a union dilema

One side effect of the downsizing on my building is that we lost a center. We had 4 centers—each covering a different city or area, and to cut management costs, they decided to merge them into 3 centers. For the union, this means we need to have new steward elections.

I’ve only been driving for 4½ years, but I’m fairly active in the union. I ran last time we had steward elections and got my ass kicked. Winning wasn’t my objective though. I just wanted to put myself out there as a union activist.

This time around, the nomination sheets haven’t even been posted and I’m being courted by three drivers.

The first one to ask for my support is someone who is critical of the union bureaucracy and was steward before I started working there, so I don’t know first hand how he works, but from rumors, he has a good record. I thought he would be the person I supported, but in consequent conversations, he has been dismissive of my arguments around rank and file power to take on both the union and company. He keeps talking about how no one got fired when he was steward and his record filing grievances. Those things are important, but what I’ve tried to impress on him and my other co-workers is that in this economic crisis, the company will be coming down hard on us, and we need to shove back whether or not we have official approval from the Local leadership. We need to look beyond just the grievance procedure.

The other two have been more open to the idea that this is a new period requiring new tactics from us. Eventually, the company will want to re-open the contract, and when that happens, we can’t rely on the International to fight with the tenacity we need to resist concessions. We need to be ready to take action.

The next driver who asked for my support actually requested I be his alternate steward. We would run as a slate. Since I don’t feel confident to run for steward myself (the company would know I am inexperienced and walk all over me), learning the ropes as an alternate makes sense. At first though, I didn’t want to support this driver because he doesn’t come to work all that often. He was the alternate before, and he was gone on injury a lot. He also was on the safety committee which allowed him to sit in the office while the rest of us broke our backs delivering packages. The union has set a rule saying you have to be steward to be on safety committee. Could it be he just wants to be steward to remain on safety committee?

But when he was around, he was actually the steward I wanted to talk to. He was more responsive than the head steward and even though he didn’t actually file the grievances (because the head steward wanted to control them), he would confront management for me much more readily. And, I like some of the ideas he has of using the morning meetings to announce union stuff. He also agrees with me that we don’t have to wait for our business agent to call a driver meeting.

Plus, he was flattering when he asked me to run with him. He likes what I bring to the table, knows I go to the meetings and am active in the union, I think outside the box and have a lot to offer. Plus, I’m a woman. I bring a different dynamic and perspective that will be important for the members. These are all things he said. Which makes me believe he is sincere. So I agreed.

But that was when I thought there were only two people in the running. A third driver’s hat is in the ring. He was the steward from the other center we merged with. I originally was told he was not going to run again because he was going to start working with the International. Apparently, that was just rumor. He has a good track record and is respected by his drivers. He also has a broader vision of the labor movement. Not only does he agree that we need a driver meeting and that we don’t need to wait for the BA to call it, he knows we need to ask the drivers about what their issues are and come up with a good agenda so that we actually accomplish something at the meeting. He’s been active in organizing drives with the Local. The philosophy he espoused to me is that he can’t be steward by himself. He needs a team of people, like me, who will be active and support him. My support would be welcome because he knows he wouldn’t have to pull teeth to get me to meetings and such. He, too, seems sincere.

What the hell do I do?