ONLINE VERSION	VOLUME 106 - NUMBER 9 - OCTOBER 1997

Secretary-Treasurer's Overview

Last month yet another Labor Day slipped past. There were the traditional picnics and barbeques, the occasional parade and the now common doomsday predictions in the media. Certainly, there was a little more optimism this year because of the successful settlement of the Teamsters strike against the United Parcel Service--a settlement that saw the Teamsters beat back the rising tide of part-time work and open the door for 10,000 new full-time jobs that will offer members higher wage rates, better benefits and a more secure future. But the elements that went into this visible, but, unfortunately, still unusual victory are somewhat unique. For one thing, though alternative package delivery systems exist, none were as effective or as inexpensive. For another thing, UPS delivery men have a personal connection with the public from their daily rounds. But the most crucial factor is that the Teamsters were in the position to shut down the entire operation, because due to UPS's market share--80 percent--they represented the bulk of that industry's workers. The lesson we walk away with from the strike, especially at the time of the year when we assess the state of the labor movement is simple and it's not new: unless the labor movement organizes, it will die. Unless the labor movement brings in new members, it won't be able to maintain the 38 percent wage advantage and the benefit advantage that union membership still represents. The list of the benefits that have moved from represented workers to workers at large are vast ... from the 40-hour workweek to public education to overtime pay to paid vacations and sick time to health benefits. As we have seen over the past decade, the advances won by workers are not set in stone, but instead are under continual attack by anti-worker forces in Congress and in corporate America. Our living standards as a nation are under attack. The only solution is to organize. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has declared that the right to organize is the civil rights movement of the 1990s. It certainly cuts across race, gender and economic barriers to the most basic level of allowing workers and their families the right to work hard and get ahead. Workers couldn't do it on their own 100 years ago. Then, after conditions got better, some have forgotten that lesson and union membership declined. Now we are facing that same fight--on organizing--again. The BMWE has made it a high priority. We face our own, special, challenges in the rail industry, but though some of the rules are different, the difficulties and the potential rewards are the same. If short line spin-offs aren't organized, our contracts suffer. If the percentage of union representation keeps falling while railroads, through mergers, gain in strength, our contracts suffer. If we don't make a commitment and stick to it to organize and bring as many new members in as we can, then all our members will suffer. And, eventually, the nation and all its workers will suffer. We have set a new direction, and we must follow through: we must organize.