A Message For Afscme Local 444 members. Organized Labor and Politics

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

9-24-26

My former union local, Afscme 444 representing blue collar workers at *EBMUD, a water utility I also worked at, is endorsing Gary Wolff, a local businessman, academic and "progressive" for one of the seven wards that govern the water utility. The local's PAC interviewed the candidate and he promised them "he will be there for us" says the union president Eric Larsen. Larsen also writes that, Wolff, also "demonstrated that he "understood labor values" and is "...aligned with those values." I don't know how many times I've heard that one. 

 

Of course he did, he wants help and money getting elected. 

 

The Afscme Local 444 president has enthusiastically backed Wolff and encouraged the members to "knock on doors and hand out door signs." 

 

In this quick video I made I give a little history about electoral politics at the publicly elected boards and the history of these progressives on them. Unlike Local 444's president I believe it is not electoral politics or relying on so-called friends of labor that is a source of "some of our best support" but the power of workers on the job, the unification of the two Afscme Locals that represent workers in the workplace, one white collar the other blue and a clear idea of what we are fighting for and how we can win. 

 

I neglected to mention in the video that the liberal that was on the EBMUD board for 12 years or more who wouldn't join our picket lines could be found at a rally for Humphrey the Whale that made headlines when he got trapped in the San Francisco Bay. 

 

I am not saying we shouldn't vote and believe defending the right to vote is important as we won it through bitter struggle and sacrifice. But US workers in general never won what we have today through the ballot box, it was won through battles in the streets communities and workplaces of America. 

 

The main point is workers have to rely on our own strength and not appeal to mythical friends of labor in either of the two big business parties. One of the reasons there has been a turn to the right by many workers is the failure and treachery of the Democratic Party to address the needs of workers, relying instead on the poison that is identity politics. 

 

We need an independent political voice for working people/labor rather than rely on the nebulous "friends" who are never were and never will be our friends. 

 

If there are any 444 members or EBMUD workers who wish to get together to discuss the history I am referring to here or would like to know more feel free to contact me. If you don't necessarily agree with my views here but think they are worth hearing please share. 

 

I could say a lot about DC 57 but perhaps another time. 

 

*EBMUD is the East Bay Municipal Utility District