wrbones
01-28-03, 03:20 PM
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Labor finds an issue to march for
More than 50 Bay Area unions plan to be represented in S.F.'s anti-war rally
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, January 16, 2003
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Marching side-by-side in Saturday's anti-war rally in San Francisco: pro-Palestinian supporters. Earth-loving environmentalists.
And Joe Six-Pack?
The march down Market Street and to the Civic Center will include representatives of more than 50 Bay Area labor unions -- twice as many as attended October's big anti-war demonstration along the city's main drag.
Labor's support is a boon to peace activists, who know that the image of longshoremen and nurses speaking out against a possible war in Iraq puts a "real people" face on their message. It would also run counter to the Vietnam- era conflict of hard hat vs. hippie, which splintered the progressive community's opposition to the war and reflected a larger divide in the country.
Plus, given the potential of reaching the nation's 14 million union members -- including an estimated 558,000 in the Bay Area -- anti-war activists could broaden their support.
"It definitely helps to mainstream the movement," said Jason Mark, an organizer with San Francisco-based Global Exchange, one of the nation's biggest anti-war groups.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS'
"It shows people that it's not just a bunch of people in dreadlocks out there," Mark said. "Blue-collar people are seen as having a lot of salt-of-the- earth wisdom and legitimacy. They're not the usual suspects when it comes to peace and justice issues."
Saturday's rallies in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and other cities come a week after 100 labor leaders from around the country -- including several from the Bay Area -- met in Chicago to plan how to sway their memberships toward opposing a possible war with Iraq and assume a bigger role in the anti-war effort.
So labor union banners will be a highly visible presence at Saturday's march and rally afterward at the Civic Center. The event is expected to draw at least as many people as attended the Oct. 26 rally, which police estimated at 42,000 and organizers placed at 80,000.
Not everyone is convinced that labor's high-profile appearance will make any difference when it comes to influencing the Bush administration's policy toward Iraq.
"No demonstration in San Francisco is going to have the slightest amount of impact on the administration's policy," said Hoover Institution research fellow Joseph McNamara. As for labor's influence on people debating their own position on Iraq, McNamara said, "It all depends. If the person watching this on television is anti-union, then it won't matter much."
POLICY ISSUE
Some rank-and-file union members wonder if their union should take any position in what they perceive as a foreign policy issue.
In an October poll of its 85,000 Northern California members, the Service Employees International Union found that a little over half the respondents questioned whether the union should take a position on the war.
"It told us that we haven't done a good enough job explaining to people how this war would affect them," said SEIU Local 250 president Sal Roselli, whose leadership endorsed Saturday's rally and passed a resolution opposing unilateral U.S. action against Iraq. This week, the union's staff met to plan how to discuss a war's implications with the membership.
CONCERNS
In general, union leaders are urging their memberships to oppose a possible war, for reasons having to do largely with domestic concerns.
If the war costs the federal government $200 billion, the figure cited in some administration estimates, that could mean less federal spending on unemployment benefits, health care and other areas that affect working-class families, said Dave Welsh, a retired Bay Area letter carrier who is working with labor groups at Saturday's rally on behalf of International ANSWER, the group coordinating protests on both coasts.
"Plus, every union family knows somebody in the military," said Bob Muehlenkamp, a former organizing director of the Teamsters union who organized U.S. Labor Against the War, the meeting of 100 union representatives last Saturday in Chicago. "Their children will be the ones fighting this war."
Some blue-collar workers, however, will be tough to recruit.
"The people I worked with are pretty much behind George Bush," said Bob Stine, who retired as lead mechanic for United Airlines in December and is now a spokesman for Local Lodge 1781 of the International Airline Mechanics, with 1,300 Bay Area members. The local in Burlingame has not taken an official position on the war.
Stine added, however, that many mechanics are concerned that a war would further depress the commercial airline industry, which would affect their jobs.
POLITICS
Some critics say labor's new high-profile position on Iraq is little more than anti-Bush politics at work.
"While there are a lot of sincere feelings among the unions, there's a partisan aspect to this, too," said the Hoover Institution's McNamara. "It's no secret that most unions strongly support Democrats."
Labor leaders agree that Bush -- who had practically no labor support during his presidential campaign -- didn't make any blue-collar friends when he invoked the federal Taft-Hartley Act in October to reopen West Coast ports where longshore workers were locked out. Union leaders said the move gave port operators leverage in their dispute.
Still, Welsh and others say union opposition is about the war, not politics -- even though some rank-and-file will march Saturday behind a banner reading, "Stop Bush's war on working people here and abroad."
To Barbara Williams, opposing the war is a health care issue. The Santa Cruz nurse and California Nurses Association leader plans to march Saturday to show how the war would put an additional stress on the nation's hospitals.
"If there's retaliation, (our hospitals) are totally unprepared to deal with that," said Williams, 57, who hasn't protested a military action since the Vietnam War. "I know. I work in the emergency room every day."
·
Labor finds an issue to march for
More than 50 Bay Area unions plan to be represented in S.F.'s anti-war rally
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, January 16, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marching side-by-side in Saturday's anti-war rally in San Francisco: pro-Palestinian supporters. Earth-loving environmentalists.
And Joe Six-Pack?
The march down Market Street and to the Civic Center will include representatives of more than 50 Bay Area labor unions -- twice as many as attended October's big anti-war demonstration along the city's main drag.
Labor's support is a boon to peace activists, who know that the image of longshoremen and nurses speaking out against a possible war in Iraq puts a "real people" face on their message. It would also run counter to the Vietnam- era conflict of hard hat vs. hippie, which splintered the progressive community's opposition to the war and reflected a larger divide in the country.
Plus, given the potential of reaching the nation's 14 million union members -- including an estimated 558,000 in the Bay Area -- anti-war activists could broaden their support.
"It definitely helps to mainstream the movement," said Jason Mark, an organizer with San Francisco-based Global Exchange, one of the nation's biggest anti-war groups.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS'
"It shows people that it's not just a bunch of people in dreadlocks out there," Mark said. "Blue-collar people are seen as having a lot of salt-of-the- earth wisdom and legitimacy. They're not the usual suspects when it comes to peace and justice issues."
Saturday's rallies in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and other cities come a week after 100 labor leaders from around the country -- including several from the Bay Area -- met in Chicago to plan how to sway their memberships toward opposing a possible war with Iraq and assume a bigger role in the anti-war effort.
So labor union banners will be a highly visible presence at Saturday's march and rally afterward at the Civic Center. The event is expected to draw at least as many people as attended the Oct. 26 rally, which police estimated at 42,000 and organizers placed at 80,000.
Not everyone is convinced that labor's high-profile appearance will make any difference when it comes to influencing the Bush administration's policy toward Iraq.
"No demonstration in San Francisco is going to have the slightest amount of impact on the administration's policy," said Hoover Institution research fellow Joseph McNamara. As for labor's influence on people debating their own position on Iraq, McNamara said, "It all depends. If the person watching this on television is anti-union, then it won't matter much."
POLICY ISSUE
Some rank-and-file union members wonder if their union should take any position in what they perceive as a foreign policy issue.
In an October poll of its 85,000 Northern California members, the Service Employees International Union found that a little over half the respondents questioned whether the union should take a position on the war.
"It told us that we haven't done a good enough job explaining to people how this war would affect them," said SEIU Local 250 president Sal Roselli, whose leadership endorsed Saturday's rally and passed a resolution opposing unilateral U.S. action against Iraq. This week, the union's staff met to plan how to discuss a war's implications with the membership.
CONCERNS
In general, union leaders are urging their memberships to oppose a possible war, for reasons having to do largely with domestic concerns.
If the war costs the federal government $200 billion, the figure cited in some administration estimates, that could mean less federal spending on unemployment benefits, health care and other areas that affect working-class families, said Dave Welsh, a retired Bay Area letter carrier who is working with labor groups at Saturday's rally on behalf of International ANSWER, the group coordinating protests on both coasts.
"Plus, every union family knows somebody in the military," said Bob Muehlenkamp, a former organizing director of the Teamsters union who organized U.S. Labor Against the War, the meeting of 100 union representatives last Saturday in Chicago. "Their children will be the ones fighting this war."
Some blue-collar workers, however, will be tough to recruit.
"The people I worked with are pretty much behind George Bush," said Bob Stine, who retired as lead mechanic for United Airlines in December and is now a spokesman for Local Lodge 1781 of the International Airline Mechanics, with 1,300 Bay Area members. The local in Burlingame has not taken an official position on the war.
Stine added, however, that many mechanics are concerned that a war would further depress the commercial airline industry, which would affect their jobs.
POLITICS
Some critics say labor's new high-profile position on Iraq is little more than anti-Bush politics at work.
"While there are a lot of sincere feelings among the unions, there's a partisan aspect to this, too," said the Hoover Institution's McNamara. "It's no secret that most unions strongly support Democrats."
Labor leaders agree that Bush -- who had practically no labor support during his presidential campaign -- didn't make any blue-collar friends when he invoked the federal Taft-Hartley Act in October to reopen West Coast ports where longshore workers were locked out. Union leaders said the move gave port operators leverage in their dispute.
Still, Welsh and others say union opposition is about the war, not politics -- even though some rank-and-file will march Saturday behind a banner reading, "Stop Bush's war on working people here and abroad."
To Barbara Williams, opposing the war is a health care issue. The Santa Cruz nurse and California Nurses Association leader plans to march Saturday to show how the war would put an additional stress on the nation's hospitals.
"If there's retaliation, (our hospitals) are totally unprepared to deal with that," said Williams, 57, who hasn't protested a military action since the Vietnam War. "I know. I work in the emergency room every day."
·