The 35th Annual Conference of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association will be held May 1-4 in partnership with the University of Washington's Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies. This is a unique opportunity for students, young workers, scholars and activists to explore the rich heritage of working-class struggle in our region, and to examine how these traditions affect today’s struggles.

Everything kicks off tonight at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma with a 6 p.m. reception followed by a presentation by Labor historian and author David Montgomery, professor emeritus at Yale University. This event is free and open to the public.

The conference itself -- entitled "The Right to Organize: Civil Liberties, Democracy and the Labor Movement" -- kicks off tomorrow night (Friday, May 2) at UW's Mary Gates Hall in Seattle. Get registration information by contacting PNLHA President Ross Rieder. Here is a tentative agenda (program subject to change):

THURSDAY, May Day

6 p.m. -- RECEPTION
Pierce County Central Labor Council and Washington State Historical Society
Washington State History Museum, Auditorium, 1911 Pacific in Tacoma

7 p.m. -- "From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend"
David Montgomery, Professor Emeritus, Yale University

FRIDAY, May 2
Mary Gates Hall 389

4-7 p.m. -- Registration

7.30 p.m. -- OPENING PLENARY

"Labor Speakout: Fighting for the Right to Organize"
PNLHA President Ross Rieder; WSLC President Rick Bender, MC; HERE, SEIU, IBT  Representatives; Music of the Freedom Struggle by Bettie Mae Fikes and Barbara Dane with Johnny Harper, guitar

9 p.m. -- Welcoming Reception

SATURDAY, May 3
Mary Gates Hall 389

8 a.m. -- Registration
9 a.m. -- Welcome & Opening Michael Honey, Chair, HBCLS, UW/Tacoma
Keynote Speaker, David Montgomery, Professor Emeritus, Yale University:
American Workers and Wars in the 20th Century; Response and Questions    

10.30 a.m. -- Break
10.45-12:15 p.m.-- Studying Labor, Organizing Workers: Mother-Daughter Perspectives on the New Labor Movement
Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Professor of History, Director, Center for the Study of Race & Ethnicity in America (CSREA), Brown University, Rhode Island
Maya Hu DeHart, Research Analyst, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees, (HERE), AFLCIO, San Francisco

Panel of Responders:
Maria Martinez, IBT Local 556; David Montgomery; Lupe Gamboa, UFW-WA; Cathy Lowenberg, APALA

12:15-1:15 p.m. -- Lunch break
1:15-2:45 p.m.  Workshops

A)  Agitating, Educating and Organizing: Does the Web Help?
Moderator: James Gregory, Associate Professor, History Department, UW
David Groves!, Publications Director, WSLC, AFLCIO

B)  Local and Global Perspectives on Asian American Labor History
Moderators: Gail Nomura, AES, and Moon-Ho Jung, Assistant Professor, History Department, UW; Dorothy Fujita Rony, UC-Irvine
Filipina/o American Labor History and the U.S. West,
Chris Friday, Professor and Chair of History,  Western Washington University
Orchestrating Race and Labor: Asian Americans, European Americans, and Alaska Natives in the 1940s and 1950s

C)  Civil Rights and Organizing
Luis M Aguiar, Okanagan University College, BC: Cleaning Up the Global City:
Cleaners Under Stress; William Issel, San Francisco SU: Jews and Catholics for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: San Francisco, 1940-1960

D)  Organizing and Solidarity:  Sex, Orientation and Ethnicity
Moderator:
Elliot Fox-Povey, Simon Fraser University, BC The Meaning of the Sexual Labour of Slaves at Nootka Sound; Patricia Pearson, Lewis and Clark College, Portland OR Pink Ribbons, Fair Curls, and Scabs: Women, Work and the Story behind Muller v. Oregon
Film: Brother Outsider: Bayard Rustin

Responders:
Sarah Luthens, Out Front Labor/Pride At Work

2:45 p.m. -- Break
3 p.m. -- Keynote Speaker, Peter Rachleff, labor historian and labor educator, Macalester College, Minnesota, Taking on Corporate Terrorism: A Challenge for the Labor Movement, Response and Questions

5:30 p.m. -- UW Faculty Club, Banquet, Labor History Awards
7:30 p.m. -- TAKE IT BACK: A History of Power, Concession and Resistance
Featuring Seattle Labor Chorus and Seattle actor John Gilbert, with Barbara Dane with Johnny Harper, guitar, and Bettie Mae Fikes

SUNDAY, May 4
Mary Gates Hall

9.30 a.m.- Noon -- PNLHA: 35 Years Old — Where to Go?  What to Do?
A PNLHA Board and Members Conversation (open to interested supporters)

Sponsors of the conference include the UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, the Washington State Labor Council, the King County Labor Council, the Pierce County Central Labor Council and American Income Life/Altig International. (Additional sponsors will be noted.)

The Voter Education Project is a bipartisan non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the integrity of the initiative system.  After investigating petition fraud in Oregon -- leading to successful prosecution of forgery -- the organization has now come to the State of Washington, and has the strong support of organized labor and other advocates for ballot integrity.

Lured by street prices of up to $2 per signature, mercenary petitioners from California and Nevada contractors have descended upon Washington. Based on past investigations of these activists-for-hire, many have criminal records including forgery convictions.

The Voter Education Project needs your help!  Download, copy, distribute and post a flier (154 PDF file) advertising the VEP:

Have you been mislead or tricked by a petitioner? Are you worried that your signature has been forged?  Have you encountered one of these mercenary petitioners telling lies to get signatures? Report mercenary petitioners at the VEP website or call toll-free 1-866-628-2500. Make sure you identify which the measures for which they are seeking signatures, and if possible, the name of the petitioner. However, DO NOT attempt to interfere with their efforts to collect signatures.

"Many voters still believe that signature gatherers are dedicated volunteers and activists who believe in the measures they are carrying," reads the VEP website at www.votereducationproject.org. "In reality, most signature gatherers are professional mercenaries who travel state to state, following the money and disappearing as soon as the last dollar is spent by the campaign."

The VEP has found that the strong financial incentive to collect signatures combined with state governments that lack the resources to pursue every report of abuse, fraud and forgery -- and to fully scrutinize submitted petitions -- can lead to an initiative system rife with abuse. Since 2001, the VEP has monitored the signature-gathering process from the streets to the Secretary of State's office in Oregon and has filed 14 complaints against signature gatherers for criminal activity. So far, two of those complaints have resulted in forgery convictions.

The rest of the investigations are pending and that means they are still on the streets -- perhaps in Washington -- getting paid to submit petitions filled with signatures.

H.R. 391, the National Right-to-Work Act, has been introduced in the Republican-controlled Congress. The good news: it is still sitting in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce with little action since it was introduced. The bad news: It has 66 co-sponsors (and counting), including Washington state's own Rep. Richard "Doc" Hastings (R-Yakima).

So-called "Right-to-Work" laws ban collectively bargained, union-security agreements that require workers to pay for union representation. In other words, in Right-to-Work states, workers cannot negotiate contract provisions that insist all employees covered under that contract join the union (referred to as a "union shop.") These provisions are common in states that allow them because everyone benefits from the contract and its protections, so union members routinely vote to negotiate  contract provisions that insist everyone should pay their fair share of the costs of representation.

Organized labor recognizes "Right-to-Work" (for less) for what it is, plain-and-simple union-busting. It is designed to encourage "free riders," and to weaken or destroy unions. That's exactly what it has accomplished in the states that have these laws. Worst of all, it has translated into lower wages and benefits, a diminished standard of living and substandard legal protections for workers in "Right-to-Work" states. Learn more.

Earlier this month, Rep. Hastings gained the dubious distinction of being the only member of Washington's congressional delegation to sign on as co-sponsor of H.R. 391; he is one of 17 that hail from states with no "Right-to-Work" law.

"While purportedly championing employee freedoms, the Right-to-Work laws would make it harder for unions to represent workers effectively and that's not acceptable," said Rep. Adam Smith (D-Tacoma). "This bill imposes unfair financial burdens on union members and works to depress union membership. In the end, what 'right-to-work' really means is the right to earn lower wages, the right to receive lower workers' compensation benefits, the right to less access to health insurance, and the right to collect reduced unemployment benefits for both union and non-union workers. We just can't let this happen without a fight."

Contact Rep. Hastings' office in D.C. at (202) 225-5816, in Pasco at (509) 543-9396, or in Yakima at (509) 452-3243 and let him know what you think of his sponsorship of national Right-to-Work (for less). His congressional website has an e-mail form, but it seeks to discourage contact from people outside his district. But given that his bill would negatively impact people far beyond the confines of his district, feel free to contact him anyway.

The political playing field increasingly favors corporations and the very rich. In 1992, corporate interests outspent unions by 9-1.  But since then the corporate cash gap has widened; in 2000 big business outspent working families by 15-1. And this explosion of corporate influence on government has led to increasingly aggressive attacks on important labor standards and workplace rights. 

In Washington state, the minimum wage, workplace safety standards and public employees are all under legislative attack. In the other Washington, the extreme anti-worker agenda of the Bush administration and Republican-controlled Congress includes attacks on the 40-hour work week, overtime pay laws and the fundamental civil right to organize a union.  Now, more than ever, labor unions need to get involved in politics to protect the rights for which previous generations of trade unionists fought and died. 

The Washington State Labor Council has scheduled a training session for labor organizations with PACs or segregated funds -- or those interested in setting them up -- that explains how to comply with state and federal regulations. The session will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 18 at the IUOE 302 Hall, 18701 120th Ave. N.E. in Bothell. (Registration starts at 9 a.m.)

WSLC Political Director Diane McDaniel and labor attorney Jim Oswald will take the mystery out of union political activism, covering everything you need to know including state Public Disclosure Commission rules and regulations, IRS reports and forms, DOL reports, how to set up a PAC/SSF, electronic reporting requirements, contribution limits, PAC payroll deduction and more. There will be extensive Q&A for those with specific questions and problems.

The cost is $25 per person and includes lunch and materials. The registration deadline is June 11, so download a registration form today and mail it with your payment to the Washington State Labor Council, 314 First Ave. West, Seattle, WA, 98119. To request the form by mail or fax, call (206) 281-8901. For more information, contact Diane McDaniel at that same number.

Today is Workers Memorial Day, a day to remember workers who have been killed or injured on the job and to renew the fight for strong safety-and-health protections. Observances have already been held in Olympia and Spokane; here are the commemorations planned for today.

BELLINGHAM—The Northwest Washington Central Labor Council will host its Workers Memorial Service today at noon at the Worker Memorial Monument on the lawn at the Bellingham Library, across the street from City Hall.  For more information, contact Charlie Warren at 1-800-835-4658.

TACOMA—The Pierce County Central Labor Council and the Pierce County Building and Construction Trades are co-sponsoring an event today from 4 to 6 p.m. at Thea Foss Park on Dock Street in Tacoma. Speakers will include Mayor Bill Baarsma, U.S. Rep. Adam Smith and state Rep. Steve Conway. There will be live music and free food and beverages. The names of fallen workers will be read during the memorial. For more information, contact the Pierce CLC at (253) 473-3810.

EVERETT—The Snohomish County Labor Council's Workers Memorial Day commemoration will be today at the site of the Snohomish County Worker Memorial on the Wetmore side of the County campus in front of the old Mission Building. It will be from 5:30 to 6 p.m., with those who wish to walk to the Memorial site from the Everett Labor Temple leaving at 5:10 p.m. For more information, check out www.snolabor.org.

If you have news items regarding unions or workplace issues in Washington state that you would like to see posted here, please submit them via e-mail to David Groves or via fax to 206-285-5805.

Copyright © 2003  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO