Thanks, members, for having our back

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

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the members who supported the victorious Hoffa-Hall slate in the recent IBT General Executive Board Election.

It is a great honor that you have selected us to lead our union during the country's most distressed economy since the Great Depression.  We face a humbling and somber challenge, but with your continued support, I am confident the General Executive Board will not only provide leadership for our union, but will also have a profound influence on the national political debate.

On that debate, of course, hinges the survival of the nation's middle class, which was built by the trade union movement.  Strong unions ensured a high standard of living for American workers for many years.

But the middle class is now being viciously attacked by right wing zealots who are hell-bent on destroying the American way of life, who want to transform the United States into a Third World Country.

Labor was forced into the fight after the 2010 election when Tea Party union busters took control of most of the governors' offices and state legislatures and immediately declared war on working men and women.  They targeted society's safety net - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid unemployment insurance, public education and workers' rights.

They began in the states in the industrial Midwest-Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Missouri.  New Hampshire and Maine in the East also came under siege, as did Florida in the South.  The union busters were operating in other states, too, although they were not as active in states with fewer union members.

We have had some significant victories so far in the War on Workers.  We recalled anti-union state senators in Wisconsin and will probably collect enough signatures there to recall Governor Scott Walker, who led the drive to strip workers' of their collective bargaining rights.  We also repealed by referendum a law passed in Ohio that would have ended collective bargaining in that state.

So-called "right to work" proposals were considered in 14 states in legislatures earlier this year.  None of them were enacted into law.  The last to bite the dust was in New Hampshire last month where Governor John Lynch's veto of the bill was sustained by a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

While these wins were gratifying and wouldn't have been possible without the vital assistance of our rank-and-file members, they did not discourage the union busters.  Enemies of working men and women are now talking about introducing a national right to work proposal in Congress.  We also expect more union killing legislation in state legislatures in 2012.

The anti-worker zealots will desperately try to keep the momentum they generated in the 2010 election rolling until it reaches a full head of steam by the time voters go to the poles in 2012.  They don't give a damn about your wages, hours or working conditions.  They want total control over your workplace.  They want more profits - at your expense.  They know the unions are the last line of defense for all workers, union and nonunion.

We're going to need all the help we can get.  It's very reassuring to know that our members have our back.

Thanks again.

Have a great Holiday Season.  You deserve it.