Editors’ Note: Excerpted from the Daily Press, February 2, 2020. Contrary to the policy views of political and business leaders, working folk favor union membership and fully understand the benefits. Many recent polls indicate a majority of Americans favor unions. Policymakers need to listen.
By Hugh Lessig
After landing his dream job at Newport News Shipbuilding, Justin Bates went through employee orientation on January 8. He ended up making history.
The day included a presentation from United Steelworkers Union Local 8888 about the benefits of becoming a dues-paying member of the labor organization.
“I’ve been in jobs where I really wish there had been unions,” the 32-year-old Newport News resident said. “When they did the presentation, it just reaffirmed what I felt was right, to go ahead and join the union.”
When the meeting began, the local had 9,993 members. Out of 79 people in the room that day, Bates was the seventh person to sign up. Cue the celebration for member 10,000.
The unassuming Bates has since become a minor celebrity at the largest steelworkers’ local in the U.S. The milestone marks an all-time high — membership was around 7,900 a year ago — and greater numbers should translate into more political and bargaining power, union leaders say.
Charles Spivey, who was elected union president in 2018, said he expected to hit the 10,000 mark for dues-paying members in August. At this rate, 12,000 dues-paying members seems doable in the months ahead.
“I know we can get there,” said Spivey, who worked in the shipyard for more than 40 years. “There is more work to do this year.”
Spivey said he’s equally proud of another number: About 83% of eligible employees have signed up with the union. That’s also an all-time high, he said.
In some ways, the union faces the same challenge as the company at large.
In some ways, the union faces the same challenge as the company at large.
The shipyard, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, has recruited younger, tech-savvy workers to build aircraft carriers and submarines. Many members of this new generation aren’t familiar with organized labor, union leaders say, and they won’t automatically sign up and start paying dues.
Because Virginia is a right-to-work state — in which workers can’t be ordered to join the union as a condition of working at a unionized company — hourly workers at the yard don’t have to join the steelworkers to work at the yard. However, only dues-paying members can vote on labor contracts, so it comes with some perks.
There is no single, best way to recruit new members, Spivey and others say. Making a pitch during orientation is important, because that’s a captive audience. Organizers also have buttonholed shipbuilders at the gate during shift changes.
They have even visited workers at their homes, and the cold calls often produce results, said Terri Cowain, a test electrician with 18 years of waterfront work under her belt. Cowain said she’s comfortable knocking on doors, even if people are surprised to see her. She hands out union literature and tries to address questions, concerns and objections. Some employees are afraid of paying union dues, but Cowain says those dues amount to only 1.45% of a weekly check.
“I mean, it’s pocket change,” she said. “It’s cigarettes, or stuff you waste time on. And cigarettes are bad for you.”
Kenneth “Chan” Lewis, who chairs the organizing committee and personally signed up Bates, said he’s become a perfectionist when it comes to selling new employees on union membership, even if it causes him some heartburn. “I want 100 percent every time we go out,” Lewis said. “That’s me. That’s where I am. If we come back and we miss five — you can ask Terri — I’m tore up.”
James “Butch” Cassidy, a sheet metal specialist, stresses the union’s history when he recruits new members. That history goes back more than 40 years, and some of it is painful.
Shipyard workers voted to unionize in 1978. Tenneco, the owners at the time, contested the vote and sparked a legal battle that dragged into 1979. That spring, union members went on strike. It led to what is known by veteran union members as Bloody Monday, a violent clash on April 16 between strikers and club-swinging police officers in full riot gear that made headlines across the country.
Today, the union presence at the shipyard is considered a given, Cassidy said. But some people literally shed blood to make that happen. Cassidy said he passes up overtime work to recruit new members on his personal time.
“I’m sacrificing a little bit now to gain a lot in the end,” he said. “People look at me (and say) wow, you gave up two hours of time and a half? What are you doing here? That’s when I explain to them: Look, this is an investment for yourself.”
The hard work has allowed Local 8888 to buck a national trend.
Union membership in 2019 stood at 10.3% of all wage and salary workers in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s down 0.2 percentage points from the previous year. But it’s far lower than the rate in 1983, the first year comparable data became available. That year, the union membership rate stood at 20.1%, according to the BLS.
In January, the Virginia General Assembly convened, and representatives of Local 8888 have been lobbying in Richmond. Spivey said they are seeing results.
They are pushing hard to amend worker compensation law to include repetitive motion injuries, including carpal tunnel syndrome. Another bill they are pushing would repeal the prohibition on collective bargaining by public employees. Both measures are sponsored by Del. Elizabeth Guzman, D-Prince William, and have survived key House committee votes.
They are pushing hard to amend worker compensation law to include repetitive motion injuries, including carpal tunnel syndrome. Another bill they are pushing would repeal the prohibition on collective bargaining by public employees. Both measures are sponsored by Del. Elizabeth Guzman, D-Prince William, and have survived key House committee votes.
The current contract between the union and Newport News Shipbuilding expires in November 2021, but work to prepare for negotiations will begin ramping up well before then. Spivey said that the 83% membership rate should bolster the union’s strength at the bargaining table.
Categories: Issues, labor and unions, Local, National
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