Second Annual Shop Stewards’ Conference a Big Success

Local 18’s Second Annual Shop Stewards’ Conference, held June 6-7, was a big success on a number of fronts: first, we continued to weld our stewards, business reps and Union officers into an even more dedicated, tightly knit team on behalf of all of our members. Second, we learned new ways to make our Shop Stewards even more effective as they serve our brothers and sisters on the job. And finally, we got a valuable and highly informative “in-your-face” political briefing from a broad range of state and local elected officials, as well as Local 18’s own professional specialists.

Leading off, at the Friday night dinner, Democratic California State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a strong, long-time friend of organized labor and working families, and our hands-down candidate for governor in 2006, gave us a stark and blunt assessment of the “state of the state.” Lockyer is not just a casual or “convenient” friend of organized labor; he has been out there, on the picket lines, in the cold, at 5:30 in the morning.

Among other things, A.G. Lockyer said:

• The challenge for elected officials is to think and plan one generation ahead; in other words, to put their thinking and actions in the context of “how will they affect our children and even their children?”

• For example, we must today grapple with the facts that in the next 20 years there will be another two-and-half million more children in our schools, 15 million more cars on our roads, and that we will have to build eight million more housing units to accommodate new Californians.

• The current mismanagement of the national economy parallels the economic mess we had in the early 90s—highlighted by both Bushes embracing “trickle-down” economics. “Trickle-down” economics essentially means that if you give the horses (the wealthy, corporate America) more and more and more to eat, by way of absurd tax cuts and breaks, eventually a bit of the feast may fall away for the sparrows (working people and families) to nibble on.

• To finance their tax breaks for the wealthy, people-oriented spending programs that help us have been gutted: highways and infrastructure repairs; the environment; schools; healthcare; food for people and families in need—the depressing list goes on and on.

Turning to politics, the A.G. spoke about:

• The recall campaign against Governor Gray Davis is a Republican-financed effort to overturn the will of the voters of California, as expressed in the November, 2002 election. It is bad policy, bad politics and anti-democracy to elect someone to office and then throw him out because a conservative, anti-working family cabal can hire enough people to amass enough signatures to qualify such a proposition.

• Whatever the state of our budget, many progressive, pro-union, pro-working family bills have been passed and signed into law by the governor. We must not forget this.

• If there is a formal recall election (in November, 2003 or March, 2004), remember that there will be a parallel election on the same ballot to choose a governor if Davis were to be recalled. With the possibility of a number of conservative candidates grabbing at the chance to “back door” their way into the governor’s office, there is a very real chance that a small percentage (15-20%) of Californians could put someone really dangerous into the statehouse.

• Above all, we must remember that two-thirds of the economy is fueled by consumer spending, by what families choose to buy. Working people and families have the power to move the economy and, by extension, move the country politically. We must use that power—use it to get government back in the business of spending on schools, highways, medical care, urban renovation, the environment and the creation of well-paying jobs. That is what government is there for, not to provide the wealthy and the big corporations with even more of the pie.

Attorney General Lockyer spoke a lot of sense at our dinner; we look forward to his speaking a lot more of that when he is governor!

Saturday’s Speakers and Program

On Saturday, June 7, our stewards and staff heard—and learned a lot from—an interesting and informative group of speakers.

Local 18 President Frank Miramontes noted that members have a lot to be thankful for from a good contract we negotiated with the Department. This contract did not come about by accident, but, rather, from strong Union leadership and unity, along with time, effort and an overriding concern for our members. He praised the help of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and IBEW International Vice President (District 9) Mike Mowry. Brother Miramontes noted that Local 18 officers and business reps and Shop Stewards have to talk to the members and explain how we got that contract, the effort that went into securing it. We must always be aware that management and some politicians might try to remove some of the provisions we cherish, and that we must fight that whenever the need arises. We must support each other as unionists and to help preserve and strengthen the country’s working middle class.

IBEW IVP Mike Mowry said Shop Stewards have a “vital and important” role in advancing the IBEW in the workplace. It is a “tough, critical” job. He warned against buying into the “great lie” of economic equality as promoted by the administration in Washington, D.C. Despite our strong contract, millions of working people and families are in economic dire straits.

Stewards are the “extension of union leadership, the people who reach out to the members and inform them.” Too many

people take for granted the rights and benefits that unions struggled and bled for; they say we no longer need unions. We need unions to be vigilant, to guard against “sneak attacks” to change the laws that protect us on the job and our families and futures. The IBEW’s number one priority is to organize. Stewards must make members understand the lurking threats to their jobs and hard-won benefits. Members must understand the value of their union; they just can’t pay their dues and expect services. Their union is more than that—it fights for all working people. You can have a voice and power in the workplace.

Los Angeles City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, as Assembly Speaker, led the fight to save the eight-hour working day in California. He codified our Prevailing Wage. He said unions “made this country different, helping transform us from the Old World to a land of economic opportunity.” Unions made the U.S. the land of “mother liberty,” extending the Bill of Rights to economic rights and opportunity. But, he warned, as working people and families got these rights, they forgot their unions, forgot why we needed unions in the first place, and forgot what the unions had accomplished, and at what cost. Our ability, through unions, to impact wages and benefits is critical so that the rest of the working people in the country can keep their lifestyles and gains. This is nothing less than a struggle for the “direction of this country.”

Health care is a basic right. Labor must regain some of its lost power, use it to gain rights for working people, and engage its members. Labor must fight misplaced governmental spending priorities. “Will your children live as well as you?”, he asked. I share the same vision as unions do, he said, a city that “honors and rewards work.” We who enjoy living wages and health care must stand up for those who do not have these basic rights. “Unions are not a special interest,” he said, “because we represent the heart and soul of America—and the majority, because working people are the majority in this country.”

Shop Steward Ben Jimenez at the Conference General Session.

Los Angeles City Councilman Martin Ludlow owes a “great debt” to Local 18 in his recent campaign to replace and change “16 years of pothole politics” in his district. He noted that the Los Angeles Times asked in an editorial if he can lead without being a “labor guy”. He said he is for working people getting their fair share, that he is a “warrior for working people”. He wants the new City Council to support working families, and he urged organized labor to produce more of its own candidates for public office. He challenged us to “change the future”, to have trained labor people in office who do not have to be told about our concerns and goals, and who will fight for working families. He rightly called for a new city election law that would bar attacks against candidates’ families; “stick to the issues.” Unions are “on the front lines for working people in Los Angeles.” He called Shop Stewards people who work not for themselves, but for organized labor and working people and families. “Antonio and I will serve as Shop Stewards on the City Council—this is long overdue.”

State Assemblyman Fabian Nunez, like Brothers Villaraigosa and Ludlow from the ranks of organized labor, blasted the widening gap between the rich and poor. Organized labor, by creating and expanding the middle class, stands between the widening rich-poor gap. Unions must fight for the rights and dignity of working people, and unions are strong “only if their members are served by their Shop Stewards.” He pledged, “I am your Shop Steward in Sacramento—be sure of this.”

We cannot balance the state budge on the backs of working people, seniors, children and the poor, he said. We must have the “political will” to go to the rich and the big corporations for their “fair share” of taxes. Homes are assessed yearly, but not profitable businesses, he said. The state GOP is using “scare tactics” to prevent its legislators from doing the right things needed to balance the budget, but it is “perverting democracy” by leading the charge to recall the governor. Organized labor must hold onto its gains and fight rollbacks of basic rights and benefits. “I will not allow California to be taken back to an anti-worker, anti-family era,” he vowed.

Local 18 insurance consultant John Fickewirth noted that our members have had “the best benefits in Los Angeles since 1996.” He noted that medical-benefits costs are up, hospitals have consolidated into big chains, and that insurance companies have merged—and all this has led to more limited choices in health care. The biggest component of health-care costs, he said, is hospital expenses—and the biggest profiteers in health care here are the drug companies. He reviewed our health-care plan (please see your April Surge).

Local 18 utility-issues attorney Marc Joseph discussed the California Coalition of Utility Employees (CUE) and its efforts to maintain a rational, people-friendly state energy policy in the face of utility de-regulation. “Right now,” he said, we are making critical choices regarding the future of electricity in California.” With utility de-regulation in 1996, outside energy generators “screwed California and its people,” even as publicly held utilities like DWP did not fall under the jurisdiction of AB 1890, the de-regulation-enabling legislation. Local 18, he noted, saved the Department from selling its old power plants in a bid to slash its debt; in effect, our Union saved DWP from itself. Under de-regulation, electricity is produced and sold only by profit-driven, market forces. De-regulation, he said, ignores the public interest, planning for the public good and welfare and, worst of all, the skills, dedication and intrinsic value of utility workers.

Proponents of de-regulation claimed that “market forces and competition” would lower energy prices and produce a reliable electricity supply. This, of course, did not happen. Our goal is public power, careful planning, and an equitable rate structure, under which all customers in a similar class (residential, commercial or industrial) pay the same prices for power. We want stable prices based on real costs of service, not on inflated mark-ups for corporate greed. SB 888 (Dunn), which would re-regulate California utilities, values utility workers and recognizes that electricity is a fundamental product, not a privileged commodity to be priced at corporate whim. California must not live with threatened power outages, and manipulated prices and shortages. Market-driven electricity for California simply was a costly and cruel illusion.

Legislative advocate Art Carter called Local 18 a “critical component in the re-birth of the trade-union movement in Los Angeles County.” He noted that people we originally helped elect to the Los Angeles City Council are now in Sacramento. “They know our issues and goals, but we must always be sure that they are with labor not only on the easy-to-support issues, but on our fundamentally important ones like working people vs. capital [money] concerns.” Worker comp, for example, has been a basic labor concern for almost a century, but it is now under attack by business interests in an effort to increase their profits.

Other fundamental bills are SB 888 and SB 2 (Burton), which would give millions of uninsured Californians some basic health coverage. We must work to pass them in the legislature. SB 888 is now in the Assembly, where its fate will be decided; we must create a strong bill there and pass it out this year, or it may never emerge. Unfortunately, he noted, the recall effort against the governor is “coloring the entire election process. Big energy corporations will throw in massive amounts of money in order to influence politicians on SB 888 and other key bills.”

Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Secretary-Treasurer Miguel Contreras noted the huge effort made by organized labor to elect effective, understanding legislators to both the Los Angeles City Council and the state legislature. The Fed is a strong political “player” in local politics. “People said that organized labor—we—were weak, but we showed in recent elections that we had the determination and muscle to defeat the misguided anti-secession effort and elect our friends to office.” Because of our leadership in the anti-secession fight, we now have a friend in L.A. Mayor James Hahn. We see “our union family members”, new City Councilmen Ludlow and Villaraigosa becoming part of an “influential force” on the Council—they must use their power on behalf of working people and families, and a better City of Los Angeles for us all. “Local 18,” he said, “is an example of what a union should be, in Los Angeles, anywhere in the Country—always there, always ready to fight for the right issues.”

Shop Stewards Joyce Brown and Martin Villegas participate in general discussion

IBEW Director of Human Resources Royetta Sanford praised Local 18 as “one of the most progressive locals in the entire IBEW.” She discussed Shop Steward duties and responsibilities (quoting “A Steward’s Prayer”), and asked our stewards to voice some concerns they experience on the job. Our stewards responded, describing some of the problems they face at the worksites.
The conference was then broken up into small discussion groups, with the stewards discussing their concerns with other stewards, and with Local 18 business reps. They reported back to the entire group with some new perspectives on—and proposed solutions to—their concerns.

State Senator Richard Alarcon, chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, called on our Shop Stewards to “teach members about your Union, about the whole picture concerning problems facing working people and families in California.” We can end poverty in California, he said, because we ended it for others here. Unions established California’s working middle class. He noted that corporate executive salaries in this country are 500 times greater than those of their workers. Poverty is rampant, it is a problem we cannot ignore; this is not our California, he said. “The quality of life equals being in a union,” he declared.

We must realize that the recall effort against the governor is really an effort by big business to repeal the minimum wage, OSHA, worker comp., the eight-hour day and overtime, and all the other rights we have fought for so long and hard. “The recall is not about the governor,” he said, “it is about the values and interests of working families in California.” He urged stewards to teach our members “the values you have learned—spread the word.” This country is great, he said, because we have the best working class—and the unions built it!

State Senator Joe Dunn, author of the critical SB 888, the bill that would re-regulate utilities in California, led the Senate probe into energy price-gouging and market- manipulation, concluding that it was largely due to massive corporate/executives greed. “Our so-called energy crisis was not about power, it was all about economics,” Dunn charged. “It was based on a false, anti-consumer philosophy that electricity is a commodity like any other, one that can be traded and subject to free-market forces.” There was no shortage, no “energy spike” that raised prices and “shut down” supplies; “energy prices went up because they could go up.” Energy company executives from the big outside power-generating outfits didn’t care about California consumers, he noted, they cared only about profits and shareholders.

Under de-regulation, no one had the legal duty to deliver reliable and affordable energy to people and small businesses. Prices spiraled out of control, with Californians paying some $40 billion for wholesale electricity in 2001, up from $7 billion in 1999. “As soon as de-reg passed, the big energy corporations knew that they could—and would—abuse the system. ” They promised cheaper, abundant power and delivered nothing, all the while making bigger and bigger profits.
“SB 888 is a fundamental, philosophical fight over California’s future energy policy,” he stated. “It is regulatory oversight vs. the free market in electricity supply; there is no middle ground. ” SB 888 passed the Senate as a shell, meaning the Assembly now must put consumer-protecting teeth into the bill—and must do it this year because there is a good chance of another 2000-2001 power disaster (spiraling prices and energy unreliability) next year if a strong SB 888 is not passed. “We must win now,” Dunn stressed. We cannot continue to leave energy to the whims, manipulations and greed of a de-regulated market. As California handles this problem, so will the rest of the country follow our lead—making the stakes even higher. “If we stop utility de-regulation here, we can stop it across the country,” he said. “This is an important struggle, and Local 18 must be actively involved in this epic fight.”

Local 18 attorney Robert Dohrmann discussed our Union’s rock-hard philosophy of “no contract, no work.” He noted that this strong attitude is “very rare in Los Angeles,” and it led directly to our strikes against the Department in 1974, 1981 and 1993. After 1993’s nine-day walkout, he said, the DWP realized that we meant business and said, let’s get along with Local 18 instead of fighting with the Union. In fact, he noted, the influence of IBEW Local 18 at the Department has been such that the last two general managers were hired after consultations with our Union. Further, the new relationship between DWP and Local 18 led to the creation of the very worthwhile Joint Safety and Training Institutes (JSI and JTI).

In Conclusion

All of our speakers were very informative and forthright. Local 18 Shop Stewards, officers and staff gathered a wealth of new information to use in their work and impart to the members. By that standard alone, our Second Annual Shop Stewards Conference was a big success. We plan to hold the Third Annual Conference sometime in 2004, perhaps this time in the early fall.

In unity,

BRIAN D’ARCY, Business Manager