Addressing the SIUNA convention Sept. 13-14 in Piney Point, Md., guest speakers from U.S. organized labor cited health care and organizing as the movement’s top priorities.They also credited the Seafarers with unfailing solidarity and declared unions must play a vital role in promoting and revitalizing the nation’s middle class.
Speakers included AFL-CIO President John Sweeney; International Association of Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger; Maryland and D.C. AFL-CIO President Fred Mason; and Metropolitan Baltimore AFL-CIO President Ernie Grecco.
Sweeney opened his remarks by thanking SIUNA President Michael Sacco “for the support you’ve given me and for your outstanding service as a vice president of the AFL-CIO and a member of our executive council. Nobody works harder for the unions affiliated with the Seafarers or gives more support to the 54 other affiliates of the AFL-CIO—nobody.”
He added, “I want to thank you, Mike, and every leader and activist in the Seafarers for the work you do every day to keep our union movement strong. You’re not only there in numbers for every rally we have on Capitol Hill, but at every convention and in every campaign we sponsor—even though many of the things we’re fighting for are like the health care and pensions and health and safety protections you already have.”
He pointed to U.S. cabotage laws as a model for other domestic sectors. “I’ve often said I wish we had a Jones Act for every one of our basic industries,” Sweeney stated. “It’s the standard for trade unionists of every stripe, and every one of you deserves a medal for defending it and extending it so well for the last 87 years.”
He noted the labor movement’s grassroots capabilities, reflected in the strong union turnout during last year’s elections. Sweeney also said that those capabilities must be used to organize new members. “There are 60 million Americans out there who say they want to join our unions, and we’re determined to bring them that opportunity.”
Turning to health care, Sweeney said it will be a critical issue in next year’s elections. “Nobody in this richest country in the world should go without health care—not a single child, not a single retiree, not a single family,” he asserted. “Along with good jobs and the freedom of every worker to form and join unions, health care will be a signature issue for us from now through the elections of 2008. We will elect members of Congress and a president who will support real national health care reform—health care as good as our members of Congress get. Health care worthy of our great country. Health care that works for Main Street instead of health care that works for Wall Street.”
Buffenbarger noted that American workers simply seek basic things including a fair wage, safe neighborhoods and maintaining traditional expectations “that they can do better than their parents as they emerge into the workforce ... and at the end of a lifelong career, they can retire with dignity and respect and with pensions that are safe and secure.”
He mentioned an IAM-sponsored rally in D.C. earlier this year and thanked the SIUNA for its strong turnout. “This great union stands up with its friends,” Buffenbarger said.
Further expressing that appreciation, he presented Sacco with a bronze eagle bearing an inscription from the IAM to the SIUNA that reads in part, “With deepest respect, admiration and appreciation for the work your members do. Solidarity forever.”
Mason shared a story from his childhood that involved a Seafarer whom he knew as “Uncle Addison,” though they weren’t related. Mason told the audience that he grew up “dirt poor” in segregated Virginia during the 1950s. His interactions with Uncle Addison helped him appreciate many aspects of unions.
Mason said that whenever Addison returned home from a voyage, “No matter what time of year it was, it was Christmas. He always had money, always had one of the best cars. He’d bring back photos of black and white people in fraternal relationships, actually smiling, and would tell stories about going to different countries. I didn’t know at the time what an impact those stories were having on me, nor at the time about the role that the union was actually playing in helping to change America.
“A piece of that is the notion of a middle-class way of life,” he continued. “The union made it possible back then. Today, unions still have a role to play in making our democracy better, in recapturing and surpassing the middle-class way of life that Americans deserve. We have to put forth greater effort to elect politicians that honor work and respect workers and who will pass the Employee Free Choice Act. We have to support and elect politicians who believe all workers—all people—are entitled to decent, affordable health care.”
Mason also thanked the SIUNA for its support, noting that “any time the federation has needed assistance, it was literally a phone call away. Call on the SIU, and we’ll have people there to do it.”
Grecco fired up the crowd by urging union members and officials alike to work harder and work smarter to accomplish the movement’s goals. He also emphasized union members’ buying power and reminded delegates that buying union-made, American-made products is beneficial in many ways. He pointed out the loss of industrial jobs in Baltimore over the years as well as elsewhere across the country—a condition brought on mostly by corporate greed but exacerbated by citizens buying so many foreign-made goods.
“I remember the days when you couldn’t attend one of these kinds of meetings without checking to see if you had a union label on your coat,” he said. “Those days are gone. We need to get back to those days, and we need to talk—not only to each other, but to our members. We need to talk about the importance of buying American-made, union-made products and the importance of getting involved in the political process.”
He added that the SIU is appreciated by fellow unions in Baltimore, specifically mentioning the work of SIU Port Agent Dennis Metz. “Every local union in the city knows that if there’s any situation whatsoever, the Seafarers International Union is there to help.”
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