In California I was once an IBEW electrician (from a family of unionists, either IBEW or Railroad & back further to socialists in pre-Fascist Italy–don’t let the name confuse you) and then went on to be a Santa Cruz County Building Inspector. When I came north anti-California sentiment was rife in Washington. There was even a weekly (maybe daily) California bashing columnist (Emmett Watson) in the Seattle Times. My union “brothers” just couldn’t seem to find me work so I went to work for a union sprinkler company as an inspector. Now that job wasn’t a union job and my good brothers in the fitter’s union didn’t think the three inspectors at this company were worth bringing into the fold. I worked there at abysmal wages so as to feed my children until I found a better paying job with a merit shop.

Being ambitious I rose rather rapidly and soon (at least after the first two years) was making scale or above. I then went into management. I am now no longer directly in the fire protection industry but rather in the education business and once again a union member although this time the American Federation of Teachers. I have always been an executive board officer in AFT in some capacity. I will tell you that if the Safeway workers strike or the service staff at a hotel or restaurant puts up a picket line I will not cross that line and I wouldn’t do it even in the days when I was not in a union. I didn’t eat grapes and I didn’t eat lettuce in the days of Cesar Chavez. On the other hand I find a union that uses it’s substantial economic clout to lobby for legislation that will harm the public by restricting trade, particularly when purporting that that legislation has been proposed for the benefit of the public, again particularly when its supposed to be a remedy for an ailment that doesn’t exist, is deplorable and does not warrant my support.

This is not meant as any sort of indictment against unionism, nor organized labor, nor the hardworking fitters “picking up heavy things” (we’ll leaver the other part of THAT joke out for now) all day, but rather the current philosophy and strategy of the Union leadership. The purpose of the Union should be to organize labor to ensure a fairness in the workplace and to establish a standard of care that provides the public with a product they can rely on. Strategies like this in California seem more designed to close down merit shops at the detriment of currently satisfied workers (they would be organizable if the Union offered them a better alternative–I don’t see any head busting by hired goons a’la Ford & Reuther) and undermining the public trust and confidence in fire sprinklers.