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| Program: KBCS shift break 200700523 |
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This is Tom Herriman with Shift Break
One of the things Iâ??ve always marveled at in the labor movement is that in almost any workplace, from a coal mine to a steel mill to an apple orchard, thereâ??s an endless often untapped reservoir of smart, unselfish, talented people who are willing to devote many of their waking hours, and much of their lives to helping their fellow workers in the struggle for fair wages and working conditions.
Today on shift break, I want to tell you about two rank and file union members who started their careers as factory workers, and over the years became outstanding leaders in their union and in the community.
Tom Wroblewski was elected in April as the new President of District 751 of the Machinists Union.
He leads over 22,000 members who work at Boeing and other Washington aerospace plants. Wroblewski started his working life in a tractor plant in Fargo North Dakota.
He started working at Boeingâ??s Auburn plant a couple years later, and started working his way up the ladder of leadership in the union.
ACTUALITY TW 2-Became a Steward
Wroblewski assumes the leadership of District 751 at a critical time for the union. Nationally, the Machinists have lost over half their membership because of foreign trade and the decline of heavy manufacturing industries in the U.S. Last week in Everett, wing sections built in Japan for Boeingâ??s new 787 dreamliner were delivered at Paine field to be assembled by Local 751 members.
I asked Wroblewski what was the union strategy to keep Boeing jobs in the US.
ACTUALITY-TW 3
MUSICAL BREAK
Carl Shier died a few days ago at age 89 in Chicago. Carl went to work at a Buick plant in Melrose Park, Illinois in 1940. He was a shop floor leader of the factory which later was bought by International Harvester, and led the fight to organize with the United Auto Workers Union. He was a trade union and political activist for the rest of his life. In politics, Carl was a socialist, and one of the sparkplugs of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee which later became Democratic Socialists of America led by Michael Harrington. But he worked hard to find and support mainstream candidates, like former Mayor of Chicago Harold Washington, who shared Carlâ??s passion for social justice.
But perhaps his greatest contributions to his fellow workers were in the community.
He organized civil rights protests, anti-war marches and political campaigns. He helped build the grape and lettuce boycotts for the farm workers union.
Carl attracted young people to the labor movement and to political work, and mentored and encouraged them into activism. In the days before the internet, Carl maintained his own networkâ?¦sort of a snail mail blog. Every month or so heâ??d send a packet of clippings, pamphlets, and photocopies of articles to a list of several hundred activists around the country. Iâ??ve been on Carlâ??s list for many years. The last one of his mailings came about a month ago. It included an article by Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson. In a remembrance of Carl in Dissent magazine last week, Meyerson said, â??itâ??s a close call as to whether more people have read me in The Washington Post or in Carlâ??s care packages.â??
So good luck to Tom Wroblewski as he leads the Machinists union through some major challenges; and thanks and farewell to Carl Shier for all his work over the last 7 decades to make the world a better place to work and live in.
On a final note, Northwest Folklife honors unions and working people at the Labor stage on Saturday, 4 pm in the Charlotte Martin theater. The Seattle Labor Chorus, David Francey, Sharon Abreu and others are performing.
This is Tom Herriman for Shiftbreak.
Visit Shift break. Com etc.
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