by Whitney D

The problem for workers in any public service job is that it’s all too common that managers and employers are one of more of the following flavors of failing leadership:

• careerists who will do anything to avoid rocking the boat- including failing their workers and the community – as long as they can stay in good favor with the political and economic power they align themselves with
• idealogues who think the “mission” of an organization is somehow separate from and superior to making sure they take care of their staff
• greedy CEOs who have figured out how to get rich under the pretense of helping others and could care less if they succeed as long as the check clears
• those who lack vision and hope because they are so beaten down by a system that protects and elevates everyone listed above

The people actually DOING the work- whether that’s being front lines in the community or supporting behind the scenes- are people who are there because they are driven by a higher sense of responsibility to the community. We are the ones seeing how the impressive plans that voters and donors and community members hear about come to fruition- or don’t.

And we should be screaming this from the mountaintops every chance we get.

When we are saying that the metaphorical house is on fire, it’s not just because we deserve better compensation and better working conditions (even though we absolutely do)- it’s because we recognize that burnout and compassion fatigue are real; that when bad policies prompt our coworkers to quit in droves and take their institutional knowledge with them, the community suffers; that chronic and intentional understaffing hurts those who we claim to serve; that we can’t properly advocate for the right resources and policies when disproportionate mental energy goes to wondering if we can pay our bills; that fear of retaliation for telling a boss their plan is harmful results in everyone suffering; that terrible working conditions for front line workers reflect terrible caretaking conditions of our most vulnerable; that our mental health suffers when we watch corruption and ineptitude permeate the choices of our bosses.

Two unions that have recently taken hold of this framing and run with it successfully are National Nurses United (NNU) and Austin Pets Alive Workers (APAW). NNU consistently includes addressing staffing shortages and the subsequent risks to patients in every demand and press hit. APAW has successfully framed their need for a union as “our working conditions are their [the animals’] living conditions.” They have taken hold of the narrative to build community support for their demands that extend beyond workers’ rights advocates so that members of the community connect to their cause. If, in these cases, nurses are saying they can’t take care of their patients and animal caregivers are saying animals in their care can’t be humanely cared for, their organizing and mobilizing and demanding now creates an open invitation to support from everyone else who identifies with their cause.

But why do this workplace by workplace when we all know we are stronger united? Austin needs a worker led public servant watchdog coalition. City of Austin and Travis County workers through AFSCME 1624, United Workers of Integral Care, National Nurses United, Texas State Employees Union, Education Austin, Austin EMS Association, Austin Pets Alive Workers, Austin Newsguild, and all other workers in public service and community oriented fields- we need to join together and make it known how our ability to serve the community is a direct result of how we are either empowered and respected or dismissed and degraded as workers. Until we band together and build a coalition of community members who stand by us, we will continue to shortchange our power as workers.

So how do we do this? Good community watchdog coalitions are intersectional, intergenerational, and multicultural. They are built on empowering workers and communities based on mutual interests and don’t make assumptions based on people’s political leanings. A strong coalition is open to people and not just organizations- they post information in public places and invite unorganized workers and nonworking community members to plug in. They stick to their value of community and host town halls where they listen as much as they talk; they conduct surveys to identify the social service gaps that the community has identified; they are constantly messaging their theory of change and using that to cross-pollinate with other groups. Good coalitions stay strong in their messaging that our organizing is just as much for the common good as it is for us as workers. And then they stick to that promise with the demands and campaigns they pursue.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I feel comfortable saying that most of us got into the labor movement to advance the common good and got into public service work to do the same. Let’s spell it out for everyone how the fates of both are inextricably tied and invite them to demand better of our bosses alongside us.

Whitney D has spent 20 years in public service of various kinds: teacher, school support staff, animal welfare non-profits, Austin Public Health and now Travis Country Health and Human Services. Like most public service workers, she (wisely) hasn’t done this with visions of wealth but because she wants to be able to make a respectable living while making a meaningful and positive impact in her community.

The post Public Service Unions Should Build Community Watchdog Coalitions first appeared on Red Fault.

Although we had been working alongside the local pro-Palestine movement prior to March, our chapter membership’s approval of the Palestine Solidarity Priority Project Proposal has allowed us to further and more formally immerse ourselves in the local struggle for Palestinian liberation. Over these past three months we have had some major wins along with a few setbacks that triggered some moments of reflection, but first we will present a quick overview of the proposal defining our work and setting our goals.

Our proposal has two pillars of activities for our chapter to engage in; the first is escalating our participation in the Cleveland Palestine Advocacy Community (hereafter referred to as CPAC) by mobilizing our members to events and taking part in meetings, the second is undergoing our own flyering/canvassing campaign in local neighborhoods where we think people would be receptive to a pro-Palestine message. Alongside these efforts we are to create a new set of Cleveland DSA shirts with a design reflective of this project’s focus on Palestine. To oversee this work the proposal sets up the following leadership roles; Communications Coordinator, Community Outreach Coordinator, Mobilization Lead and Project Administrator.

March

In March our chapter hit the ground running by mobilizing to CPAC events and meetings, the first of which was the car caravan on March 9^th. The caravan was made up of some hundred or so vehicles with all sorts of Palestinian paraphernalia ranging from Palestine flags to car accessories with keffiyeh designs. The caravan made its way along the local highway toward the Hopkins airport, disrupting traffic all along the way. Upon arriving at the airport entrance we were greeted with a police checkpoint that prevented entry into the airport itself so the protest pivoted to shutting down the airport entrance from the highway for the next several hours. We also joined CPAC on March 30^th for the rally and march through Cleveland for “Land Day”, a commemoration to the mass protests that broke out in 1976 in Palestine when the Israeli government expropriated thousands of dunams of Palestinian land.

Our work with CPAC was not limited to just protests, we also pursued a more targeted campaign at the Cleveland City Council, demanding that they pass a ceasefire resolution for Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Although our members had been attending these council meetings and giving public comments alongside CPAC members prior to the project’s start, its passage gave the newly appointed project leadership the ability to officially mobilize our members to join in the pressure campaign. After weeks of public comments from both our chapter’s members as well as CPAC members, on March 25 our efforts were rewarded when the council finally gave in to our demands and passed a ceasefire resolution! In parallel with CPAC’s Cleveland based pressure campaign our chapter had also been spearheading our own similar campaign for a ceasefire resolution in the Cleveland Heights City Council which followed suit with the passage of a resolution on April 1.

But perhaps the most intense moment in our chapter’s March solidarity work would have to have been the arrest and subsequent jailing of two of our members. These comrades had been “wheat pasting” some pro-Palestine posters up around the Case Western campus late one evening when they were spotted by the university police and detained. After some intense questioning the officers placed them in the County jail where they were held over the weekend under trumped up charges. But, after inundating their office with calls demanding for our comrades’ release, they were set free with the charges against them dropped!

April

In April at the general meeting our chapter voted in the formal leadership group as defined by the original proposal, who were then onboarded and took over the execution of project tasks. One of which was assisting in our chapter’s fundraising concert at Happy Dog on 4/19. In total the concert raised $2,128 which was then donated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is a UN body that was set up in 1949 to support the Palestinian refugee population. Our Palestine Project leadership team also produced an Anti-Zionist resolution to be reviewed and discussed by the rest of membership with the hopes of a successful vote by the general body in the coming months.

On the CPAC front our recent success with the Cleveland City Council resolution had us shift our focus on a new target, Cuyahoga County Council, and with it a new, perhaps more substantive demand, divestment from Israeli bonds. These bonds are, in effect, a loan to the Israeli government and our county currently has around $16 million “invested” in these bonds. With the new target and goal also came a new tactic. Unlike Cleveland City Council’s 10 speaker maximum, County Council had no limit to speakers for public comment which meant if we were able to mobilize enough speakers we would be able to filibuster the meeting. So with this new tactical approach in mind we and CPAC intensified our mobilization efforts not just for attendance to the meetings but also to give public comments that would take up as much of the meeting time as possible.

Meanwhile on the local university campus of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), the CWRU SJP chapter was facing suspension for posting pro-Palestine flyers around campus. We released a statement alongside other CPAC member groups denouncing the CWRU administration’s actions. However this suspension, rather than coercing the students into compliance, only served to further radicalize the rest of the student body. It was in this environment of strained tensions between the university administration and its students that on April 29th the students began the CWRU encampment.

May

May started off with the CWRU encampment already in full swing, with events like teach-ins, crafting and even a concert to occupy the students and community member participants. Although the initial set up of the encampment at the end of April saw some intense police aggression against the students and community members (a DSA comrade was arrested briefly before being released by officers due to “having nowhere to hold them”) the bulk of subsequent antagonism came from a tiny group of hostile counter protesters. Local rabid Zionists Alex Popovich and Lawrence, well known for their uncanny ability to reach new depths of depravity in their remarks and protest symbols, set up shop each day on the sidewalk just outside the KSL Oval where the encampment was set up. They would blast Zionist propaganda through speakers and yell insults and threats at the students and supportive community members. In this tense environment of combative counter protesters, prowling police from various local departments and looming reprisals from a hostile university administration the students managed to hold strong together in their tents for over a week even participating in the Rally for Rafah that CPAC organized at the Wade Lagoon. Finally on March 9^th, after also setting up a sit in at the administrative building overnight, the encampment disbanded. In the immediate aftermath the administration hit several of the students with “code of conduct violations” for their participation in the encampment and even went as far as denying them the ability to attend graduation and withholding their diplomas. Both Cleveland DSA and CPAC have been assisting these students fight the administration by offering legal aid and pressuring the administration with phone calls and emails with some successes in negotiations, but the situation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, back at the County Council, CPAC and DSA’s efforts at mobilizing were bearing fruit as the number of attendees as well as speakers for public comment continued to grow with each passing meeting. Our demands to the council members also became more defined with the following 3 demands; passing an ordinance that prohibits investment in any foreign government, providing a report that outlined the “due diligence process” that led to the investment and reinvestment into these Israeli bonds and finally the creation of an investment review board that is headed by community members to scrutinize and, if needed, reject investment decisions made by the county. We were also able to squeeze in a disruption of a mayor Bibb event going on at a local brewery after a council session, which ended with him sheepishly retreating from his event and CPAC commandeering the podium to bring awareness to the ongoing atrocities Israel was committing in Gaza.

In Cleveland DSA specific news we completed revising the aforementioned Anti-Zionist resolution to better reflect the chapter’s views and intentions with its current and future Palestine solidarity work, and ended up passing the resolution at the June general meeting. Given the significant changes that had occurred in the political landscape around Palestine solidarity work, the leadership team also put together a list of amendments to the original proposal which was also passed in the subsequent June general meeting. Finally we hosted a Protest 101 teach-in event to go over some best practices when organizing and participating in protests for our members and CPAC members on 5/18.

As we hit the halfway point for our 6 month project the leadership team has been reflecting on these events as well as the unfinished work that is outlined in the proposal to chart out the course for the remaining 3 months. Although the full liberation of Palestine and its people, both within its borders and exiled across the world, is still far off in the distance, it is our chapter’s hope that our ongoing local work as well as the work being undertaken by our fellow chapters across the country and the broader left movement will drive our world closer to a just conclusion to this century long struggle for liberation.

Free Palestine!

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Note: A previous version of this article stated that Cleveland DSA had officially joined the Palestine coalition with the passage of our priority proposal in March 2024. A prior resolution passed in January 2024 had already “affirmed our participation in” the coalition, itself following two months of chapter participation in Palestine rallies. The March priority proposal called on Cleveland DSA to “escalate and centralize our contribution to the Cleveland Palestine coalition”.

The post Palestine Solidarity Priority Project: Half point retrospective appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

For the past 2 years, our DSA chapter has attended Rock Hill Pride to show solidarity with our queer comrades and share with the broader queer community how queer liberation and socialism are intertwined. 

We recently learned that Rock Hill Pride has hired Shane Windmeyer, aka drag performer Buff Faye, to headline the Pride festival. Windmeyer is the former CEO of Campus Pride. QNotes has reported and Campus Pride officers confirmed that he embezzled over $100,000 in Campus Pride funds, spending money that should’ve gone to building queer friendly spaces to instead build his personal drag performing business.

As socialists, we recognize that bosses dominate our working lives, the resources of our communities, and through this, the public life of our society. The LGBTQ+ community is no different. Socialists organize with our community to reclaim this power and our lives, and it starts by organizing to hold particularly bad bosses in our community accountable. Following a deep discussion with our membership and The Charlotte Gaymers Network (CGN), our leadership voted to join CGN’s calls for vendors to pull support from Rock Hill Pride, so long as Buff Faye skirts public accountability and remains employed by the festival. We hope that Windmeyer can make amends with Campus Pride and the local queer community so that we can stay united at a time of growing hate against queer people.

We do not take it lightly when we call on our members, the community, and other vendors to boycott Rock Hill Pride this year. We recognize that, while Rock Hill Pride and most local Pride events are funded and controlled by corporations and the non-profits they fund, they are refuges for our queer comrades. Our members found solace, joy, and community there in past years and are disappointed they can’t in good conscience attend. But we build our own community. That is why we recommend y’all check out events from queer community groups like CGN and T4T, or other Pride in the area unaffiliated with Rock Hill Pride. Our chapter will be tabling at Salisbury Pride on June 22nd and will host a post-Pride new & prospective member meeting on June 26th and a Socialist Social June 27th! Check out our events calendar for more details!

Happy Pride,

Charlotte Metro DSA

We are pleased to announce that, at our chapter-wide General Assembly in April, members of our chapter overwhelmingly voted in support of a resolution that reinforces DSA San Diego as an anti-Zionist organization both in principle and in practice. The adopted resolution explicitly defines anti-Zionist expectations for both our membership and endorsed candidates. As a [...]

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by Matt McManus

Introduction

The best way for socialists to get elected by their fellow citizens is to make life better for their fellow citizens. That goes doubly in a country like the United States. People are less afraid of the “S” word than ever before. But socialism can still be a hard sell for many folks whose hard lives have made them rightly wary of over-promising politicians and spacy idealists (guilty as charged). Democratic socialists who speak to the issues that people experience everyday are more likely to be successful than those who double down on talking points or politically correct bromides.

This is why we need candidates like Layla Taha, who is currently running to be the second DSA member elected as a State Representative in Lansing. Layla is a native of Deaborn and was raised in the city of Wayne by a single mother. Especially passionate about public healthcare, Layla became a health analyst after studying global health at the University of Michigan and receiving her Masters of Public Health at Columbia. After serving as Program Director for Congresswoman Rashida Talib, Layla took the big step of running for public office. Having received endorsements from Talib, DSA and a who’s who of other progressive groups, she is running against Peter Herzberg in District 25.

Confronting DTE

Taha’s campaign centers around a few key issues. One of the most important is holding “DTE accountable.” DTE energy is of course one of the economic and political giants in Michigan. In the past legislative session over 93% of legislators in Lansing accepted donations from DTE at some point in their careers. This obviously gives the company an enormous amount of pull, which it has used to insulate itself from accountability and responsibility. And well it should, given a failure to reinvest in infrastructure has contributed to consistent blackouts during the not-exactly unexpected bad Michigan weather year round. This is in spite of billion dollar profits.

Layla is committed to following fellow Democratic Socialist Dylan Wegela’s precedent by pushing back against the influence of DTE money in Michigan politics. This has included committing to not taking any money from the mega-corp. In the long run she wants to establish public energy utility to provide cheap energy to people in Michigan. But in the short term she wants DTE to compensate residents for food and wages lost during power outages, and to pay them by the hour when the power goes out. These are good, common sense solutions. American politics may be acrimoniously partisan at the moment. But most of us would agree that energy prices are too high, and that the last thing we need is for money to have more of an influence on state politics.

Healthcare for All

In defiance of economic common sense which holds you should only pay more to get more United States has long been an exceptional country in paying far more to support a private health system that provides far less. This kind of mystical thinking about healthcare has long been pushed by politicians in both parties. As a consequence of this approach suffered while insurance countries rake in tens of billions and Americans pay more for health than any other country in the world. The impact has been dire. The Legatum Institute, a free market think tank, recently ranked the US 69 th on a list of worldwide health systems. Right between Armenia and Algeria. No wonder life expectancy has been declining.

As you might expect from someone with an extensive educational and professional background in healthcare, Layla is pissed about this and isn’t taking it lying down. She has proudly and rightly insisted that healthcare is a human right that people should be provided at point of service regardless of income or location. No exceptions. Layla wants to increase funding for hospitals and offer incentives for doctors to accept Medicaid patients. But more importantly she is pushing for the establishment of a single payer system within the state, which would make deductibles extinct and ensure all Michiganders would be able to get the healthcare they need.

This is an ambitious but realistic idea whose time came long ago, and its well past the point where it should be implemented. Across the river from Detroit in Canada all Canadians receive public healthcare provided by the provincial governments and subsidized by Ottawa. Despite many provincial systems experiencing underfunding by conservative governments, Canada’s health system is still ranked far higher than the US’. Not coincidentally life expectancy is also higher and costs are lower. Michiganders deserve quality healthcare as much as Canadians, and we need more candidates like Layla who are willing to push for such commonsense policies.

Conclusion

Martin Luther King once said “call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth in this country for all God’s children.” Dr. King was absolutely right, and it is a great tragedy that 50 years after his death we’ve moved further rather than closer to his dream. The consequence has been declining faith in basic institutions, corroding public trust, and the dark specter of rising authoritarianism and racism threatening once more. People need to believe that something better is not only possible, but necessary.

Democratic socialists running for office like Layla Taha are breaking a glass ceiling by offering the people of Michigan, and Americans everywhere, a better alternative than the centrist condescension of reactionary radicalism that have been par for the course for decades now. She is committed to fighting corporate power to advance democracy while delivering better health outcomes for citizens. If there’s any justice in the world by this time next year she’ll be in Lansing.

The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: membership@metrodetroitdsa.com in order to get plugged in to our activities!

Introducing Layla Taha was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

by Sara G.

Austin Socialist News Bulletin – May 2024

At the end of April, we had comrades in jail for peacefully speaking up for Palestine, while other comrades served as legal counsel, marshaled protests, and waited around the clock at Travis County jail to greet released prisoners with hot coffee and provide rides home.The violence of the University of Texas, Austin Police Department, Greg Abbott and DPS deeply affected our community and left little time for writing a monthly roundup. We didn’t stop our organizing, though, and had a May full of activities in support of Palestine and workers. We also held our yearly chapter convention and inaugurated a new Leadership Committee who will continue the struggle for the next year.

In the past month…

• We kicked off the month with our second annual May Day Job Fair. Ten unions were on site to talk to job applicants about the work they do, how to get hired, and how to help develop more union density and militancy in Austin. When it started misting, we threw up a tent to cover the bands and played on. We munched on giant grilled burritos and listened to local bands Ama, Medieval Snails, Pony Soprano, Provoked Emotions, and Gummy Fang and had an all around great time.

• As part of the Austin for Palestine coalition, we participated in the 76th remembrance of Nakba Day at the Capitol, and the emergency protest for Rafah. Members continue to pressure the City Council at each council meeting to stand up for Palestine.

• Alongside the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), DSA is suing Greg Abbott to challenge Executive Order GA-44, which targets protestors supporting Palestine and suppresses our rights to speech and assembly. We strive to take our fight for Palestine to every front.

• Our most recent reading group studied Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging by Jodi Dean at Alienated Majesty. We discussed how to shift from an “ally” to a “comrade” mindset where we are all responsible and accountable to one another. Our next study group is in conjunction with the Austin Against Apartheid campaign, starting with Max Ajl’s 2023 article “Palestine’s Great Flood, Part 1.”

• We continued to support workers, participating in the Food Service Workers picket line at Meta and showing up for Integral care workers to demand Just Cause termination and an employee ombudsmen. Nationally, DSA is supporting the workers of UAW 4811 who are striking in response to the University of California’s harsh response to pro-Palestinian protests, and DSA Labor is matching donations to their hardship fund.

The post Austin Socialist News Bulletin first appeared on Red Fault.

By Mary Grahame Hunter and Anthony D.

In December 2023 workers at the Ferndale Library wrapped up a year-long struggle to win their union and then a first contract. The union drive was organized and led by Detroit DSA member and library worker Mary Grahame Hunter. Our chapter provided support in many ways throughout. We recount the year-long campaign timeline with insights on unionizing library workers and winning a first contract (written by Mary Grahame) as well as lessons learned from the DSA solidarity campaign (written by Anthony).

Timeline

December 5, 2022: Around 20 library workers went public with their campaign to unionize with the Newspaper Guild of Detroit. Their reasons included better pay, an overhaul of their paid-time-off system, and job security so they could continue doing the job they love. Mary Grahame had learned critical workplace organizing skills in our chapter’s Organizing 101 classes (the six-week Night School we held in May/June 2020) and immediately put them to use. When the campaign was ready to go public and needed community support, she knew she could count on Detroit DSA members to show up in solidarity and met with members of the Labor Working Group to strategize about a solidarity campaign.

December 10: Detroit DSA members discovered that the Ferndale Library Board, composed of seven elected members, planned to hold an emergency meeting prior to their regularly scheduled meeting December 15. It had only a closed-door session on the agenda, presumably to discuss their response to the union drive. Detroit DSA members attended and made public comments before being kicked out for the closed-door session, telling the board they needed to voluntarily recognize the union.

December 15: The Board held its regular monthly meeting and could have voted on whether to voluntarily recognize the union. Detroit DSA members and other supporters spoke during public comment demanding that they do so. Despite a majority of workers signing on to the union effort, and an upswell of community support for the workers at this meeting and the previous board meeting, the Board instead voted to hire a union-busting law firm to fight their workers. They never held a vote on whether to voluntarily recognize the union.

February 2, 2023: The workers won their union with 90% voting in favor of joining the Newspaper Guild of Detroit. Soon after, DSA helped them throw a party to celebrate and get ready to fight for their first contract. In March, they started bargaining sessions.

June 4: A local hate group went into the Ferndale Library and removed all the books on their youth Pride displays. Detroit DSA mobilized folks to show up to the Library Board meeting on June 15 to voice support for library workers and the queer community, demand that management take action to protect the workers from hate groups, and pressure them to reach an agreement with the union on a contract (see the talking points we used here and watch Ferndale Library workers Aby, Simon, and Mary Grahame speak during that meeting). The Library Board did not take any concrete actions to protect workers despite an avalanche of public comments from both library workers and community supporters urging them to do so.

At the beginning of the workers’ organizing campaign, four Black women worked at the Ferndale Library. By mid-2023, all four had either been bullied out of their jobs by the then-Library Director (she resigned in January 2024) or had to quit in search of better working conditions and pay.

October: The union bargaining team had been in numerous bargaining sessions with management to negotiate both the non-economic and economic demands of their first contract. While they had made progress on the non-economic demands, they expected a lot of pushback once they started to discuss economics. Detroit DSA turned out members and supporters to the October 12 and November 16 Library Board meetings to yet again pressure them to meet the workers’ demands.

November 7, 2023 (Election Day): DSA members held a “read-in” at the library during polling hours where we wore red and/or union swag to show support for the workers’ union and taped posters that read “we support Ferndale library workers” to our laptops and seat backs.

December: A year after going public with their union, the workers reached a tentative agreement on a first contract. It was unanimously ratified by members and passed by the Board at its December meeting.

Unionizing and winning a contract (Mary Grahame)

The first step in organizing the Ferndale Library was using the basic building block we covered in DSA’s Organizing 101: talk to your coworkers. I broached organizing a union in one-on-one, face-to-face conversations with several coworkers I was close to, some of whom had brought up the subject of unions before. Everyone I initially spoke to was interested, so once there were four of us (a de facto Organizing Committee), I reached out to DSA for advice on what to do next. A member of the Labor Working Group and I had coffee a few days later to go over what steps I had already taken and map out what needed to happen next.

The Organizing Committee made a plan for who would speak to whom from which department, and in what order, to see how many people we could likely get on board before going public with the union. It was an easier campaign than most, for several reasons. We’re a small workplace with one location, so it was easy to talk to the majority of our colleagues within a short amount of time. Additionally, many of them were already favorably disposed toward unions by virtue of coming from union families or having been in unions before. The most difficult part of these conversations was finding the time and space to have them in a small building with few spaces for private discussions.

At the same time, our DSA contact put us in touch with Stevie Blanchard, the Union Administrator for the Newspaper Guild (TNG) of Detroit, and I met with her to see if our unit would be a good fit to join the TNG local. While we did investigate other union affiliations (there is no specialized union for library workers the way there is for some other professions), the size and responsiveness of the Guild were a great match for the size of our bargaining unit, which hovers between 20 and 30 people.

Stevie met with the Organizing Committee and set us up with a link for unit members to sign digital union cards. Once we had 75% of our unit’s signed cards in hand, the union went public and we petitioned the Library Board for voluntary recognition, as described above. Despite not receiving it, we won our union election with 90%. The party that DSA threw to celebrate meant the absolute world to the Organizing Committee and to other bargaining unit members.

The Organizing Committee had regular meetings with DSA members to discuss community support, mostly through DSA presence at Library Board meetings and participation in public comment. Regardless of the reaction of the Library Board, the presence of so many people speaking in unanimous favor of the union and support for the workers did wonderful things for worker morale throughout the election and bargaining process. The union effort was covered in MetroTimes, Oakland County Times, WDET, and The New Republic.

While bargaining a first contract ultimately moved forward on a reasonable timeline, our then-Library Director (who has since left) appeared to take the process personally, which led to a lot of tension in the workplace, particularly for those on the Negotiating Committee. Talking it all over with DSA comrades certainly helped keep my spirits up, and continued community presence in the library at board meetings and an all-day read-in helped lighten the atmosphere for workers as negotiations continued. The fact that many DSA members now attend library programs and continue to participate in board meetings and library life is a sterling example of how labor solidarity leads to stronger community ties.

Our contract is now in place. In addition to the standard benefits of union membership–the right to union representation when disciplined, no longer being at-will employees–we achieved a better wage schedule, an overhaul of the paid-time-off system, faster vacation accrual based on length of employment, paid lunches for full-time staff, guaranteed breaks for part-time staff, and a cost-of-living payment tied to library funding levels instead of the whims of the board.

DSA’s solidarity campaign (Anthony)

Once Mary Grahame reached out to DSA, we immediately got to work building a solidarity campaign that could bring together both Ferndale residents and DSA members living in Ferndale and the surrounding cities. Detroit DSA has a high concentration of members in Ferndale and throughout our outreach to them it became obvious that socialists love libraries and were excited to participate. Many members that we contacted used the library frequently, were regular attendees at its book clubs, and even knew some of the workers.

DSA members from the Labor Working Group and Communications Committee met regularly with some of the library workers, including Mary Grahame, to both guide them in having productive organizing conversations with their coworkers and to strategize on how to build community support. These meetings were essential for taking guidance from the workers to ensure that the direction on what support was needed was coming directly from them. Collectively, we were able to generate a number of different ways to draw in more support .

To help get the word out on the ground, we designed and printed posters that read “We Support Ferndale Library Workers” and distributed them to the library workers and DSA members living in Ferndale to give to neighbors and local businesses to display in their windows. We intended to make it obvious to the Library Board that the entire city was behind the workers and hoped that they were frequently encountering the signs as they moved around the city. This effort created an easy opportunity for DSA members in Ferndale to talk to other residents about the campaign. While we never found the right opportunity to do it, we initially planned to pair up DSA members with library workers to canvass businesses and neighbors together to build deeper relationships between DSA, the workers, and Ferndale residents.

To help get the word out on social media, our Communications Committee made a video about why Ferndale library workers are so essential to the community. DSA members helped to write talking points for supporters to use in public comments at the monthly Library Board meetings. On a day when we knew many people would be in the library, we organized a “read-in” in which supporters hung out in red union gear and with “We Support Ferndale Library Workers” signs taped to their laptops or chairs.

We hope that this type of labor solidarity campaign can be replicated as more DSA members organize their workplaces. DSA — and close ally organization Labor Notes, by extension — should act as a home for workers to be trained on workplace organizing. Along the way, Detroit DSA members with workplace organizing experience can provide mentorship. Once workers are ready to go public with their union drive, they can call on DSA to help organize community support. By working together, organized workers and DSA members can build relationships that start to merge the socialist and labor movements and lead to collective organizing work beyond the workplace.

The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: membership@metrodetroitdsa.com in order to get plugged in to our activities!

Train, Organize, Win! Unionizing the Ferndale Library with DSA’s Help was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 29, 2024

MADISON, WI – America’s Credit Unions (formerly “Credit Union National Association, Inc.”) has informed the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 39 of its intent to eliminate lay off up to 30% of the workforce at its headquarters in Madison. America’s Credit Unions is the result of the merger between Madison’s CUNA and its primary competitor, National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU).

The Company filed a notice with the Department of Workforce Development on January 12, 2024, cc’ing City of Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway: “This is a difficult decision, and we appreciate any assistance you may provide to our employees in this difficult period with their job search and transition.”

America’s Credit Unions refused to meet or provide any details to OPEIU 39, the employees’ Union, until April. At a second meeting in May, the Company announced that it had completed a reorganization, and that position eliminations and layoffs were “imminent”. OPEIU 39 has been committed to maintaining quality jobs in the community.

Jillian Crubel, a Conference Specialist and union member, said, “Trying to understand how layoffs will impact us has been exhausting. Union-represented employees have been asking management for information about layoffs for months. The organization has been purposely withholding while at the same time putting a target on the union’s back.”

Executive Vice President Jill Tomalin explained the reduction was necessary in anticipation of a shortfall of up to $12 million. “They’re making cuts to workers while their tax returns show that they’re paying CEO Jim Nussle over $2.5 million,” said Andy Sernatinger, Business Representative for OPEIU 39. “They could keep everyone employed and Nussle would still be a millionaire.”

America’s Credit Unions has retained attorneys from Littler Mendelson, a law firm specializing in “union avoidance”. Littler is renowned for representing companies like Starbucks and Amazon, who face scores of unfair labor practice complaints in front of the National Labor Relations Board. Littler charges clients up to $1000/hour for its services.

Sarah Shepler, Chief Steward for the Union, added, “For months, we have sought to engage America’s Credit Unions in meaningful dialogue regarding the announced 25-30% reduction in the workforce. Despite our repeated attempts, America’s Credit Unions has persistently refused to provide critical documents requested through information requests and has continually avoided scheduling necessary meetings. It signifies a stark departure from the cultural equality that CUNA had diligently established over the years.”

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FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Andrew Sernatinger – Business Representative, OPEIU 39 asernatinger@opeiu39.org | 608-572-7947