These two pages of the VOICE reprints parts of a booklet made for hotel workers union in the Philippines by the International Union of Food and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF). The principles expressed in the booklet are identical to those of the ILWU. This tells us that workers and unions have the same goals no matter what country they live in.

Contract negotiations is a good example of ILWU democracy in action. Unit members meet to propose changes to their union contract and elect members to their negotiating committee. The union negotiating committee should include members from different departments and job classifications. While committee members may come from different departments or jobs, they should work for a contract that is best for the entire membership.

Union members should think of negotiations as a continuing process that doesn’t end when a new contract is approved. Members need to read and understand their contract, so they know their rights. Unit officers and shop stewards must be alert to make sure management follows the terms of the contract and members get the full benefits they are entitled to receive.

lower house. Those elected included a number of union members who were encouraged to run for office. The Democratic majority in the legislature repealed many of the anti-labor laws and passed a law that gave agricultural workers the right to unionize. In 1954, Democrats won 55 of 76 elections, giving them a majority in the house and senate.

Demonstrations were held in every state in the nation on April 4, 2011 to oppose the attacks on workers’ rights to bargain collectively.

“Don’t waste any time mourning. Organize!” These were the last words of union organizer and song writer Joe Hill before he was executed by the State of Utah on November 19, 1915. Hill was a member of the IWW and was in Utah organizing mine workers.

The most comprehensive electorate survey—the American National Election Studies (ANES)—were carried out by the University of Michigan beginning in the late 1940s. What these studies showed was that Americans fall into three categories with regard to their political knowledge. A tiny percentage know a lot about politics, up to 50%-60% know enough to answer very simple questions, and the remaining 40% know next to nothing.

From the year 2000 to 2009 the increase in productivity of U.S. workers was 6 percent, the fourth highest in the world.

Every year the U.S. Department of Labor compares the wages, benefits, and productivity of U.S. workers and workers in countries that do a lot of business and trade with the U.S. See http://www.bls.gov/fls/home. htm#comp

Chart 1 right shows the increase in output per hour for the nine years from 2000 to 2009. Workers in Korea, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, and the United States increased their productivity by 6 percent or better. 

Maui Kaiser Permanente members Kaulana Kaa‘a, Rusty Helm, and Bryan Nakamoto help the ILWU organize new members in the health care industry. The Kaiser members are highly skilled medical diagnostic imaging technicians who do computerized tomography (CT), radiologic (X-ray), and mammography scanning.

Your union contract is a written agreement with your employer. It guarantees your wages, benefits, conditions of employment, and rights. It is enforceable through a grievance procedure and ultimately in a court of law.