Jessie Newson Jr. of Local 7686 led 700 of his fellow USW members on a march and rally in Washington, D.C., this spring as they called on Congress to restore the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, a crucial support system for displaced workers.
Newson learned in 2016 how vital TAA benefits can be when he, along with hundreds of his fellow members, endured the idling of the Missouri aluminum smelter where they worked, a casualty of unfair imports.
“TAA provided a lifeline for us,” he said. “It helped out union members in a very dark time.”
With their workplace now idled again, Local 7686 members are facing similar struggles, this time without any help from TAA, a support system that has been in place since 1962 but which Congress failed to reauthorize for the past two years.
Rapid Response Issue
For decades, TAA provided a wide array of benefits to workers harmed by illegal trade. Restoring the once-robust program was one of the issues that brought Newson and other members from across the United States to Capitol Hill in May for the 2024 Rapid Response, Legislative and Policy Conference.
The event began with two days of speeches, panel discussions, workshops and training sessions designed to prepare members for the focal point of the conference – the third and final day, when members visited their senators and members of Congress to advance the union’s core values.
“All the issues that we talk about here, they are all directly tied to legislation or government actions that impact us at the bargaining table,” International President David McCall told the delegation. “You are part of the most effective grassroots program in the labor movement.”
Pro-Worker Priorities
In addition to seeking the renewal of TAA, members urged lawmakers to support additional funding for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), safe staffing requirements for nursing homes and other important pro-worker legislation.
International Vice President Roxanne Brown, who oversees the union’s legislative and policy work, rattled off a list of victories that USW activists played a key role in delivering in recent years. Those wins – which Brown dubbed “epic shit” in her rousing keynote address – include new laws to invest billions in infrastructure, create jobs, rebuild supply chains, reduce health care costs, and save the pensions of more than a million workers, including 120,000 USW members.
“These victories have been life-changing,” said Brown. “This will have a massive long-term impact, largely because of all of you in Rapid Response.”
Manufacturing Policy
Thanks to the strength of the USW’s nationwide grassroots network and how it amplifies workers’ voices, Brown said, the union was able to work with the White House and Congress to achieve a national manufacturing policy for the first time in decades.
“This is the industrial revolution of our time, and our job is to make sure that it happens with American workers and American industries,” she said. “Our job is to seize this moment.”
That was the goal on members’ minds as they headed to the Capitol, engaging in more than 175 face-to-face meetings with lawmakers and staffers, while providing information on the union’s core issues to the office of every legislator in Washington.
Veteran of Lobbying
Such lobbying is nothing new for Lloyd Allen, paperworker and member of Local 983 in Augusta, Ga., who said he has traveled to Washington more times than he can count to talk to legislators about the union, as well as on behalf of the Pulp and Paperworkers’ Resource Council.
Allen said having face-to-face interactions with representatives is essential to making sure they understand the diverse issues workers face.
“It’s important for them to know we’re here,” Allen said. “We have to find a middle ground.”
Whether they were from states considered red, blue or purple, finding that middle ground was a big part of members’ connections with legislators.
“We’re speaking for everybody,” Newson said.
Julie Sweet of Local 912 in Toledo, Ohio, attending her first national Rapid Response conference, led a delegation of members from northwest Ohio to the office of their longtime representative, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, where they discussed trade, occupational safety and health, staffing shortages, and other issues.
Sweet said it was eye-opening to witness USW members wielding their collective power.
“The passion that everybody has is amazing,” she said. “I really feel like I made a difference, and that’s a great feeling.”
While the conference focused on federal issues, Brown was quick to point out that the Rapid Response network is active at the state and local levels as well. Members put a stop to union-busting right-to-work (for less) laws across numerous states, and led the way on issues such as veterans’ rights, unemployment, minimum wages and voting access.
Safe Staffing
Chad Shepersky of Local 9349 in Minnesota, a certified nursing assistant, said that the fight to achieve safe staffing in health care and nursing facilities would benefit workers and patients, as well as the families of both.
Shepersky said chronic understaffing leads to a “chaotic” environment where workers can’t possibly deliver the care that patients truly deserve.
“You have to work faster and spend less time with people,” he said.
While unionized health care workers can at least try to bargain for better staffing, they’re often faced with a choice between wages and staffing. “There’s only so much money to go around,” he said.
District 11 Director Cathy Drummond, who oversees bargaining for the union’s 50,000 health care workers, said improving enforcement of labor laws would help health care providers, and workers in all sectors, achieve justice.
“We’re seeing a pattern of employers acting more aggressively,” Drummond said, calling on Congress to fully fund and staff the NLRB so workers’ concerns can be addressed quickly.
After a successful day of lobbying, McCall encouraged attendees to return home, talk to other members and encourage them to get involved.
“Those conversations have more power than any other form of communication,” he said.
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