Photo, left to right: Sonia Vázquez of the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (Mexico), Keisuke Fuse of Zenroren (Japan), and Chantel Ide of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (Quebec)

On Tuesday afternoon of the 78th UE Convention, convention delegates were joined by international guests from Japan, Mexico, and Quebec. Takeshi Takeshita and Keisuke Fuse, both deputy secretaries-general of Japan’s militant labor federation Zenroren, described the “long history of friendship and solidarity” between Zenroren and UE. That history included Zenroren taking action to put pressure on Japanese multinationals such as Kobe Steel and Hishi Plastics when their workers in the U.S. sought to join UE.

Takeshita and Fuse reported that “the working class has been in miserable working conditions in Japan” but that Zenroren’s members “have been aggressively organizing struggles” to improve their situation. They also said that one of the important struggles for Japanese workers is opposing their government’s attempts to divert resources from social needs to the military.

The Zenroren representatives congratulated UE for victories in the Wabtec strike and in organizing graduate workers. They declared, “This is what international solidarity looks like,” and said they looked forward to UE and Zenroren continuing to work together to “defend peace, democracy, and human and workers’ rights.”

Sonia Vázquez, a rank-and-file worker from a garment factory in Mexico and a member of the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT), described how she and her co-workers threw out a corrupt union. “They did not defend us, what they did was not in favor of the worker,” she said. “But everything changed in September, thanks to the work of the FAT.”

Taking advantage of the labor reforms passed in Mexico several years ago, Vázquez and her co-workers, with the assistance of the FAT, were able to negotiate a new contract with improved wages and other benefits. However, “When it came time to sign the contract, the company denied it [and] implied that we had intimidated the manager to accept it.” The workers submitted a complaint using the labor enforcement mechanism of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020. “Following six months of constant attacks by the company,” they finally won a contract that included “a raise, time off for the union, training for all employees, and most of all … recognition from the company.” Lenin González Tellez and Benedicto Martínez of the FAT also attended the convention as guests.

Chantel Ide of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) in Quebec spoke on the convention theme of “building strike power,” which she called “such an inspiring theme.” She said that “Going on strike is an act of courage, an act of solidarity. It’s never a decision that workers take lightly. This is how we win the respect we deserve as workers.”

In her remarks, Ide described one recent, one ongoing, and one potential upcoming strike by CSN members. A group of 13 women at a child care facility in a remote location in Quebec struck after the employer offered improvements to 12 of the workers, but not to the worker responsible for preparing food at the center. But, Ide said, “her 12 comrades wouldn’t let her down” and after nine weeks on strike, the employer relented. She also spoke about a group of 70 office workers at Montreal’s oldest cemetery who have been on strike for a year and without a contract for five years, and negotiations in Quebec’s public sector, where 400,000 workers will be conducting strike votes soon.

“When you are attacked, we are attacked,” Ide concluded. “We stand with you in solidarity. Our solidarity is our power over the ruling class. Our solidarity is without borders. When we fight, we win!”

Now Is the Time to Fight for the Better World Workers Deserve

In a recorded video, Roxane DuBois of UE’s Canadian sister union Unifor delivered a message of solidarity and a report on how Canadian workers are fighting for economic and social justice. “Canada is facing many political, social, and economic challenges, just like many countries in the world,” she said. Working people face “a real affordability crisis” while “corporate profits soar,” and Unifor has been actively calling out central bankers for raising interest rates while “having no regard for the impacts of their decisions on the lives of working people.” Unifor has also been fighting to protect social programs and defend the public sector from privatization, and to oppose the far-right targeting of members of the LGBTQ+ community.

DuBois described a recent strike by 70,000 Unifor members who work for a grocery chain that makes “profit off the back of minimum wage earners.” The strike was successful in winning back a $2 wage gain given during the pandemic but then taken away.

She concluded by saying that in the current moment, “Support for our demands is high, support for unions is high. Now is the time to build our unions and … fight for the better world workers deserve.”

Daniele Calosi of the Italian metalworkers’ union FIOM, who also recorded a video for the convention, reported that “We have … the heirs of Fascism ruling Italy.” Calosi said, “The task of the union is to organize the workers so that there is the possibility for them to assert their rights, which are more and more denied by a clearly fascist government.” He warned in his “message of solidarity” that the possibility of a new fascism developing “is real,” in the U.S. as well as Italy. “We must continue to exercise high levels of solidarity,” he said, and ended with “a big hug by the Italian comrades of FIOM-CGIL. Come on — let’s fight together!”

Convention delegates also watched solidarity videos from Frédéric Sanchez of the French metalworkers’ union FTM-CGT, and Maicon Michel Vasconcelos da Silva of the Brazilian metalworkers’ union CNM-CUT.

“It is time that we think global as well”

In her report, Director of International Strategies Kari Thompson said, “The bosses love nothing more than to have an easy scapegoat of blaming workers in other countries for the decisions they make here.” She described “some of the things workers around the world are up against” and pointed out that “if we’re honest, it should sound really familiar. The bosses are doing the same things there that they do here.”

Thompson reported that Locals 506 and 618 received solidarity messages and photos from unions all around the world during their ten-week strike against Wabtec. “These unions care what Wabtec is doing in Erie and Wilmerding because they know they are next,” she said. “Our approach to international solidarity helps us to protect ourselves collectively and to push back against our organized bosses.”

During discussion of the resolution “International Solidarity,” Scott Slawson, Local 506, reminded delegates that “As work filters out of our own country to other countries we tend to want to blame the workers, and we need to understand that it is not the worker, it is very much the corporate greed and the politicians that cause our problems.

“Companies today, like the one that I work for, Scabtec, are global companies, they are in multiple countries, and it is time, and I’ve said this since [the 74th UE convention in] Baltimore in 2015, that we think global as well.”

Bryce Carter, Local 150, spoke about his trip to Japan in 2019 to take part in a meeting of public-sector union hosted by Zenroren, and praised the public transit system in Japan. Kevin Sites, Local 1186, also spoke on the resolution.

Florence Criley Speaker: Cross-Border Connections “Tremendously Powerful”

Following the convention session, retired UE Director of International Affairs Robin Alexander gave the 2023 Florence Criley Women’s Leadership Speaker Series talk at City of Asylum bookstore in Pittsburgh’s Northside neighborhood. Alexander spoke about her 2022 e-book, International Solidarity in Action.

Alexander recounted how, in the early 1990s, UE realized that “we really needed to do international solidarity in a different way,” and she was given the opportunity to help shape that new approach, one that involved rank-and-file members and was connected to organizing. That history forms the subject of her book, framed by the close relationship that the UE developed with the FAT.

She read excerpts from her book, especially focusing on relationships developed between public-sector workers in the UE and the FAT. Those relationships had “a tremendous impact within UE,” she said, especially on members’ understanding of the dynamics of immigration, as they came to realize that Mexican workers were just like themselves and, given the opportunity for decent jobs in their home country, would generally prefer to stay there. She called the cross-border connections between workers made by UE’s international work “tremendously powerful.”

Alexander was introduced by Nichel Dunlap-Thompson, Local 150. Following her talk, Alexander discussed the book with current Director of International Strategies Kari Thompson, then took questions from the audience.

A recording of the talk, which was live-streamed, is available at https://vimeo.com/857170291. International Solidarity in Action can be downloaded, and donations can be made to support UE’s international solidarity work, at InternationalSolidarityInAction.org.

Photo: UE Director of International Strategies Kari Thompson (in front in blue jacket) with CSN President Caroline Senneville (second from left) and other international guests at the CSN Congress.

In a return to pre-pandemic practices, UE was delighted to accept invitations to the national conventions of two of our international allies this May. 

Retired UE General President Peter Knowlton represented UE at a meeting of Confederação Nacional dos Metalúrgicos (CNM-CUT) in Brazil. The metalworkers union, which was once led by Brazilian president Lula da Silva, has been a strong critic of corporate greed, and has waged militant fights with multinational companies to improve working conditions and pay. These include GE, Wabtec, St. Gobain, and many other employers also represented by UE. CNM-CUT hosted a number of other international unions that are part of a group of similarly oriented unions in IndustriALL.

International solidarity is a core principle of UE because living and working conditions in the US are directly linked to those of other workers around the world. “Attending other unions’ conventions is a great way to better understand their values and practices, and to meet other workers who are employed by the same bosses in other countries,” shared Knowlton. While in São Paulo, Knowlton met with Geraldo Valgas, a CNM leader from Belo Horizonte, where CNM represents workers at a Wabtec locomotive factory.

Kari Thompson, UE’s Director of International Strategies, attended the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) Congress in Montréal, Quebec. The CSN has a very similar democratic structure to UE, and represents workers in a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, public and service sectors, just as UE does. The CSN Congress was celebratory, with thousands of new members having joined in the last few years. Numerous locals have engaged in militant strikes against their employers, resulting in major contract gains. Thompson had the opportunity to visit the picket line of some striking cemetery workers, including gravediggers, who have been on strike for more than a year. Among the many new workers joining CSN’s ranks are graduate workers from Concordia University. 

UE was the only English-speaking union invited to the Congress, though other progressive international unions were also represented, including CGT from France and ELA from the Basque region of Spain. 

“The CSN is making dynamic plans to address the many challenges faced by workers in Quebec, from privatization of public work to the impacts of climate change on jobs and worker health,” reported Thompson. “They will continue to be an important ally for UE as we grapple with similar issues.”

Pittsburgh

In a “Giving Tuesday” email to supporters of UE’s international solidarity work this morning, UE Director of International Strategies Kari Thompson announced that “In 2023, we are planning to return to in-person member exchanges with workers in other countries, if health conditions continue to allow.”

Specifically, Thompson said, UE is making plans for a worker-to-worker exchange with UE’s close allies in Mexico, the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo. UE’s rank-and-file approach to international solidarity, where union members visit with their counterparts in other countries, has become a model for other organizations over the last few decades.

“On these trips, UE members meet with other workers to learn about their experiences under different labor laws, but sometimes with the very same multinational bosses,” explained Thompson.

UE’s last worker-to-worker exchange was a Young Activist delegation to Mexico City in 2017. Four UE Young Activists — Matthew Braddon, Local 222, Daniel Campos, Local 1123, Bailey Kelley, Local 896, and Emma Paradis, Local 255 — spent a week hosted by the FAT’s National Coordinators — Rosalba Calva Flores, Eladio Abundiz Gudian, Jose Ezequiel Garcia Vargas, and Benedicto Martinez Orozco. The jam-packed agenda included an orientation to Mexico’s economy, labor law, and organizing struggles; a discussion of the FAT’s work to stop violence against women, including disappearances and murders; meetings with FAT members, including a tour of an auto part plant; and meeting a group of workers still struggling to organize their independent union.

“Hearing the stories of the workers we met was informative and helped create real relationships and a way to remember what we learned,” said Braddon. “I liked seeing how struggles in Mexico were similar to ones at home.”

“Worker-to-worker exchanges are one of the best ways to help our members embrace our core principle of international solidarity in a direct way,” concluded Thompson

Learn more about the importance of international solidarity, and UE’s rank-and-file approach, on this website. Retired UE Director of International Affairs Robin Alexander, who was the key architect of UE’s international solidarity program in the 1990s and 2000s, has written an e-book about UE’s relationship with the FAT. The e-book, published by UE earlier this year, is available for download at InternationalSolidarityInAction.org. Donations to support UE’s international solidarity work in 2023 can be made at ueref.org/give.

Toronto

Earlier this week, workers in Ontario won an inspiring victory against their right-wing government. Premier Doug Ford attempted use legislation to impose a contract on 55,000 education workers and revoke their right to strike. Those workers went on strike anyway, receiving support from the rest of the province’s labor movement (including important support from UE’s close Canadian ally Unifor), and on Monday Ford’s government announced it would withdraw the bill.

The 55,000 education assistants, early childhood educators, custodians and administrative assistants represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) had authorized a strike in an attempt to regain some of the ground they had lost over the past ten years, when their wages increased at only half the rate of inflation. CUPE members, who make on average $39,000 (Canadian) per year, are the lowest-paid workers in Ontario’s schools.

Ford’s legislation not only declared the strike illegal, including fines of $4,000 per day for each individual striker, it imposed a four-year contract with annual wage increases of 2.5 percent for the lowest-paid workers and 1.5 percent for all others — well below the current rate of inflation.

As CUPE members began their strike on Friday, Unifor National President Lana Payne declared that “This is an unprecedented attack against workers’ rights and trade union freedoms, and what you’re going to see is an unprecedented response.” On Sunday, Unifor’s Automotive Council and Independent Parts Suppliers Council, which represent 40,000 autoworkers throughout the province, wrote to Premier Ford demanding a repeal of the bill, and announcing that they “will be exploring all options in the coming days to respond to these actions.”

After the provincial government committed in writing to repealing the bill and resuming negotiations, CUPE announced on Monday they would suspend their strike action. Mark Hancock, the union’s national president, told the CBC that CUPE members “took on the Ford government, and the government blinked. We’ve shown that when under attack, our movement is strong and we will stand up for each other.”

Canadian workers (including public-sector workers) are guaranteed the right to strike by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a part of their constitution. In order to pass their anti-strike legislation, the Ford government invoked the so-called “notwithstanding clause,” which allows provincial governments to suspend rights guaranteed by the charter, with no judicial review, for up to five years. It is a provision designed to be used “only in most unusual and extenuating circumstances,” according to Wally Oppal, a justice in British Columbia.

“If fundamental rights can be taken away from public-sector workers without recourse, no one’s rights are safe,” said Payne following the announcement of the bill’s withdrawal. “Workers made it clear that they will not tolerate the weaponizing of the notwithstanding clause to strip away our Charter rights. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”