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Detroit Local Turns Despair into Activism

With the troubled state of the U.S. auto industry and more than 1000 members on the out-of- work list for several years, Detroit Local 58 Business manager Joe Abdoo challenged his staff to get “proactive and creative” and build some grassroots activism to reclaim lost market share. They heeded the call.

Most recently, despite temperatures hovering just above zero, upwards of 90 out-of-work members have been manning daily picket lines at the construction site of a new medical office building in nearby Oakland County that is being built by nonunion, out-of-town labor.

“Our members are very motivated,” says Business Agent Ryan Webb. While most major hospitals exclusively use union labor to build or renovate the core and shell, when it comes to building individual doctors’ suites, the work has recently been going nonunion. When the Generations ObGyn, a doctor’s group, contracted with a nonunion contractor to convert a historic building into medical offices, Webb turned up the heat.

“I told our members that these doctors have no problem getting paid by patients who are covered by collectively bargained health insurance, but when its time to build lavish office suites, they use nonunion carpetbaggers. Enough is enough,” says Webb.  He called the doctors group and left messages. 

When the doctors didn’t call back, Webb contacted the local’s unemployed members and other building trades unions. In short order, they began hand-billing the doctors’ existing office and picketing the new construction site on Woodward Avenue, a busy eight-lane boulevard, nationally known for the annual Woodward Dream Cruise.  Their message is “Local Jobs for Local Workers.” 

“It’s impossible not to notice us,” says Webb. Hundreds of drivers honk their horns driving by the picket line and even the police have offered support. Local newspapers and radio stations have given the dispute accurate coverage. Freshman U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, a Democrat, saw the picket line, stopped and held an impromptu rally.

“Not only are you helping yourself by picketing, you are getting together with brothers and sisters to catch up on what’s happening and be part of the Brotherhood,” says Pat Johnstone, an 11-year journeyman inside wireman. “Our local is very good to us and clearly out for our best interests,” says fellow journeyman and Marine Corps veteran Gary Packard, who has been out of work since last April. “But we have to fight for our work, not leave it to them.”

In the past, picketing by the building trades and nonunion sites has lasted a couple days and then run out of steam. Not this time, says Webb.

“We plan on keeping it up until the snow melts unless significant progress is made towards our issues,” he says. Local 58 circulated flyers asking members and supporters to call the doctor’s group. Plans are in the works to “wallpaper” Birmingham, the super-wealthy Detroit suburb—home to the medical group’s leading member—with   information about the group’s lack of respect for local union workers.

Public image is everything, says Webb. The local union conducts regular classes on picketing and hand-billing, informing members about the legal limits of their activism and the proper way to present their issues to the community. “We don’t get tough or unruly and get in people’s faces,” says Webb. “We are the victims, here, not the bad guys. Public sentiment is very important in any strategic campaign.”

“We don’t shop at Wal-Mart because they hurt employment in the U.S.,” says Packard. “The doctors should ‘shop in our store’ and use local union labor, members who will spend money here in our community.”

Local 58’s commitment to membership education was further demonstrated on January 22, when more than 325 members showed up at the hall for the first monthly class on traveling to other jurisdictions for work. Over 600 local union members are already working out of town. “We’re trying to alleviate the fears of members who are forced to travel and show them that they can secure their benefits to be able to sufficiently care for their families,” says dispatcher Marc Watson, who has over 20 years of experience as a traveler.

The class directed unemployed members to useful Web sites and underscored the importance of members accurately filling out reciprocal forms to keep benefits flowing.  “We discussed the generic rules of the road,” Watson. “It’s important to understand that we are guests in other locals and carry the reputation of Local 58 with us.”