Why we matter

And by we, I mean those of us left standing in the labor movement.

This story about how the Teamsters are trying to organize port drivers in Miami is well worth your time. Of particular importance to me was the following quote from the owner of a trucking firm, a Mrs. Mercy Torres. Ahem:

The union will register companies interested in hiring the new employee owner-operators.

It shouldn't expect many takers, said Mercy Torres, president of InterFlorida Container Transport, which uses 34 independent drivers.

''Nobody at this point is interested in participating with the Teamsters,'' Mercy said, who added she fired two contractors this week for their plans to register at the (union) hall Saturday.

'I told them, `You can't work here anymore,' '' Mercy said.

Now, this happens to be illegal. You can't fire people for joining a union. In fact, it's one of the few things you can't fire anybody for. The others being race, gender, ethnicity, so forth. But Mrs. Torres probably doesn't have to lose too much sleep about the NLRB raiding her office, swooping in to deliver some labor law justice. Even after she admitted that the reason she fired them was specifically because they joined the Teamsters, she's probably fine.

And people wonder why only 9% of all Americans belong to a union. Hey, your boss breaks the law, no big whoop. It's not like you have any rights when you enter the workplace or anything.

Now, this next bit concerns two unions whose 'jurisdictions' happen to overlap. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) got into a nasty tiff after the SEIU left the AFL-CIO earlier this year. Turns out that a bunch of California home health care workers already had one union (AFSCME) and that the SEIU was trying to woo them into the purple ocean. This agreement puts a halt to such counter-productive wastes of time and helps ensure that the fallout from The Big Split remains minimal. So good news.

Now, if you want to see an example of courage in the workplace, look no further than Glendale CA:

Roughly 20 employees gathered in the parking lot of a restaurant on Central Avenue in Glendale, where they were warned about the possibility of police intervention, then began marching toward the Hilton hotel and the office of their boss.

Juan Mendoza, a waiter who makes minimum wage plus tips after 13 years and pays about $200 a month for medical benefits, walked ahead of Leticia Ceballos. After 11 years in various housekeeping jobs, she makes $8 an hour. The nonunion clock-punchers believe they'd have a better deal with union representation, so despite fear of retribution, they were ready to speak up.

The employees entered the high-rise Hilton through the back door and snaked through a service area to the executive offices of the four-star hotel. With them in solidarity was Ana Cortes, a Beverly Hilton housekeeper who said she makes $3 an hour more than her Glendale colleagues for comparable work and gets free medical benefits from her unionized hotel.

Before long, several security guards showed up, along with a gentleman in a gray suit.

Now I have done some courageous things in my life. I have never confronted my boss and demanded he be neutral in my decision to form a union. At work. Knowing I could get fired for doing so.

So let's hear it for the ones who give a damn, who don't have any other choice but to fight, and let's see a little more support for the working men and women of America. They, they don't got it so good just now.

Now, I know that the American Labor Movement Has Its Problems. God, I know it. Intimately. It is, in fact, run by human beings who (it turns out) are completely susceptible to selling out their union brothers and sisters for their own gain. Old story.

But the truth of the matter is that there isn't a force in this nation capable of transforming endemic poverty into economic stability like a strong labor movement. And with it missing, the chance for economic justice--no, strike that, economic survival--remains a fantasy for too many hardworking folks.