I’m a fourth-generation union glazier. I remember being a kid sitting around the dinner table when my dad was on strike, thanking God for the Painters union (IUPAT) even when times were hard. The history of our union’s struggle is in my blood, and I’ll never take the sacrifice members before me made for granted.
But a lot of our members today are disconnected from our union, and I get why.
This certainly isn’t a problem unique to the Painters. For as long as I’ve been alive, the labor movement has been complacent, coasting by and believing our wins to be permanent and guaranteed — and that if we stay under the radar, the corporate elite and the politicians won’t bother us. All of this while we watched union density drop to new lows.
In 1973, construction unions represented 38 percent of workers in the industry (already a big drop from the 87 percent we represented in 1947). Last year, we represented just 11 percent.
As we’ve watched our rights, our membership, and our power erode over the last few decades, it’s become obvious that business as usual just won’t cut it. That’s why our union has embarked on our Building Union Power campaign, an effort to engage and activate every single IUPAT member.
As president, I, along with other elected officers of our International, have been traveling to our District Councils throughout North America to train delegates, apprentices, officers, stewards, staff, and other activists on the history of the labor movement and our union.
We discuss the challenges ahead — both issues internal to our union and ones that affect the entire labor movement — and how we can tackle them together. We practice answering tough questions and having hard conversations.
Local union staff and member-activists are instructed to take these tools onto jobsites and into meetings to train rank-and-file members. We want every member to feel “touched” by the union, to hear from us and to know (1) we’ve got their back, and…
Auteur: Jimmy Williams Jr
