunday, April 15 at the Oregon Convention Center. All union members are invited to participate.

Laborers Union locals said they have campaigns under way targeting asbestos abatement contractors and soft demolition workers. Municipal Laborers (Local 483) is going after about 800 non-represented workers at the City of Portland. Richard Beetle said non-profit corporations also are on their radar.

UNITE HERE Local 9 has a campaign under way for food service workers under MERC, Expo and the Performing Arts Center.

of UNITE HERE Local 9 will employ the “Hotel Workers Rising” strategy to go after major contract improvements