Bernie Sanders, union man
I’m a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and I’m voting for Bernie Sanders in the Washington state primary on March 10. If you’re a member of the ILWU, I’m writing this is for you — especially if you’re still undecided about 2020.
So here’s the score: Bernie Sanders is the only candidate for labor and the ILWU and here’s why: Sanders has the strongest labor platform, he has the broadest base of support, and because Bernie beats Trump.
He’s also impressively consistent. Bernie’s been touting the same message for decades: wealth and power is increasingly concentrated among a handful of billionaires, while working people get less and less of their fair share. It’s not a lack of regulation that’s at the root of this problem, but that the rules are deliberately stacked against workers and our unions.
Sanders has a lot of signature platforms (Medicare for All, Green New Deal, Cancel Student Debt) but here’s another one we need to talk about and why I hope you vote for Bernie in your state’s caucus or primary: the Workplace Democracy Plan.
A Bernie Sanders administration and the Workplace Democracy Plan would make it easier for workers to join a union, outlaw union-busting “right-to-work” laws, and (perhaps most importantly for the ILWU right now) Bernie wants to legalize solidarity by allowing for “secondary boycotts” again.
A secondary action or boycott means putting pressure on a client that does business with your employer to force your boss to negotiate. It’s an effective tactic that helped build the labor movement, but was outlawed by 1947’s anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act. But why is it against the law? Simple: “If it works, it’s illegal.”
If the term rings a bell, it’s because accusations of illegal secondary activity are central to the $93.6 million lawsuit by International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICSTI) against the union and ILWU Local 8 in Portland, Oregon.
The secondary ban doesn’t just halt boycotts and strikes, but it can scare a union away from even filing a grievance or lawsuit. When unions do put up a fight, the pattern of leasing and subcontracting that defines modern business practices creates complex legal arrangements that can hamstring and backfire on unions.
In short, the lawsuit we face right now comes down to this: bad labor law. The rules are stacked against us, making it illegal to practice solidarity and effective trade unionism. It’s time to change the rules and make them work for workers.
Sanders also wants to make it easier for workers to join a union by calling for majority sign-up, “first contract” provisions, a ban on anti-union “captive audience” meetings, outlawing misclassification of employees as “independent contractors,” ending the use of franchise or subcontractor arrangements, and to establish federal protections against firings for any reason other than “just cause.”
Furthermore, he champions granting the long overdue right to organize for farm workers and domestic workers, banning the “permanent replacement” of striking workers, denying federal contracts to employers who pay poverty wages, outsource jobs, or bust unions, and eliminating “right-to-work” laws by repealing Section 14(b) of Taft-Hartley.
Any trade unionist can support that. So the real question: can he win?
Caucus results from Iowa, New Hampshire, and especially Nevada make it clear he’s well-positioned for the nomination. Bernie’s not only leading in the polls, but most recently in Nevada he secured 46.8% of the vote — surpassing the next three candidates (Biden, Buttigieg, and Warren) combined.
He has more union endorsements than any other candidate, including the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), National Nurses United (NNU), and United Electrical Workers (UE), co-endorsements from the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and dozens of local and regional endorsements from teachers in Los Angeles, Oakland, Richmond, Las Vegas, and D.C., Lyft and Uber drivers in Boston, state and federal workers, musicians, electricians, roofers, railroad, grocery, airline, hotel, autoworkers, and more.
Last month, the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific (IBU; the Marine Division of the ILWU) voted to endorse Sanders. Bernie also secured a recommendation to endorse from the ILWU Oregon Area District Council. In 2016, the ILWU was one of six national unions to endorse Bernie Sanders — and I hope does so again in 2020.
Beyond his impressive labor support, Sanders has also earned endorsements from several progressive organizations, including Our Revolution, the Center for Popular Democracy, Make the Road Action, Sunrise Movement, Dream Defenders, Mijente, Democratic Socialists of America, and many others, and has a larger base of donors and volunteers than any other candidate as well.
Most importantly, Sanders is doing something no presidential candidate has done since Jesse Jackson in the 1980s: he’s building a movement — and has been non-stop since 2015.
He’s organizing a multi-racial, multi-generational, working-class coalition and turns thousands of these supporters out for unions on the picket line like he did for UE in Erie, Pennsylvania and across the University of California system for AFSCME and CWA in 2019. When Bernie says “Not me, us” it’s not just a slogan, it’s an organizing model — and it’s winning.
The only thing that can likely stop Bernie at this point is a brokered convention; that is, if he doesn’t win an outright majority of delegates in the first round of voting at the 2020 DNC in Milwaukee.
That’s why we need to vote for Bernie in every caucus and primary. Now’s not the time to vote for your personal favorite. We got to play to win. We need a majority in that first round to make sure we get a progressive with an army to take on Donald Trump in November. We have one shot and can’t miss.
I don’t support Sanders just because he aligns best with my own values and politics, but because he aligns with most of us. Polls show Bernie fares better than any other Democrat in a head-to-head match against Trump. The numbers make it clear: Bernie beats Trump.
If you’re still not convinced, consider this: the ILWU’s contract with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) expires in 2022. We know what happened when Bush Jr. invoked Taft-Hartley in 2002 and we took an extension in 2017 to avoid negotiations under Trump.
Trump’s Supreme Court and NLRB picks have only made bad labor laws worse. Their decisions have seriously damaged unions’ ability to organize and bargain, in some cases overturning precedents that stood for decades.
Bernie wants to change that with the Workplace Democracy Plan, but until it’s passed, ask yourself this: when the contract is up, who do you want in the White House: Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders?
Do you want a billionaire who stiffs his own workers, hires union-busting consultants for his hotels and appoints anti-labor judges? Or do you want a lifetime organizer with an unwavering commitment to our unions and the working class? Who’s gonna be on our side? “Which side are you on?”
Zack Pattin is a rank-and-file longshore worker at the Port of Tacoma. To read more about Bernie Sanders’ Workplace Democracy Plan, go to berniesanders.com/issues/workplace-democracy.
And don’t forget to vote: the California primary is on March 3, one of several contests on Super Tuesday. Ballots for the Washington state primary are due March 10. Alaska and Hawaii vote on April 4 and Oregon on May 19.
