“It’s just a great feeling for me to see people in-person again,” said UE Western Region President Bryan Martindale, as he looked out over the delegates who assembled for the fall regional council meeting on October 1 and 2. “This is what it’s all about — members interacting with members.”
It was a sentiment that was echoed throughout the weekend, as delegates took every opportunity to compare notes with delegates from other locals during breaks and meals, and in the evenings. Kevin White of Local 728 said that being able to meet in person was especially welcome for delegates from his local, which had organized and bargained their first contract largely over Zoom.
On Saturday night, delegates gathered at a nearly Mexican restaurant for a fundraiser which raised almost $500 for the region’s Member Action Fund. The fund helps defray the cost of UE members participating in mobilizations, political action and educational activities like the Labor Notes conference.
“Let us stand together and create an economy and a government that works for everyone”
In his president’s report, Martindale reviewed some of the challenges facing working people in the current moment. He highlighted the “outrageous and immoral U.S. healthcare system” and the need to replace it with a Medicare for All single-payer system. Medicare for All, he said, is “not a radical idea but the right thing to do,” and he noted that while politicians of both parties are willing to throw almost $800 billion to the defense budget, “suddenly they become very cost-conscious” when it comes to spending money on people’s health and well-being.
UE Western Region President Bryan Martindale (left) consults with Vice President Larry Hopkins (right).
Turning to the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Martindale called it “the most blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution in my lifetime.” He recalled how a report he wrote in high school in 1978 on the decision — just five years after it was handed down — gave him “way more insight into that situation than I wanted at the time” and that “that 17 year-old kid did a lot of growing up” as he wrote the report. He noted that Roe was decided by a court with six members who were appointed by conservative presidents — five of whom joined the 7-2 majority opinion.
Martindale also declared that “We have more income and wealth inequality now than at any time in the last hundred years,” and he outlined some of the reasons why “half of all working Americans are working paycheck to paycheck, and millions struggle on poverty wages.” He pointed out that in recent decades, $50 trillion of wealth has been redistributed from the bottom 90 percent to the top one percent, and that “a small number of billionaires and CEOs … play a huge role in who gets elected” with donations of “dark money” that are channeled through SuperPacs.
He concluded his remarks by invoking Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for “a radical redistribution of economic and political power” and called for working people to “stand together and create an economy and a government that works for everyone, not just the one percent.”
“A very clear demonstration of what the union can do to improve our members’ lives”
Following Martindale’s report, leaders from locals across the region gave shop reports on grievance wins, recent contract negotiations and preparations for upcoming bargaining — and union actions to deal with problem supervisors.
Fred Hatef, Local 1008.In his shop report, Local 1008 Vice President Fred Hatef related how a supervisor had been harassing UE members, threatening to send them home if they didn’t produce a certain quota of files during the day. When the union had a meeting with the supervisor, they learned that he did not know there was a union (or union contract) at the shop — but “he found out that day” and stopped harassing members. Hatef said that this union action provided “a very clear demonstration of what the union can do to improve our members’ lives.”
Jessica Van Eman, Local 1477.Local 1477 President Jessica Van Eman reported on another situation of a supervisor behaving poorly. In Columbus, New Mexico, a Hallcon supervisor was publicly announcing that she wasn’t going to hire any LGBTQ people, single parents or people who had another job — and during contract negotiations, threatened UE members about going on strike. After a couple of Local 1477 leaders went to higher-ups about this supervisor’s behavior, she was terminated.
“We don’t need anybody else to do this for us”
In his address to the council meeting, Director of Organization Mark Meinster told delegates that UE is in the midst of “the most intense period of organizing and first contract bargaining that we’ve been engaged in in decades.”
UE’s recent growth is part of a general upsurge of working people, he said, including the workers organizing at corporate giants Amazon and Starbucks. He pointed out that in many cases these organizing drives are being led by young people, just like the organizing drives in the 1930s that established UE and other CIO unions. Also like the early organizing of the UE and the CIO, these organizing drives are not being driven by paid union staff or big unions with lots of money — they are being led by workers themselves.
Meinster reminded delegates that “The rights that we do have, people fought for, people died for, and we’ve got to defend them,” and he urged UE members to read the UE booklet “Them and Us Unionism” which lays out the core UE principles that have allowed the union to function as a worker-led, rank-and-file union for almost nine decades. He also reviewed the success of UE’s Building Union Power workshop series, which brought together over 50 UE members from more than 15 locals “to talk about how we can unite our coworkers in our workplaces” and explore “what kinds of conversations do we need to have to get people involved?”
Meinster emphasized that the task of strengthening UE and rebuilding the U.S. labor movement lies in the hands of the rank and file, where UE has always put its faith. “We can do this,” he said. “We don’t need anybody else to do this for us.”
Mentors Remembered
During good and welfare, delegates also took the time to remember two legendary UE organizers who passed away this year, both of whom had played a key role in mentoring the next generation of UE leaders.
Martindale offered a remembrance of UE International Representative Humberto Camacho, who passed away in April. “He was my earliest mentor,” Martindale said, “just a fantastic human being. He did so much for not only our union, our organization, but for the communities in the Los Angeles area.”
Martindale recalled how after he was elected chief steward in his shop, at the age of 19, Camacho not only gave him guidance in his job as a UE steward but gave him the confidence that his co-workers had not made a mistake in electing him. “He said, you know, sometimes people see leadership in other people that they don’t see in themselves.”
Martindale also asked UE Communications Director Jonathan Kissam to say a few words about UE International Representative Saladin Muhammad, who passed away in September. Kissam related that when he was interviewing UE leaders about Muhammad in order to write an obituary for the UE NEWS, everyone he talked to spoke about Muhammad’s role as a mentor — something he said was true of his own experience as well. “Even though I only got to spend time with him a few times, every time he took the time to talk to me, and every time I came away a better trade unionist.”
“Things that are urgent crises like healthcare and climate — we can’t afford to play nice anymore”
UE-endorsed candidate for California State Assembly Fatima Iqbal-Zubair.
Guest speaker Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, a candidate for State Assembly in the southern part of Los Angeles, addressed the council meeting on Sunday morning. She outlined her program to make sure that all workers have livable wages, healthy working conditions, and the ability to join unions; to win healthcare for all; and to make California politics accountable to working people.
Iqbal-Zubair emphasized that, although she is running as a Democrat, she is more than willing to go against the party leadership when they are unwilling to engage in aggressive struggle on behalf of working people. “Things that are urgent crises like healthcare and climate — we can’t afford to play nice anymore,” she said. She has been on the front lines of organizing for Medicare for All in her district and said she would bring that fight to the state assembly.
After asking her a variety of questions, delegates unanimously endorsed her candidacy.
Council delegates also participated in a workshop, “Inflation: Why It’s Here and How to Fix It Without Losing Jobs,” led by UE Director of Education Kari Thompson, and held elections to fill several vacant seats. Doris Kissee, Local 716, Hannah Zadeh, Local 896, Eric Escobar, Local 1018, Cedric Whelchel, Local 1177, and Sabir Sabir, Local 1421 were elected to fill five vacant seats on the region’s executive board, and Allie McDonald, Local 1186, was elected to fill the vacant position of alternate trustee.
New Western Region elected officers being sworn in. Left to right: Alternate Trustee Allie McDonald, Local 1186, and at-large executive board members Sabir Sabir, Local 1421, Cedric Whelchel, Local 1177, and Eric Escobar, Local 1018.