SANDPOINT NURSES
MAY LEAD
IDAHO WORKERS IN A NEW DIRECTION
By Nick Gier, President, Idaho Federation of Teachers,
AFT/AFL-CIO
This column is dedicated to late Utah Phillips, great folk singer
and union activist
I wish to
congratulate the nurses at Bonner General Hospital (BGH) on the successful
negotiation of their 2-year union contract. Union membership in America last
year was up for the first time since 1983, so I hope that these brave nurses are
a sign that more Idaho workers will exercise their right of self-determination
in the workplace.
Citing low
wages and lack of job security, a majority of BGH nurses voted for collective
bargaining in August of 2006. Initially BGH administrators refused to recognize
the union, Local 690 of the Teamsters, a 105-year-old labor organization
representing 1.4 million workers in the U.S. and Canada. After being charged
with bad faith bargaining, the hospital administration finally sat down at the
bargaining table.
Anti-union
forces in Idaho have been very confident since GOP legislators overrode Governor
John Evans veto of their "right-to-work" law in 1986. I place scare quotes
around "right-to-work" because its supporters are much more concerned about
business rights than worker rights. It is no coincidence that wages in
"right-to-work-for-less" states are the lowest in the nation.
Most states
allow unions to collect dues from every worker in the bargaining unit, so I hope
that the Sandpoint nurses are successful in soliciting voluntary dues. It is so
tempting to be a "free rider" and enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining
without having to pay for them. We pay taxes for what our representatives in
Washington do for us, so it is only fair that workers pay union dues for the
benefits they receive.
All growers
in Idaho have to join their respective commodities groups, so what is good for
the business goose is also good for the union gander. As the
Lewiston
Tribune's
Bill Hall once quipped: "What is the difference between compulsory potatoism and
compulsory unionism?"
Since my
retirement from the University of Idaho in 2003, I've had more time to devote to
my duties as president of the Idaho Federation of Teachers (IFT), which is
affiliated with the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers,
AFL-CIO. The Idaho Education Association (IEA), with 12,230 members in 2007, is
affiliated with the National Education Association, which, with 3.4 million
members, is America's largest labor union.
The IEA has
represented Idaho's teachers very well since 1892, so my union has chosen to
focus on higher education instead. Since 2004 the IFT has doubled its
membership on all six college and university campuses.
In contrast
to Idaho's K-12 teachers, higher education faculty have no legal right to
collective bargaining. Our administrators can ignore our requests to unionize
just as BGH officials tried to do with their nurses. It's too bad that it takes
the force of law to make people do the right thing.
Instead of
negotiating salaries,
the IFT has
focused on faculty grievances, handling over 100 cases since 1974. We settle
most of the issues without having to go to court, but when we have been forced
to do so, we have won 9 out of 11 major cases with settlements totaling over $2
million.
While union
membership has declined among private workers, it has risen dramatically among
public employees, 38 percent of whom are now union contract. That includes 75
percent of all K-12 teachers and one third of all higher education faculty.
These numbers would be much higher if 27 states, Idaho among them, did not deny
bargaining rights to state workers.
While union
membership in Idaho's private sector is only five percent of the workforce, the
IEA now represents 70 percent of Idaho's K-12 teachers. Higher education faculty
are excluded from Idaho's Teachers Negotiation Act, but the IFT still maintains
a 10 percent membership, which is actually a high rate when bargaining is not
allowed.
In 1976
faculty on all four university campuses voted (2-1 at the University of Idaho)
for collective bargaining legislation. The IFT wrote a public employee
bargaining bill and introduced it in the 1977 Idaho Legislature. It lost on a
tie vote in the Senate HEW Committee.
New faculty
union members have convinced me that we should try again, so I asked Tom Trail
(R-Moscow) and Shirley Ringo (D-Moscow) to introduce a bill allowing Idaho's
faculty to vote on collective bargaining. Constructive criticism from the
Attorney General's office came too late for our national office to help us
re-write the bill. It will be re-introduced next year.
Idaho's higher education faculty
have already expressed their opinions about the right of self-determination in
the workplace. On Feb. 11 the ISU Faculty Senate voted 23-4 to support the IFT
collective bargaining bill. The NIC Faculty Assembly vote was 44 in favor, none
against, and 6 abstentions. The vote in the BSU Faculty Senate was 21-4, and the
LCSC Faculty Association passed it 57-8.
The vote at
LCSC was symbolic in two senses. First, it was held on May 1, the international
day for worker's rights; and second, one of the LCSC professors wore an IWW
T-shirt. The International Workers of the World, affectionately known as the
Wobblies, was a no nonsense, hard-hitting union at the turn of the century.
With the mine owners hiring Pinkerton detectives and spies, the early unions
responded in kind. Utah Phillips' spirit embodied all that these pioneer
unionists fought and stood for.
The
Wobblies, along with the Western Federation of Miners, were active in the Idaho
mines and established the foundation of the Idaho union movement. Steel
workers, boilermakers, machinists, operating engineers, bricklayers, and rail
workers followed in their wake and built strong unions.
We are
confident that the workers of Idaho will once again unite and stop the decline
of wages here and across the nation. Each year worker productivity increases,
but real income for these hard working men and women has dropped 2 percent
between 2000 and 2005.
The right to bargain collectively
is about dignity, respect, and self-determination. Basically, it is
representative democracy in the workplace. The greatest irony is that those who
are responsible for preparing young people for life in a democracy society work
in institutions that have been, before the onset of collective bargaining,
thoroughly undemocratic.