What does it mean to be a Union Sister or Brother?

An introduction: I am Wray McCalester, a union man and I'm proud of it. In the UAW I am a charter member of my local, 2209, and served as committeeman, zone committeeman, chairman and HRD rep for insourcing. On the E-Board for eight years, I was elected delegate to the Constitutional Convention twice, and sent as a fraternal delegate a third time. I served on two Regional resolutions committees and on one Sub-Council resolution committee. I was elected first secretary and later chairman of our Sub-Council and Steve Yokich appointed me one of two delegates to the World Metal Workers Convention in 1993. I've been around.

In my final act as an insourcing rep I negotiated the 300,000 sq. ft.  sequencing facility at the Fort Wayne plant (with yeoman help from Pat McGee and Dennis Funk). The chairman at the time, Dave Matthews, gave me full rein and backed me all the way. Once the International saw how committed we were they came on board as well. It is the ONLY sequencing facility still manned by a local union in the entire country. ALL the rest were outsourced.

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What I see nowadays is disheartening. The tiered wage system is an abomination that encourages divisiveness and the International seems happy to let it stay that way. As local unions we are divided politically (big picture) and we seem to have forgotten to have each other's backs. We crumble a bit more every day.

Local reps either seem to know nothing or worse yet, don't even care. The membership can't agree on anything long enough to replace them. It is pitiful. 

So what do we do about it? That is what we hope to talk about here. To give a foundation and explanation of who and what we are, and what we hope to become. 

Reading the posts on 2209 sites, seeing the frustration and reading the questions one thing stands out for me. We don't take care of each other any longer.

In 1976 when I hired in I learned first hand what it meant to take care of your brother or sister. Before I had my 90 I was having trouble on my job. The brackets I had to attach the steering column (mast jacket) to were warped. The nuts wouldn't thread and I had to ship more than a few. My partner, Wally, the guy who built the mast jackets, knew the foreman would be angry so he built ahead and when the foreman showed ready to give me hell Wally told him I had been building the jackets and he was installing them, and if the foreman didn't like it he could get the committeeman because he was going to keep shipping them. My ass was covered by my union brother. When I had my 90 I took care of it myself--but I might not have made 90 without Wally's help.

A few years later they guy opposite me on 1st shift got in disciplinary trouble and he took added work so the foreman would let him off the hook. But the job was a settled paragraph 78--no work could be added. Still the day guy was doing it. I didn't and I started shipping part of every job. EVERY job. Of course I put a committee call in and my committeeman had my back. Furthermore, so did the two repairmen, Ron Whitney and Bobby Ray (both now deceased, I'm sad to say). Ron and Bobby repaired EVERY job I shipped and never said a  bad word to me or about me. They did raise hell with the foreman and told him the job was overloaded. 

It took almost four months. I shipped part of every job and they fixed them. Finally management caved. The work was removed and the original 78 settlement restored.

None of that would have happened if 1) the committeeman hadn't had my back and written the grievance, 2) Ron and Bobby hadn't covered me without blaming me, and 3) if I hadn't had the balls to ship part of every job despite management threats of discipline.

What happens today in your area if someone ships work? Does someone cover them? Does the committeeman fight for them? Do they keep shipping overloaded jobs even when threatened with discipline?  Or does everyone whine and complain about them? Or do some people suck up to the foreman by doing the job without shipping work?

A little philosophy in a quote. The great warrior for worker's rights, Eugene Debs, said this: 

 
"While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

He meant that we either hang together or we hang separately. We are ALL in this together. Remember that my sisters and brothers. Whether you like one another is irrelevant. What is relevant is that you support each other; that you care for each other; that you root for each other. Otherwise, you, too, are alone. Think about that.

Solidarity forever isn't just a song lyric--It is the union way of life.