Remembering Who We Are
By Clint Burelson
(Note: This article was originally posted for the audience on the web site 21cpw, which is run by an APWU member and has union activists discussing various issues including the proposed contract. The article was in response to previous posts, that had what I felt were limited views regarding the union’s options with the current negotiations.)
As we wait to get all the details of the contract, I would like to address the union’s options in regards to the proposed contract. If one thinks the union’s options are limited, then the decision making process on how to vote for the proposed contract will be adversely affected. Analysis and vision determine strategy.
For example, many claim the union would not do any better in terms of a new contract by taking the case to an arbitrator. In fact, some say an arbitrator could make things a lot worse. The argument is that the economy or climate is too unfriendly to workers and union members should be grateful for what has been negotiated under difficult circumstances. This viewpoint could be true if it is assumed that the union has no leverage or power beyond the skills of the union negotiating team. However, the assumption that the union has no leverage is not true. We are forgetting what a union is. We are forgetting what our options are.
We have the ability to negotiate a better contract and enforce it, if union members start acting like the powerful union we are. The union’s power is not in our negotiating team, no matter how intelligent or charismatic. The union’s power is in the thousands of union members in Post Offices everywhere and their families and friends who have the ability to engage in collective action such as strikes, work to rule, and other actions that force the Postal Service to concede much more than they would otherwise.
A union is not a bank, an insurance company, a lawyer service, or a boys club. A union is workers banding together to negotiate better wages and working conditions as a group than they would otherwise receive negotiating as individuals. Rich people organize corporations to advance their interests. Working class people organize unions.
The APWU has outstanding representatives. But, the representatives are not as important as the power they represent. The power of postal workers expressed though the strike of 1970 provided the union with the leverage needed to negotiate the wages and working conditions that we have today. Postal workers, because they are in every town across the country and because they handle advertising, bills, and other correspondence important to businesses on a daily basis have more power than other workers making widgets. As a result, the strike of 1970 was one of the countries shortest strikes to achieve such large gains for workers.
All the gains of the labor movement have been made with collective action and this progress always involved struggle and sacrifice. The workers in the past disrupted business just to form unions, and then to gain better wages and working conditions, which created the first group of middle-income workers in the history of the world.
Those same workers organized despite a very hostile environment that was much worse than today. Businessmen, politicians, and the corporate owned media called workers organizing for a better life, communists, agitators, troublemakers, overpaid, lazy, unreasonable and irresponsible riff raff. Many union activists were jailed, beaten, and killed. However, most things that make the United States a decent place to live today, were won by the “unreasonable” working men and women who stood up for each other, their communities and their children, despite vicious opposition from the powers that be.
We can be as brave and bold as our ancestors. If postal workers in every facility began a coordinated effort to exercise their power, the Postal Service would talk to our representatives very differently than if union members remain passive on the sidelines.
Imagine, for example, if postal workers everywhere simply enforced the contract and properly did all the things they are suppose to do and none of things that they did not have to do. Imagine that postal workers filled out unsafe conditions forms for every violation they saw, asked to see a union steward to discuss possible grievances, filed a grievance with their steward present, reported all accidents, filed a CA-2 for that injury they have never reported, filed OSHA reports, etc. and so forth. If one or two people engage in the actions, management will retaliate, but the more people that participate, the less retaliation, and the more leverage earned for workers.
If most postal workers participated in job actions, the union could run the Post Office. This is an important realization. The power to change the Postal Service is in our hands. If we organize, we can have a better place to work and a better Post Office for the country. Importantly, 100% participation is not needed to win a better life at the Post Office. Just 10% participation of the workforce could force the Postal Service to give respect and concessions to the union. The percentage of worker participation necessary for positive change could be much smaller.
In addition, just the current union activists could do a lot with some strategic coordination at the national level. Many of the recent coordinated OSHA actions initiated by the national union involving electrical issues and the DBCS machines are small hints of what is possible. The demonstrations associated with consolidations are also good examples of effective actions directed to the general public.
And that is just the legal actions. Remember that many strikes, including the Postal Strike of 1970 were illegal. It was union strikes, sit down actions, slowdowns, etc. that changed the “business climate” and laws to make it legal to form unions, get the 8 hour day, holidays, etc. If they make unions illegal again, are people going to just roll over and say nothing can be done because it is against the law? What are laws anyway, but the results of the last battle fought on any given issue.
Therefore, let us not fool or comfort ourselves in thinking that the option is simply accepting the contract or accepting the decision of an arbitrator. There is more to it than that. We have many other options. We have the power to substantially influence negotiations and/or an arbitrator. If we engage in traditional union actions, history tells us that we will gain leverage to earn a much better contract than if we did nothing.
What this means is that union members also have responsibility. It is not fair to criticize or credit our union presidents regarding past or proposed contracts. The members have the ultimate responsibility in deciding the contracts. Our union presidents negotiate the best they can given the members ability and willingness to exercise their power.
As we continue to evaluate the contract, remember we do have the option to utilize proven union actions to build the power necessary to negotiate or arbitrate a stronger contract. That is what a union does. We have the power. We just have to use it. En La Union Esta La Fuerza.