Worker to worker:
UE Members connect

International links with local struggles

UE and FAT women demonstrate solidarity: Mary McElroy, Karen Hardin, Beatriz Lujan of the Fat's Workers ' Education Center in Juarez, and Rebecca Klug at a rally in defense of health-care workers during the Midwest School for Women Workers in 2001.

UE members speak out

These quotes come from UE members and Mexican members of the FAT union who have participated in worker-to-worker exchanges.

'International Support Had a Big Impact'

I'm Karen Hardin from Local 758 in Jefferson, Ohio. I work at an injection molding plant called Glastic. Recently, I got to go on a trip to Mexico with the UE, a women's delegation, and there I got to meet with some of the workers. That was one of the important parts of the trip for me, because I had some similarities with them because of the struggles in my own local while fighting for a first contract.

It took us 26 months to get our first contract. During this time we were owned by a Japanese company called Kobe Steel. We reached out to the trade unionists in Japan who sent many, many letters of protest, and they even went to the corporate headquarters of Kobe Steel in Japan in support of our struggle here in the United States.

The Japanese union members also sent massive e-mails and they also sent letters to our local which we posted on our bulletin boards and it really affected the membership, it got them going just to see that we had so much support not just here in the United States but internationally as well. It made a big impact on our company and it was a great thing during our negotiations. It actually helped to move things forward, putting the pressure on the company had a huge impact.

`A Good Response from Canada, and Around the World'

Director of teachers union from Quebec shows solidarity with FAT strikers during tri-national delegation.

I'm Crystal Breer from UE Local 254. We're a nursing home in Berlin, Vermont and have been struggling for our first contract. In trying to put pressure on the company we made a trip to Canada to crash their stockholders' meeting. (The company, CPL/REIT, is based in Canada.) While the Canadian unions were in contract negotiations with CPL/ REIT, they told their administrators or supervisors that they wanted us to have a fair contract while they were still struggling for their own. We also had help from local unions up in Canada in a campaign to send little postcards to the company's executives. We got a very good response from everybody in Vermont and Canada and around the world, actually, who sent them thousands and millions of little cards telling them to give us a fair contract and do it now.

`Everyone's Living Standards Should Rise'

My name is Becky Dawes and I'm from UE Local 893. Our local includes social workers and income maintenance workers for the state of Iowa. I was on a delegation to Mexico with trade unionists from Quebec as well as from the UE.

It's very important to communicate with other workers to find out what's going on in different unions in different countries. Our whole local believes that it's very important to have international solidarity because there needs to be a rise in the level of living of everybody in the world, not only in the United States.

So that's why our local decided to implement a dues checkoff where we can voluntarily contribute an extra dollar to assist the FAT in the hiring of another organizer.

Back to top

`The International Work Benefits the Members'

My name is Dave Kitchen. I work at the General Electric facility in Erie, Pennsylvania. We build locomotives. I've been in the union for 28 years, active in several different local offices.

I certainly understand the importance of our international work that we do with the FAT as well as some European unions. I've had the opportunity, having been involved in this union, to visit some places that I've never been able to visit before, talk to people who work for GE as well as other very large corporations.

Our membership has certainly benefited from our international work. When I started in 1973, and in particular, became an officer in '82, there wasn't much international work going on. We didn't hear much about General Electric's operations in Mexico, or for that matter, any place else. But since then, we know pretty much when General Electric opens a location, closes a location, how many employees they have, what they do, the status of that plant, whether they are doing well or not so well, whether they are union or non-union, and that's a result of our international work. It's that simple.

Those things that benefit those people down there or anywhere else benefit our membership and I think that's what it's all about.

If you ever get a chance to visit our Erie facility, especially our union hall in Erie, Pennsylvania, a building that has been our union hall for 50-some years, we had an opportunity over the summer of 2000 to have a mural painted that covers the entire back wall. That mural is a depiction of basically women in the labor movement from the perspective of the American side as well as the Mexican side and I think it represents a great opportunity that we had for the international work. I think it brought our membership closer to the membership in Mexico, I think it underscores the values that the UE represents. Our members are proud of it; we're proud of it; and we're just happy that we had an opportunity to do such a thing. More on the murals.

Students, Workers Unite Against Sweatshops

UE and FAT members join NIKE protest organized by the Resource Center of the Americas. during FAT delegation to mid-west

My name is Michael Marchman. I'm with UE Local 896, COGS, the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students, representing teaching assistants and research assistants at the University of Iowa. At the University of Iowa we have signed over 70 FAT dues-checkoff cards which contribute a dollar of our dues to the FAT union in Mexico.

I think international solidarity is important because with the power and the ability of business and capital to move around the world in search of cheap labor and to pit workers against each other, our only hope as working people is to recognize our common interests and to come together and to fight together to secure working conditions that are fair and just.
Local 896 members have been active in Students Against Sweatshops - a movement on U.S. campuses across the country, putting pressure on uni versities to insure that the conditions under which university apparel is made are satisfactory and that workers are being treated fairly and are receiving just compensation for their work.

Recently, United Students Against Sweatshops, unions and labor advocates in the U.S. joined forces in support of workers and organizers in Mexico at a labor dispute at a factory in Puebla. The factory produces clothing for NIKE and Reebok which in turn is purchased by universities. And Students Against Sweatshops put pressure on the universities and on the companies to recognize an independent union of the workers at the company. Thanks to that international support and solidarity that struggle has ended in victory for the workers.

`People Shouldn't Have to Live That Way'

My name is Charles Tangle. I'm from UE Local 683 in Erie, Pennsylvania. I was a delegate on a trip to Mexico, and the most important thing that I saw when I went to Mexico was the struggle that the workers went through, especially the women and the young teenagers working in the sweatshops. I also met gas station attendants who were organizing with the FAT because they never got paychecks and had to work for tips. I thought that was really unfair. I learned a lot down there. I learned about their culture and all the struggles that they go through.

We contribute $50 a month for the FAT, and I think it's really important that our union members support the FAT and the workers down there and the solidarity to help their struggle to make their lives a little better. Because in these times and days people shouldn't have to live that way.

Cooperation with European Unions

My name is Glenn Bush from Local 1107 out of Necedah, Wisconsin. Freudenberg bought us out and they're a German company. We had a chance to be invited by the ICEM to a meeting over there in Brussels with the Works Council - numerous unions of Freudenberg from various countries within Europe.

A couple of years ago we negotiated our first contract with Freudenberg and the Works Council was communicating back and forth with us and gave us much support. And also we had a very harsh disagreement with the U.S. Freudenberg on our pension and the Works Council kept giving us information about the Freudenberg policies there. We were lucky enough even to win the case with the support of the European Works Council.

There are other unorganized shops here within the U.S. which are owned by Freudenberg. Representatives of the Works Council came to the U.S. and met with our local membership and with Bob Kingsley. Hopefully, with support of the ICEM, with the European Works Council and unions like UE and other unions which have been participating with this program, we will be able to win better working conditions here in the U.S.

`We Are All Exploited by Globalization'

My name is Ed Havaich. I'm a General Electric worker. I'm also a member of UE Local 751 in Niles, Ohio. We are a glass manufacturing plant. A couple of years ago I had the distinct pleasure and privilege to be a part of the delegation to go to Mexico. As a GE worker I was extremely interested in looking for and talking to people who work for the same company as I do. It was at the FAT office that I finally realized my dream of sitting down and talking to some of the people south of the border who work for this same company.

I took a paycheck with me just so that I could show them what we make and then talk to them about the wage scale that they make. As we sat there at the dinner table, we talked about working conditions, pay scales, seniority - we compared many things with each other. We talked about things that we have and enjoy that they do not have, and yet they work for the same company we do, doing similar manufacturing jobs. And it became very evident that there was a great disparity. But we both knew one thing: that we both had been exploited by this company. We both had been exploited in a number of ways.The ongoing fight for justice does not end on an American factory floor. It extends to many regions of the world. We are all exploited by these global companies, by globalization.

General Electric continues to look for bastions of cheap labor and Mexico is one of them. I think it is time to stop the disparity. I think it is time for General Electric to pay the workers in Mexico a living wage.

`It Was Empowering to See Women Struggling and Helping Each Other'

Women's delegation shows solidarity with Mexican strikers

Being a part of a women's delegation was the opportunity of a lifetime for me: Interacting with sisters of a different culture, yet having the same issues in the home, at work and socially. Globalization affects everybody. As we exchanged ideas, strategies and solidarity with our FAT sisters across the border, we encouraged each other to continue to struggle.
It was empowering for me to meet such awesome women who were concerned about real issues and to see women struggling and helping each other.

One thing that stood out was what one of the Mexican workers told us, that she was really happy that we had come and that it was very important to her because she knew that there were other things we could have been doing, but that we chose to be there with them.
We embraced each other as we left because I think we have a lot in common in trying to get better wages and working conditions and living conditions. I thought they were so warm and welcoming - they were just regular working people, and I know that they would be there for us too!
--- Willar Royal, Local 150

What they mean by globalization

Let's define what they mean by globalization: the kind of corporate-driven, cut-throat, dog-eat-dog, devil-take-the-hindmost, race-to-the-bottom kind of globalization that they want to impose on us. And the union is proving that the alternative to that is not isolationism but internationalism - true international solidarity reaching out across borders to unite for more justice and more dignity and more decent lives for working people.
--Amy R. Newell, Former Secretary-Treasurer, UE

Mexican workers speak out

'Unity of All Workers'

It is important to understand that it is necessary to construct globalization from below through the unity of all of the workers of the world. This is something that labor organizations such as the UE in the United States and the FAT in Mexico have understood very well. They have been pioneers in building a solidarity that is concrete, effective and real.
-- Bertha Lujan, Former National Coordinator, FAT

`Seeing ourselves through the eyes of others we come to value our own organization'...

Seeing ourselves through the eyes of others we come to value our own organization and efforts more. We gain enthusiasm and energy to follow our dreams and to work to make the dreams we share a reality.
-- Angeles Lopez, Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT)

Although a nation may be very powerful...

"I learned that although a nation may be very powerful it does not mean that the people don't have a lot of problems. It is only by getting to know people like the brothers and sisters of the UE and others in the US and Canada that we can really begin to work together."
-- Juan Sauza, FAT. He and Gilberto Martinez, ho also participated in a worker-to-worker exchange, joined with UE Local 896 members at a Nike protest organized by the Resource Center of the Americas.