Speeches

Building Union Power 6 Conference
April 22, 2006

Prepared Remarks by
Andy Douglas,
Executive Director OCSEA

Ladies and Gentlemen, Sisters and Brothers, honored guests, family and friends –

One thing I have learned over the past few years is that one of the most difficult tasks in OCSEA – indeed, one of the most difficult tasks in the national labor movement – is to be the speaker who has been scheduled to speak right after Jerry McEntee has made his remarks.

Permit me to take the easy – and sincere way out, and please join me in giving President McEntee another hand.

First, on behalf of all of us in OCSEA, I want to thank Jerry for talking about our new state contract and the significant gains we made. The support that each of you gave to your bargaining team was felt by all of us each day we ventured forth to slay the dragons of the state’s demands for no wage increases, higher health care payments by our members, termination of our Workforce Development program and so much more. Jerry, you are right. We stayed together, we fought back and this time we won. We appreciate you recognizing and applauding our efforts. We are proud to, once again, lead the way for AFSCME.

I only have a few observations that I want to share with you, especially after what President McEntee said. He talked to us about “The People Care” plan to allow the people – the majority – to regain this country.

And president McEntee emphasized how much we care about the economy, jobs, health care, education, housing, security, seniors, and so on. And he mentioned the loyalty of each of you.

I don’t think that’s any accident. As some of you know, I’ve always admired the wisdom that Abraham Lincoln bestowed upon this nation during his most difficult moments almost 150 years ago. One of the most vibrant and accurate things that he reminded us of is that our government is of the people, for the people and by the people.

Why do I mention this well-known phrase along with President McEntee’s comments about how we care? Well – it’s because we – more accurately, you – are the government for all intents and purposes. Our state, our counties, our cities, our townships are quite literally of you, by you, and – ultimately – for you and your family and fellow citizens.

You care. You care, because that is your vocation. You care because of your loyalty to your fellow citizens regardless of who has been elected to nominally be your boss.

As President McEntee said – and you are going to hear it again and again until November, we have an incredible opportunity to elect our friends and sweep our state clean of the corruption. Like Jerry said, when we fight, we win!

But, victory is not guaranteed.

Ninety-one years ago, a union poet named Ralph Chapin wrote Solidarity Forever. It’s been a union anthem every since he put those words to paper, and as Chapin used the tune to retell labor’s history, let us never forget that he closed each stanza with the declaration regardless of what we face, it’s IN UNION that we are strong.
Twenty-three years ago, it was union that made OCSEA strong. Our veterans and heroes who paved the road and showed us the way bravely fought for OCSEA when we had no rights. Some of these legendary activist have passed, and luckily many are still with us. Unmistakably, in union they were strong.

And shortly after these pioneers won collective bargaining rights, public employees’ futures were suddenly put in danger with the beginning of 16 years of domination in State Government by many who could not give one iota of care about public workers.

OCSEA for the first time in its modern history faced the prospect of layoffs, budget cuts, and outright anti-worker legislation. But despite these threats and adversities, despite the smattering of friends in public office, it was in union - that kept OCSEA strong.

And when we faced deaths and mayhem like our corrections workers faced in 1993, it was in union that OCSEA was able to keep strong.

And even just a year-and-a-half ago, in November 2004, with the eyes of the nation upon us, every one of us felt crushed by the election that we lost by an agonizingly slim margin.

That 2004 defeat had the potential for disaster for OCSEA – but in union, we kept strong. We kept strong by working on the things that we could work on.

Together we focused on fixing an inefficient and slow grievance administrative system. We listened to you about the problems. We talked to you about the solutions, and we did the nearly impossible – we cut the backlog down from thousands to hundreds.

Together, we faced an openly hostile legislature that wanted to erase years of civil service protections and change the way we bargain contracts. Again, we joined together, unleashed our creativity and – in union – fought back.

 Together, we faced a declining membership. Some of this was from demoralization and apathy, but some was also due to – once again – hostile forces in the legislature who were hell bent on dividing our members, like when they took a legislative axe to our attorney members. And, once again, we kept together, acted like a union and fought back. And again we won. And today I can announce that about one month ago today we added to our Union and restored the bargaining rights to 256 attorneys who now enjoy the protection afforded by OCSEA and AFSCME.

Together, we faced an internal financial crisis caused by economic forces that were largely out of our control. But we joined hands; we made smart but tough decisions, and ultimately put OCSEA back on a healthy financial track.

And, most recently, we faced contract negotiations with a hostile administration and legislature. It wasn’t easy. And our gains would not have been possible had it not been for the backing of our 35,000 members.  But we walked away with raises, a health care program and a workforce development program that is the envy of 99 percent of the people in this country.

Solidarity isn’t really news.  In fact, this is probably old news and it may be history that some may grow weary of. But I don’t think we can ever remind ourselves enough that, indeed, IN UNION WE ARE STRONG.

More importantly, as we go forward with our efforts to elect our friends this fall, we have to be extremely cautious about one thing. That one thing is the fact that we can be certain that those who control the reins of power in the Statehouse and elsewhere – those who have a vested interest in hanging on to their special-interest deals – always keep one special card up their sleeve.

And that card they try to play is what we all know as “divide and conquer.” Even, on occasion, some of us engage in that kind of unproductive exercise vesting upon us a cancer that can eat our very souls.

The power elite in Washington have perfected this technique. Karl Rove – you all should know of him by now – has an entire staff of pollsters, pundits and public relations hacks who do nothing but work on this kind of thing.

They call it different things.

Culture wars.

Wedge issues.

And as Jerry mentioned the leaking of lies.

And then do it to drive a wedge of suspicion, a wedge of hatred, a wedge of fear into the forces of progress like OCSEA and AFSCME.

I know these attempts to divide us are coming – we know they are coming – but, again, where we take refuge, where we find our defense is again in the phrase: The Union Keeps Us Strong. From wherever these attempts came, be it internally or externally, we must and we should resist with every fiber that is within our bodies.

What’s this union strength? It’s the strength of stewards and chapter officers who volunteer hundreds and thousand of hours because of their compassion for their members.

It’s the strength of members of committees ranging from our Arbitration Committee to our Safety and Health committees who are acting to help members who names and faces they will never know, acting in the belief that a blow against one is a blow against all of us.

It’s the strength of leaders of Assemblies and political action groups who donate their evenings and weekends to enrich the lives of their co-workers and communities.

It’s the strength of members of our Board of Directors who face enormous decisions about policies and making strategic commitments of our precious resources.

Our strength is the love, the mutual respect, the sacrifice and the honesty that has gotten OCSEA through the toughest of times.

And with the Union keeping us strong, it will be the same love, respect, sacrifice and honesty that will give us the unshakeable solidarity to – as Jerry has called upon us to do – to fight – AND TO WIN!

Let us join our hands then to pursue those goals that benefit our Members and our Union. When we do so, no force will be able to resist – because in Union we have strength.
Thank you.