UE, United Electrical, an independent, members-run union, led the Republic Windows occupation.

[Hannah Bell]

http://www.ueunion.org/


UE, United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, founded 1936, 35,000 members, historically a radical union.

The first union chartered under CIO, UE was red-baited & expelled from AFL-CIO when A/C became a "captive" union (partner of industry & manager of labor v. voice of labor.)

http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/uewho5.html


UE is different from captive unions:

1. Democratically-run:

The members set the policies of the union and make all of the decisions of importance that affect their own local unions....Elected local union representatives meet each year to set UE policy by debating and approving resolutions submitted by local unions from around the country."


2. Yearly elections for all offices.


3. Salary caps for union officials:

"The salary of the union's three top elected officers is limited by the UE Constitution to the top wage paid in the industry (currently set at less than $51,000.)

It's hard to think (or act) like a big shot on a worker's wage. More important, this policy keeps UE leaders in touch with the lives of our members — we believe it's too easy for labor leaders to develop "boss-like" points of view if they've become comfortable with "boss-size" salaries."



Historic accomplishments:

"UE was the first union to win paid vacations and holidays, seniority rights and other rights on the job for hundreds of thousands of workers in basic industry.... In the 1950s, UE mounted public campaigns to force major electrical manufacturing corporations to agree to non-discrimination clauses. UE was among the first to organize undocumented workers and speak out on behalf of immigrants. As an early critic of the Vietnam War, the union campaigned for redirecting the federal budget toward job-creating, socially-useful production."


Philosophy:

"UE stresses strong workplace organization and militant shop floor action over legal maneuvering. In the 1980s, UE was the first union to resist the employers' drive for concessions and the first union to sound a warning about "quality circles" and other phoney "labor-management" cooperation schemes."

Policy:

http://www.ueunion.org/policy_tc.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. pls kick if you rec, thanks.

[mdmc]

2. Local 17 (carpenters Orange County, NY)

always work hard for the GOP... sometimes for Con-Dems...

[Hannah Bell]

3. Carpenters isn't UE, right?

http://www.necarpenters.org/about_leadership.cfm

[mdmc]

5. no miss ... just a right wing conservative labor union

[Grey]

4. The way all unions should be run, K/R

[mdmc]

6. what is the republican windows operation that they led?

:kick:

[Hannah Bell]

9. Republic Windows & Doors is the company being occupied by its workers right now.

The company that closed the doors without paying them all that was owed.

The occupation is a UE action.

[mdmc]

11. republic .. not republican...

ahh...

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Bravo! Go EU! n/t

[Peace Patriot]

8. Thank you for this information! What a great union history!

"Quality time," huh? You see, this is why we need workers in public office, because they are more likely to smell a corporate scam. Union workers, and workers who, though they may not be unionized yet, are on the side of workers, have often seen it all, heard it all, been cheated and robbed by it all, and understand what a loyal, productive work force is all about, and what human rights and civil rights are all about. You get too many lawyers, and administrators, and bureaucrats, and of course too many rich people, in public office, and government becomes more and more and more unreal, until we have the "Alice in Wonderland" government of today--that thinks the U.S./Peru "free trade" deal is good for workers and the environment (other than ON PAPER), or that a U.S./Colombia "free trade" deal will help reform Colombia, where thousands of union leaders have been murdered by rightwing death squads with close ties to the government and the military. Union workers, and other workers, grasp the underside of these "deals" quicker than anybody else.

The bar to workers running for public office, is, of course, the millions in startup money that aspirants to public office must possess, or have access to, to even think about running for election to anything. So, after we get rid of 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting, with the secret code owned and controlled by rightwing Bushwhack corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls, next we need to ban private money in political campaigns, bust the corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies, and reclaim some of our public airwaves for political debate. Our system is insane, all in all, and bound to produce endless looting of the poor, workers, the middle class and small business. We need to take it apart, piece by piece, and re-create democracy.

Think of the talent, the intelligence, the dedication, the creativity, the altruism, and the common sense that are being banned from our government, by workers being barred from public office, due to the filthy contribution system and costs of running a campaign, driven by corpo/fascist 'news' monopoly prices for air time. You want to ruin a country? Do this--keep the working people out of government with astronomical campaign costs.

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. K&R!

[mdmc]

12. I read the OP

UE ... led the Republican windows operation .... I thought that the GOP had hired union webmasters...

[Hannah Bell]

13. :>)

[anaxarchos]

14. At it's height,

UE was the largest CIO union with over 600,000 members. It was (and is) the union at GE, Westinghouse and many others. It was the focus of red-baiting in the Trade Union movement during the McCarthy era. It is a minor miracle that it survived. Their story is told in a very good book, Them and Us, by James Matles.

"The members run this union"

[ConsAreLiars]

15. When I was involved in creating a worker owned/operated not-for-profit blue collar

manufacturing operation, we wanted to have a union label both to reflect our affiliation and as a protection in case something went terribly awry. The trade based AFL union in that area was not willing, but UE said "Hell, Yes!" because they saw us as being on the same side. After a few years, not sure of why, we got swapped over to the UAW, and, after over 30 years the operation is larger, the community support and service aspects are stronger, and the people there have the chance to both do good work and earn decent wages.

(edit to add omitted verb)

[hfojvt]

16. interesting, but they still seem Gomperized

that is, getting benefits for their own members instead of for the entire working class.

[Hannah Bell]

17. what nonsense is this?