The Way I See It: Perspectives on the Labor Movement From the People in It
Some of us are called “organizers.” We convince workers that it’s worth the risks of joining a union to have a better workplace in the end. We watch them get fired for union activity. That’s illegal on the books, but not in the halls of hospitals where they transport patients or the empty offices of highrises where they empty trash and vacuum carpets.
“If you’re scared, call 911. If you want a union, sign the card.”–Organizing slogan.
If we are skilled, or if we work hard enough, if workers are desperate enough, and if we’re lucky, we will win the union election and a contract. There is no moment like the very beginning, when powerless workers defy their power-soaked managers and vote for union representation. To watch the fear and valor of those workers walking out of their departments to go vote, the hands trying not to shake as they place the ballots in the box, the memory fresh with months of systematic employer terrorism. To feel the tears and the hugs, like those of war survivors, refugees, freed slaves, when the final count is announced and the union is in.
“I go down in the basement, and there’s a lot of people down there you know, still against the union. So I go down there and there’s a bunch of them standing there and I say, ‘This old woman’ that’s me, you know, I say, ‘this old woman made history!’ This old woman made history. This hospital been standing here 70-80 years and ain’t never had a union, and now it’s got one. THIS old woman got it goin on.”–Worker at a celebration of a union vote.
Then my job begins. If I’m not careful, that’s where I can become an insurance agent. My job is to make sure the contract gets enforced, that the favoritism actually stops, that when workers are disciplined they get a chance to present their side. I’m supposed to make sure the union members are proud of their union, that they know what it means to win a contract by a show of force, that they see the union as the way to get what they need out of their employer.
“There’s a high turnover rate. They can’t keep people here. Who wants to stay and be abused. The ones that stand up get fired. If they’re not in the union there’s not much recourse but if they’re in the union there’s lots of harassment. It’s frustrating. All I want to do is do my job and make my salary and go. Some members are full of crap. They get themselves into shit and I gotta get them out. They say ‘You supposed to represent me.’ The union don’t pay me nothing for what I do. We need more union power in the workplace. I want a fair shake. I’m a good worker and I want to be treated that way. My mom worked here for 30 years.” Union steward.
But this is not how it is, not today, not in most workplaces where there are unions. For decades union leaders sat back and allowed a generation of members to enter the workforce without teaching them what had come before, the price that had been exacted for the benefits, wages and protection they now enjoyed.