Union must emerge stronger and united

For the immediate future, SPEEA and the UAW should be our top priorities as Machinists. As far as the Machinists, I accept the lesson we have been given. I hope we learn from this woodshed experience. I believe this contract will motivate us to seize the opportunity before us for reforms (heavy on the plural). Despite popular perceptions, this contract train wreck did not happen on Friday the 13th.

Look back for a moment to our past. We’ve had many chances to respond to red flashing lights – we’ve ignored the warnings. When the IAM was demoralized organizing the salary workers at Boeing in the spring of 2001, that was a wake-up call. Since the early 1990s others came close to toppling the IAM leadership; that was a wake-up call. Various reform movements inside the Machinists union have sprung up; that was a wake-up call. When contract concessions started in the 1980s, that was a wake-up call. When there was impropriety in our union, that was a wake-up call. When we failed to respond to grievances, that was a wake-up call. These are some of the warning signs that have led our members to this tumultuous vote!

I say these things out of compassion for our union. One lesson we’ve learned: We all are responsible in one way or another for the state of the Machinists union. However, the officers and leaders must accept a larger portion of liability for their knowledge and power, and at the same time the members must finally recognize their own failure to participate.

At this point we have to be brutally honest, get real and ask tough relevant questions! Will we welcome and cultivate new voices? Will we appreciate and cultivate rank and file activism in our hearts? To the members and officers of the IAM, the Sept. 13 contract vote is not over. We have another vote to cast! May we find the unity, passion and historical perspective we so desperately deserve.

Marysville

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