Making the 4C’s a Strong Union--Part IV: Working With Our Allies

Our current union leaders hold the AFT at arm’s length. Not only do they choose not to work with our union brothers and sisters, they watch passively as management tries to take from the AFT the superior contract language they already possess.

Management just began contract negotiations with the AFT, and they demanded the AFT accept the inferior contract language our leaders just agreed to for us! (In response, the AFT negotiators tossed the management negotiators out and told them they’d see them again in arbitration.)

Our leaders, in effect, are complicit in aiding management to whipsaw the two bargaining units. This is wrong. This is self-defeating.

Our natural allies are the AFT members, and the New Leadership Slate understands this. We will work with the AFT to whipsaw management. By working together, we can play a kind of contract leapfrog, so that both bargaining units’ members benefit over time.

By the way, there is bad blood between our current union leaders and the AFT leadership. This has hurt all of us. Fortunately, the members of the New Leadership Slate have great regard and respect for the AFT leadership. We will work with them willingly.

We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: working together, we’ll do better.

NEXT: What a Strong Union Can Do--Keep Management Honest