May 1, 2012

“If we keep doing what we’re doing, we will keep getting what we’re getting.”

“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”

“Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.”

Membership in the Ironworkers peaked in 1980-81 at around 181,000 members. Our membership now is around 121,000 which is the lowest it has been since about 1950. Union membership overall was around 28% in 1979 when Jimbo Riley and I began our apprenticeship. Today it is around 8%. We’re losing work to non-union companies, and we are losing the battle of public opinion. Whatever we have been doing has not been working. “If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll keep getting what we’re getting.”

How are we going to turn this trend around? It is going to take a lot of work, that’s for sure. I believe that we can do it, but it is not going to be easy. And I know one thing for sure; the elected officials of our local cannot change things alone. Whether those officials are the ones currently in office or whether it’s the newly elected (I hope) officers, it is not fair to expect change to come only from them. Real change starts with the members and works its way up. We can no longer afford for our members to be apathetic. If we do not take part in the decisions and direction of our local, and of all unions, we will surely lose out.

I believe that our local is ready to do things differently. I believe that our membership is ready to step up and to become active and to have their voices heard. I hope that if there is nothing else at all that comes from this year’s election, if I and those around me are unsuccessful in our bids for elected office, I hope that this is the beginning of an era when the men and women of our local become active once again. I hope that they press their elected officers to listen, and if they don’t, I hope they raise hell with them. I hope that there will never, ever be another uncontested election. Our elections are our right in a democratic brotherhood. From this June forward, every three years, let’s exercise that right.