Heartland unionists put in long hours

MOORHEAD, Minn. — Standing in a factory parking lot here on a sparkling September day, surrounded by fields of sugar beets, corn and soybeans that stretch as far as the eye can see, a postal worker, an electrician, a payloader operator and a railroad track maintainer divided up lists of union members and got ready for another afternoon of knocking on doors.

Before splitting up to get to work, they swapped a few stories about one guy who’d slammed the door on them last week and all the people who’d told them, “We’ve got to get rid of that son-of-a-b—— Bush.”

It’s a scene that is being repeated daily in towns and cities all across the country as the U.S. labor movement undertakes Labor 2004, an unprecedented worker-to-worker drive to “pink slip” the most anti-labor president in our lifetime, and put John Kerry in the White House.

Dennis Edwards, 36, has worked for 13 years at the post office in Detroit Lakes, a town of about 7,400.

“I work 8 to 4, Monday to Friday — banker’s hours,” he told the World. “I gave it up to work full-time for the AFL-CIO to get out the vote.” Edwards, president of Local 1333 of the American Postal Workers Union, is putting in long hours, nights and weekends, door-knocking and phone-calling “because President Bush is waging a personal attack on unions.”

Citing Bush’s moves to privatize postal operations, Edwards said, “I’m fighting to save my job and for my future.”

Many workers in this rural area are concerned about the “free trade” agreements that Bush is promoting, which hurt the local economy by forcing down farm prices. Edwards also mentioned “the consistent lying from Bush” that is angering everyone from teachers to firefighters. “He stood on the rubble of 9/11 and said ‘I’ll get you more firefighters,’ but he never has.”

Since starting his Labor 2004 duties at the beginning of September, Edwards has been working at it six days a week, door-knocking in towns around western Minnesota. This is the first time he’s done anything like this.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s so positive to see union members coming together to save their jobs, save their lifestyles, save their families.”

Al Pereira is a member of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees. He suffered a neck injury two years ago after 13 years swinging a sledgehammer for 17 hours a day, pounding anchors that hold railroad ties in place. He is from Hoffman, Minn., a town of 670.

“We need a new president.” Pereira said. “He started a war he never should have, killing our kids.” Pereira has three of his own — two sons, 16 and 19, and a daughter, 23.

“They’re not going to go fight some politician’s bull crap,” he said. “You aren’t killing my kids over politics.”

Tony St. Michel is an electrician at American Crystal Sugar here, and education officer of Local 266 of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union. He grew up in the tiny town of Halstad, Minn., where his high school class numbered 12. “I was in the top 12,” he said with a grin.

St. Michel has worked at the sugar plant for 30 years. Now he’s giving up a good chunk of his free time to get Bush out of office.

“Union-busting seems to be Bush’s ultimate goal,” St. Michel said. Aside from “the occasional guy that slams the door,” the union door-knocking is getting a really good response. Union members appreciate that we’re out there.”

“The labor movement is getting back to basics,” said Mark Froemke, who drives a payloader at American Crystal Sugar in East Grand Forks, Minn. He is also western region president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

These days Froemke is the full-time Labor 2004 zone coordinator for all of western Minnesota. He spends hours on the phone each night organizing teams of union members. The trunk of his car is filled with flyers from the Minnesota AFL-CIO highlighting the contrasts between Kerry and Bush, and a big carton overflowing with packets of computer printouts. Each packet contains a list of 25-50 union members and union household members in one neighborhood, with detailed street maps and worksheets. Next to each name, there are spaces to record the issues each person feels is most important in the elections, and whether the person favors Bush, Kerry, Nader or is undecided. All the answers are noted for follow-up. Each household gets the union flyer.

Walking up a driveway in a tidy working-class neighborhood, Froemke speaks with a gray-haired man wearing a Teamsters cap, who was watering his tomato plants.

“I could never vote for Bush,” the Teamster retiree said.

At another house, when St. Michel asked a woman if she had decided her presidential choice, she replied, “It sure won’t be Bush.”

As the sun settled behind the nearby Red River, Froemke and St. Michel had talked to about 25 union households. A few had said they were still undecided, one or two didn’t want to talk. Not one had said they were backing Bush.

The author can be reached at suewebb (at) pww.org. click here for Spanish text
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Oregonians, hit by recession, seek change

PORTLAND, Ore. — The movement to oust George W. Bush in the Nov. 2 election passed a milestone here last week as the roster of new voters reached 30,000.

“Next week we’re doing a check of the county lists to make sure every new voter we signed up is actually registered and has a ballot mailed to them,” said Amy Harwood, organizer for 21st Century Democrat’s Neighbor to Neighbor program, which is working out of the America Votes coalition office in northeast Portland.

Oregon is the first state in the nation to shift to all-mail ballots. Sharing office space in the effort were the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Planned Parenthood, America Coming Together, and many other groups in the coalition.

John Kerry and Bush both visited Portland Aug. 13 and the contrast was stunning. Bush spoke to an invitation-only event with streets blocked off to keep protesters away. A cheering throng of 50,000 people greeted Kerry during a downtown rally at Waterfront Park on the banks of the Willamette River.

“Ask people here what the issues are and the first three answers will be, ‘Jobs, jobs, and jobs,’” Harwood said. “We are a swing state but there is also a long tradition of progressive politics in Oregon. It’s hard to get out and talk politics to your neighbors but we’ve got a network of neighbors who are doing it. We want to make it sustainable so it lasts beyond this election. We’d like to leave behind a progressive grassroots network.”

Oregon has been in a deep recession for 45 months, Harwood said, and The Oregonian reported a six-tenths of 1 percent leap in unemployment in August to 7.4 percent, the largest one-month leap in 21 years. Harwood herself was jobless until she was hired as an organizer in this “dump Bush” effort.

On Sept. 22, the Port of Portland announced the termination of 50 workers, 10 percent of its employees, six days after Hyundai Merchant Marine stopped shipping through the sprawling terminal. “K” Line has announced they will stop calling at the port in December. That leaves only one shipping line, Hanjin, shipping cargo from Asia through Portland.

“That’s a major loss of jobs for the port,” she said. “Another huge issue, of course, is the war.”

Eight Oregonians have died in Iraq in the past four months. Oregon has about 750 reservists and National Guardsmen deployed in Iraq and that figure is scheduled to nearly double to 1,400 by the end of the year — with no end in sight.

“I think Bush’s decision to go to war is a huge issue for Oregon voters,” said one of the volunteers, Julia Vosmik. “Bush is ignoring the needs of the people and sending people to die in an unnecessary war. Soldiers think their tour of duty is up and then they’re told it has been extended. This is money that could be used to provide health care and education.”

Her friend, Veronica Huff, an unemployed single mother, said she has searched for a job for five months, to no avail. “There are more homeless people on the streets in Portland since Bush took office.”

She and Julia had just returned empty-handed from a welfare office where they tried to sign up for coverage under the Oregon Health Plan that serves low-income people.

“We were told there is no more funding for adults. As soon as federal matching funds run out, there will be no health care program period. Even people now enrolled will be pushed out,” Huff said.

“They are looking out for the higher classes of people. But if you have no skills, you’re out in the cold,” she said.

“My uncle is in Iraq. He discovered they have taken $3,000 out of his pay. It’s dirty! This war is a way to make more money in the pockets of Bush and his friends.”

A few blocks away is the “One of a Kind Unique Items Shop,” owned by Timma Lee Cruz. Among the items is a wide assortment of “Dump Bush” buttons, including one that read, “Not my president, not my war.” Cruz also offers body piercing for the thousands of pierced and tattooed youth who reside in Portland. As they are lying on the couch to be pierced, Cruz urges them to register and vote.

“I have registration forms in Spanish and English,” she said. “A Republican came in and I explained to her that George W. Bush, his father, and Dick Cheney are all involved with a military corporation called the Carlyle Group. Every time a bomb is dropped they get richer. Innocent people are killed. How can you justify that?”

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212 (at) yahoo.com.


Originally published by the People’s Weekly World
www.pww.org