By Richard Mellor
Afscme local 444, retired.
I was intending to write a detailed report from my
attendance at the $15 Now conference in Seattle on April 26th but
unfortunately some personal issues have derailed that project. I will however comment on two aspects of the
proposal that the conference was putting forward and the part of it that caused
the most debate and I have included the few short video clips I took while I
was there.
The
major discussion at the conference centered around a proposal laying out the
strategy and approach for getting 50,000 signatures needed to get an amendment
on the ballot in November that would introduce a $15 an hour minimum wage in
Seattle. The proposal itself stated that a “....campaign
for a Charter Amendment will put maximum pressure on the City Council to
deliver but only if it has a chance of winning.”
The
crux of the matter debated was twofold. One was the issue of small business and
what constitutes a small business. The
proposal had in it a clause (point 14 sect c) that would allow a 3-year phase
in for small business, (any business with under 250 FT employees) and
non-profits. These would begin paying a minimum of $11 on January 1 2015 and
rise to $15 by January 2018 when all workers will be expected to receive a
minimum of $15. The other issue which is
linked was Point 14 sect. e that allows members of the Hotel and Restaurant
Employees Union an opt out. Both of these points were voted up by the
delegates.
The
proposal titled Onto the Ballot and Into
the Streets explained under point 14 section e that “Based on discussions with hotel workers and their union….”, hotel
and conference workers could agree to opt pout of the $15 min wage provision if
their health care plan was guaranteed.*
Both
of these sections should have been withdrawn as what is happening here is that
the conference and Socialist Alternative which is a considerable force within
it is making concessions to appease both small business and the HERE leadership
at the expense of low waged workers and the movement itself. I took very little
video while I was there as I wasn’t feeling very well but the reader will see
in the video above that the general approach of the supporters of the phasing
in and the opt out were making the bosses’ and labor officials arguments for
them.
The
first speaker was a staffer for HERE I would imagine as very few union members
these days will announce all the victories their union is having. She supported
the opt out on the basis that her members could lose their health benefits if
employers were forced by electoral mandate to pay a minimum of $15 an hour. A
recurring theme throughout the pro opt out argument was that opposing it was an
anti union position as it denied the members of HERE the right to vote on the
issue.
Phillip
Locker, an organizer for Socialist Alternative and Kshama Sawant’s political
director made a similar argument. He
admitted that the SeaTac agreement passed late last year omitted half the
workforce, that 40% of the workers were excluded but stressed it was a step
forward (which it is) and that “This
struggle is not going to solve every problem in the labor movement.” Which
is also correct. But it is one thing to
praise a partial victory after a struggle against the bosses’ agenda; it is a
mistake to join forces with it.
The
labor hierarchy, is very quick to champion union democracy when their members
vote up a proposal they bring to them with all the accompanying arguments why
it should be voted up. The supporters of the opt out made the point many times
that if we oppose it we are denying the rank and file members of HERE their
democratic right to make the decision for themselves. If this amendment fails “we lose”, was an argument made more
than once. We can be sure that if this vote is taken to the membership of HERE
the groundwork will be laid to make sure the issue becomes, $15 dollars an hour
or health benefits, you can’t have both.
Under pressure from the restaurant industry bosses, the union leadership
will ensure the climate is right for a membership vote for the opt out.
Anyone
that has spent any time as a rank and file union activist knows that when the
labor hierarchy plays this card it has the weight of the leadership and its
army of staffers behind it. Thy can
mobilize the apparatus when it is needed to sway their own members.
This vote reminds me of all the “democratic” votes taken during contract negotiations over whether workers want layoffs or furloughs (the new name for temporary layoffs which amounted to 20% pay cuts for public sector works here in CA). The workers choose pay cuts and the leadership announces another victory as jobs are saved.. If the members reject concessionary contracts they are brought back time and again until the members are worn down or the leadership imposes them in some way like at Boeing where they orchestrated a yes vote on a concessionary contract. When Kaiser workers here in the Bay Area were asked to vote on joining hands with the boss in the Team Concept against their best instincts, a glossy pamphlet produced by the AFL-CIO helped workers make the decision. What if you vote no? The AFL-CIO asked. “ What’s the worst that could happen?” “The worst that could happen…” the pamphlet explained, “…would be for us not to give this ambitious and groundbreaking partnership a chance because things are bad and getting worse. “ There you have it, the membership voted against its own self-interest. **
Another
speaker in the video was the head of a non-profit who made the same arguments.
Two women delegates one a member of the Freedom Socialist Party and restaurant
worker and another a retired public sector worker from California both opposed
the opt out. There were also a number of delegates that opposed and suggested
other alternatives to defining small business as those with under 250
workers. These were defeated and the opt
out provision passed by a vote of 186 to 72.
The supporters of opt out and phase in are right that the workers’ movement needs to address the concerns of what I would call “community businesses”. But we do that by calling on community businesses to join the movement for a $15 an hour minimum wage. These businesses also deal with regressive taxation and are in the clutches of the banks, the insurance companies and the big corporations including commercial landlords who charge them exorbitant rents. Thousands of community ventures go under due to this gouging by big business.
Big
business has gone on the offensive in order to defeat the ballot initiative. The HERE leadership had threatened to oppose it
if the opt out wasn’t in it as well from what I understand. They can then tell the bosses how they helped
them remain competitive and that non-union hotels etc. can rest assured they
won’t have to pay the $15 an hour which means resisting unionization is not
necessary.
The
pressure has produced some results from Seattle City council as Wednesday night
the mayor announced his own plan that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an
hour by 2017 at large businesses with more than 500 workers if they don’t also
receive health care. “Small businesses will have until 2019 to
reach $15 an hour if they do not offer health care or tips. All other small
businesses will have to pay $15 an hour by 2021.”***
In
the mayor’s plan, small business is a business with fewer than 500 employees.
$15
Now has opposed this plan and are continuing with the ballot initiative
campaign.
The
success of this campaign will not be determined by the passing of a ballot
initiative nor by appeasing the labor hierarchy or small business at the
expense of the low waged worker. When
the proposal talks of discussions with the “union”
I am convinced these are not discussions with rank and file militants about how
to strengthen their union, fight for higher wages, better benefits and to build
a nationwide direct action workers’ movement.
The speakers at the conference made that clear in their support of an
opt out or lose your benefits argument. Discussions were most likely with
leaders and staffers in the main.
I
wanted to touch on the SeaTac/Airport issue again. In 2005 Alaska Airlines laid off 500 workers
and contracted out their work. They just laid them off without any
kind of notice, and replaced those people with low-wage jobs at Menzies
Aviation according to PBS. Workers could earn $20 an hour at the ramp
then under union contract. The union leaders as usual did nothing. Now, GCA
is a contractor that has 30,000 employees around the country and employs
workers at the airport. Contracting out was a major issue when I was active
in the union before I retired. GCA is owned by Blackstone, the Wall Street
private equity group, which is worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Blackstone has spent billions buying up foreclosed homes that have been stolen
from those who lived in them by the bankers. It is a major renter of single-family
homes now. Stephen Schwarzman, one of Blackstone’s two founders is
worth $7 billion according to Forbes. Peter Petersen, the other Blackstone
founder wants to cut Medicaid and Medicare to make them solvent; he is worth $3
billion. These are the employers of some of the lowest paid workers
around the airport and the workers have been asked to help out small business.
Since SeaTac’s $15 an hour legislation passed last November,
the bosses have gone on the offensive. A
lawsuit backed by the airline and restaurant industries has cut some 4,700
workers out of the $15 minimum because as airport employees they fall under the
jurisdiction of the Port of Seattle which is not subject to electoral mandate.
One restaurant worker at the hotel I stayed at near the airport told me she “Wished I was just a few miles further west,
I only make the minimum here.” The current minimum wage in Washington State
is $9.19. She said that
she heard employers were using corporate addresses outside of the area to avoid
paying the minimum; I couldn’t confirm this. Instead of offering the
union workers the bosses’ option which is health care or wages, (as one speaker
said you can’t pay the rent with your benefits) building a direct action
movement that would include all workers and community business in the struggle
against the big business offensive is what is needed. The opt out and phase in
is divisive.
The
election of Kshama Sawant to the Seattle City Council is an historic
event. Socialist Alternative, the main
force within $15 now at this point
anyway, should be congratulated for its role in making this happen. This organization has traditionally had a
healthy orientation to the working class and working class-consciousness has
been advanced through these developments.
But
big business does not sit idly by as movements like this gain some
traction. They also shift on to the
offensive. As the movement grows and draws in various elements, $15Now and
Socialist Alternative and other groups within it will face many dangers from
forces that have a different approach to building an independent, direct action
movement that can challenge big business.
The liberals, many of them in non-profits for example, will tend to
temper the movement, undermine its militancy and reach out to the left wing of
the labor bureaucracy rather than orient to the rank and file of the unions and
workers and youth in the communities and neighborhoods.
There
is already a danger that those forces that simply want to use the movement to
pressure the city council are having an influence and they can derail a
movement very easily. It is these
internal struggles in many ways that are the most complex but they are
unavoidable if we want to win.
*
The answer? What if? AFL-CIO Industrial Union Department/Kaiser Coordinating
Committee
*** Seattle Times
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