Dear Editor,
Cartoon by Roger Mejia
I’ve been watching the situation in Wisconsin where thousands of working class families and union members are protesting in the capitol and marching on the streets against Governor Walker. Seeing this made me wonder how an anti-union Governor could be elected in the first place. Did union members not vote? Did many union members vote for an anti-union Governor? Did the Governor get votes from working-class voters who don’t have a union? And what about all those former union members who used to have good jobs until investors shipped their jobs to Mexico and China – did some of them vote for Walker?
It seems to me that some working class voters are helping anti-union candidates win in Wisconsin and other states. If so, we’ve got to find a way to talk with these brothers and sister so the working class isn’t divided and fooled into voting for anti-union politicians.
I was a bit curious about what some union brothers around here have been thinking about Wisconsin. I was astonished at what I heard, and it made me realize that we have plenty of work to do in our own house. One person told me: “I can’t support those public unions in Wisconsin, because they’re taking money from my taxes.” Another said: “I can’t support government unions, because we’re a private sector union.” Most of all, I heard: “I don’t follow politics.”
I was shocked and pissed off. Harry Bridges must be rolling over in his grave with so many union members who aren’t interested in politics or vote against their own interests. I was aware that we have some conservative minded members in the union, but how do we explain so many anti-union members in our union? Really, you’ve got to be joking! The two words are so contradictory. It’s like oil and water, they don’t mix, right? Here’s an analogy; a cancer patient who demands the best treatment in the best hospital then decides he likes getting cancer and wants more of it – even if it’s going to kill him! Union members who vote for anti-union politicians are no different and just a suicidal.
I heard a radio report on NPR recently that said some union members are upset because their unions were contributing to help pro-union candidates. Well, of course unions should be supporting pro-union candidates, but maybe we’ve forgotten why.
A longshoreman of 1934 could easily tell you. They watched three consecutive anti-union presidents (Harding, Coolidge and Hoover) who encouraged the “free market” and Wall Street speculators to run wild and plunge our country into the Great Depression that began in 1929. The wealthy few in this country were fine while the rest of America was poor. In order to get the country back on its feet and put people to work, Franklin Delano Roosevelt put the “New Deal” into effect – using our government to hold bankers and business owners accountable – and giving workers the right to form unions. This gave average Americans a chance to work and pick themselves up by their bootstraps. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act that allowed longshore workers and others form unions, exactly one year after the “Bloody Thursday” murders in San Francisco. It was no accident that Roosevelt signed his pro-union law on the waterfront in Tacoma. To this day, bankers and corporate interests hate Roosevelt and his kind for supporting unions. Naturally, anti-union supporters cheered in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan broke a strike by the air traffic controllers union with scabs. Ironically, the union of air traffic controllers (PATCO) was one of the few that endorsed Reagan for President – along with Teamsters Union officials who endorsed Reagan’s anti-union campaign twice – even after the PATCO strikebreaking incident.
In 2002, when longshore workers were locked-out (prevented from working) by the PMA during negotiations, President George W. Bush threatened to operate the docks using the National Guard to replace us. Now in 2011, anti-union governors in Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey want to bust unions by eliminating collective bargaining and pensions for public employees. Some ILWU members might say; well that doesn’t affect us because we’re not a public-sector union. But you’re wrong. Business owners and investors have never liked the concept of unions and will do anything possible to destroy them. When they’re done weakening or eliminating those public unions, who do you think they’re coming after next?
It’s time for ALL unions to unite and defend the rights of all workers. We have to help any union that’s under attack by politicians, the Tea Party, or their funders in big business. It won’t always come down to Democrats vs. Republicans because there are some Democrats who are just as willing to kick union members and the working class as the Republicans. And don’t be fooled by the anti-union politicians to try to score points with the working class by promising lower taxes. Almost all those tax cuts have helped a handful at the top get richer while the rest of us get the leftover crumbs while our government is weakened so corporations can run wild without anyone to control them.
If you’re an ILWU member who’s still voting for anti-union politicians, it’s time to reconsider what you’re doing before it’s too late. Voting for politicians who believe “unions are destroying America” is a form of suicide that will take all of us down.
I’m an unemployed casual who wrote this letter because I want to make sure that our union still exists by the time I get in. My father, Rogelio Mejia, Sr., is a member of Local 13 who still works at the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach.
Roger Mejia
Long Beach, CA