MESSAGE FROM SECRETARY-TREASURER Steven P. Vairma

Your union is your only ally in this fight

President's Column-Rocky Mountain Teamster
By Steve Vairma, President Joint Council #3

Alot of working men and women still believe in that old saying, "Let George do it," when it comes to politics.

That's too bad.

If allowed to go unchecked, that attitude will destroy the nation's middle class.  It isn't the rightwing union busters who are the greatest threat to the U.S. working class.  It is, rather, those very workers who fail to participate in the political arena.

Look at what is happening across the country.  Anti-worker campaigns are in high gear.  We are all aware or should know, anyway of the anti-worker activities last year in Wisconsin and Ohio.  We should also know that so-called "right-to-work" proposals were introduced in 14 state legislatures in 2011.

This year, not content to let Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and Ohio's John Kasich get all the fame, or notoriety, as the case may be, more GOP governors and state legislators have jumped into the legislative fray and proposed their own anti-union bills.

Here in Teamsters Joint Council 3, Arizona and Colorado have been targeted in current sessions of their state legislatures.  We in the Mountain West are now officially under attack, and it is bound to get worse.  New Mexico and Montana have the potential for right-to-work (for less), and Idaho, Utah and Wyoming are always candidates for new laws harmful to workers.

In Arizona, a right-to-work (for less) state, new laws have been introduced that severly curtail workers' rights.  Under its right-to-work law, Arizona doesn't have collective bargaining for state employees, but Governor Jan Brewer wants to ban collective bargaining for all public workers - municipal and county.

While Wisconsin's law prohibits public employees from collective bargaining, Arizona's bill bans collective bargaining outright and refuses to recognize any union as a bargaining unit.  Existing contracts with unions will be honored, but not be renewed if this bill passes.

Meanwhile, more than 20 Republican legislators in Colorado have introduced a right-to-work (for less) bill in the state senate, although Colorado voters overwhelming defeated the issue at the polls in 2008, and it has been defeated in each of the 20 years that it has been defeated in each of the 20 years that it has been introduced in the state legislature.  The track record on the issue in Colorado hasn't dissuaded the union busters from wasting taxpayer money in their attempts to pass the onerous legislation.

On the national level this week, as this column was written, the U.S. Senate was scheduled to vote on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization legislation, which includes many anti-worker provisions.  Unions equate the bill's passage to a death toll for unions everywhere.

The House of Representatives has passed the legislation with a vote of 248-169 despite strong Democratic opposition, but the bill is expected to pass in the Senate, with decisive votes coming from turncoat Democrats.  It is supposed to arrive at the President's desk by the end of the week.

So, it seems, working men and women are being targeted at every level - local, state and national.

You might ask:  Why?  What have we done to deserve this?"

You're union, and unions set the wage standards for all workers, union and nonunion, in both righ-to-work and free bargaining states.  In addition, employers detest labor's diligence in protecting their members' rights in the workplace.

Even so, many employers are enjoying record profits, while union strength is at a low point.  Labor's density in the workplace is now about 10 percent, and that is exactly why income inequality has faovred the billionaires, while wages for working men and women have remained static for 10 years.

For years groups such as the America Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Heritage Foundation on the national level and the Goldwater Institute in Arizona and Independence Institute in Colorado have pushed anti-union legilsation.  With the help of big money donors such as the Koch brothers, they have succeeded.  And now the corporations have the Citizens United decision, which will allow those billionaires to put untold amount of money into election campaigns.

So, in case you haven't noticed, workers face a huge challenge.  If you don't have as much disposable income today as you had five years ago, you can bet, unless things change, you won't have as much next year as you did this year.

You might ask:  How do we change things?

There is only one way, brothers and sisters.  Your union is the only ally you have in this fight.

If you haven't done it, join DRIVE today.  DRIVE is the Teamsters' political action committee, which desperately needs your help to help you.  Join today.

Ignore DRIVE at your own peril.