Some Personal Labor History: Solidarity, Unity and Struggle

Two Richards: The Wastebasket Affair

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired.

3-30-23

 

I hooked up with an old friend today after about a 20-year gap. I first met Richard at work. He was in Janitorial and I was in Maintenance at Central Yard and still in the ditch, not yet a backhoe operator. Central was one of his stations and he made it livable for those of us that had to return to work there the next day.

 

Central was already a hotbed of union activity before I got there; in fact, it’s where I learned the importance of the trade union. When I was brought up on charges for creating a hostile workplace------distributing a leaflet criticizing a co-worker for his pro-management activities that undermined solidarity in the yard----- I won the arbitration that resulted. At one point the lawyer’s brief stated:

“….there was a practice at Central Yard for union members to distribute written materials to fellow employees on the job about workplace matters……..As a matter of reality, union activity took place at the workplace as if it were a union meeting. This custom was carried out with the knowledge and implicit (if not explicit) approval of management.” *

 

One time, there was an issue and I can’t remember all the details. My recollection is that the black workers, who were a majority of us, were upset about a number of issues, in particular the testing procedure. None of us had any objection or criticism as far as I remember; solidarity was strong in the yard. The black workers were not pointing fingers at their white co-workers or anyone else except the management.  

 

So the boss sent the Director of Administration over to find out what was going on. This was a black woman who I recall getting hired round about the time of the 1985 strike. Her job was to interview the black workers to find out what was wrong and what needed to be done, I am sure it was black workers in particular but maybe it was all of us. She did her job and went off planning to return after the management had decided what steps to take.

 

Myself and the other union activists were trying to figure out what management’s tactics would be to calm the black workers and, ever suspicious, to in some subtle way direct the anger more toward other workers in the yard, or reduce the anger toward the bosses in some way.

 

So within a week or so, Richard gets in touch with me. We lived in the same neighborhood round from Eastmont Mall in East Oakland so we saw each other a fair bit. Richard stopped at the house and brought a little gift with him. He also cleaned this woman’s office and as he went to empty her waste basket he noticed a lot of torn up notes in there. He wasn’t sure what they were but Rich was strong union, a steward in Janitorial and had played a good role in the 1985 strike, so he scooped them up and brought them round to my house after work.

 

It turned out these were notes this manager had taken interviewing the workers in Central Yard. We sat down and put the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle and they were very readable.

 

So for the next meeting which would be with the union reps we knew exactly what she was thinking, what she was recommending to her boss. It was a handy position for us to be in. Shredders put a stop to that.

 

Today, Rich and I had a cup of coffee at a little place in Berkeley near where he lives and we laughed about that. He is a Muslim so it’s Ramadan and he couldn’t eat anything. But this sort of history, this solidarity and tales of the class struggle on the job are so important for young people to hear and learn from. The role of leadership is crucial in this regard. It is the union leadership’s job to bring the history of the organization and the people that helped make it to light. It is the leadership’s job to struggle for the consciousness of the working class in the workplace against the bosses' efforts to obscure it.

 

It was great to see an old union fighter again; he’s 77 now a little older than me. I should end with one point. In the workplace we called Central Yard, one of four satellite maintenance yards in our service area, comradeship and solidarity were very strong. This doesn’t happen without effort, without a struggle, without day in day out making sure that any attempts to undermine this unity would mean a fight. Central Yard was eventually closed and one steward sent north with some folks and the other (this writer) sent south with others. It was opened up some years later. I am so proud to have been one small part of it and it was magic to sit down with Richard again and talk about work, life and history.

*Arbitration Proceedings Local 444 (AFSCME, AFL-CIO) and East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) Brief on Behalf of the Union Van Bourg, Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld