Since this is Union Label Week 2001, we wanted to share with you some opportunities to attend union shows in the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett area.  There are four major venues with good union contracts with the Musicians Union for instrumentalists: the Village Theatre, the 5th Avenue Theatre, the Paramount, and the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra.

While the downtown Seattle theatres pay the best wages, the Village Theatre and the Tacoma Symphony have worked with the union in offering the most significant pay raises over the past few years.  For example, the contract negotiated and ratified last summer with the Village Theatre last summer calls for a wage increase of 25% over three years, employer-provided pension contributions, union/ agency shop, flexible hiring procedures, and bonuses for no use of substitute musicians.

Upcoming shows in the area, which feature union musicians, include:

The following oped by Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender appeared in the Labor Day edition of The Seattle Times:

Gov. Gary Locke recently established the Washington Competitiveness Council to ensure our state's economy continues to thrive.

While we have good reason to fear that national economic policies and decisions may well push us into a recession, our state has some influence over our local business and labor climate.

We were pleased the Small Business Survival Committee (SBSC) ranked our state third in the nation in its entrepreneur-friendly index.  The index rates 17 major government-related costs impacting small business, including unemployment taxes, workers' compensation costs and minimum wage laws.

However, the index did not include transportation as a factor.

By any measure — economic, environmental or common sense — our traffic nightmare is the single biggest source of our region's competitive disadvantage.

When companies such as United Parcel Service are forced to double the number of delivery trucks just to compensate for the slow traffic, we know we're losing our competitive edge.  When it takes a Boeing truck driver 100 minutes to get from Auburn to Everett on a good day, or when it takes employees an hour to get from Kent to Bellevue, we know we're in serious jeopardy.

This year, the Texas Transportation Institute found that not only is Puget Sound traffic among the worst in the nation, it also imposes a "hidden tax" of more than $900 a year, from gas costs to lost time, on every driver in our region.

But there's more to competitiveness than mobility.  We need to make more progress on flexibility and innovation.

One of the major achievements of the Legislature this year has the potential for such progress.  The permit-streamlining bill, which the governor has signed into law, will allow the sometimes excruciatingly lengthy process of approving various permits to proceed simultaneously instead of consecutively.

Boeing's complaint about the years it took to acquire its permits in Everett was one of the major reasons this approach won approval.

If rules or regulations are hindering reasonable decisions, then we should revisit the standards and ensure that they meet the tests of common sense and good public policy.

Taxes are often cited as a deterrent to competitiveness or business growth, but if low taxes were really that big an incentive, Boeing, Microsoft and other major corporations would relocate to the low tax states of Mississippi or Louisiana.

But when Boeing moved its headquarters, it didn't choose the low-tax, no-income-tax state of Texas, it chose Chicago.  In fact, our state's local and state tax burden dropped to an 11-year low in 1998, according to a state Department of Revenue report this summer.

Washington residents paid an average of $115 in state and local taxes per $1,000 in personal income, according to the report.  Had the car-tab tax cut been calculated into the figure, our tax rate would have dropped to less than $110 per $1,000 in personal income, lowering our tax ranking to 26th in the country.  (Our tax rate now ranks lower than Idaho!)

Any competitiveness scale also should include some measure of our quality of life. Surely, we can agree that living in the Puget Sound area, with its mild temperatures, gorgeous surroundings and numerous recreational opportunities, outranks the heat, humidity and downright ugliness of many other areas of the country.

When the high-tech boom was in full swing, an enviable quality of life was one of the key components of attracting new dot-coms.

But in the end, the most important element in the competitiveness contest must be our highly skilled workforce.

Washington ranks among the top 10 states in the nation in number of high-school and college graduates.  Washington high-school students ranked at the top in the nation in SAT scores. Our many state-approved apprenticeship programs provide a steady stream of highly trained and available workers, and our recommended provision, adopted in this state, that any major public project have 15 percent apprentices ensures a continued supply of these productive workers.

In fact, in most segments of the economy, we are proud to note that union membership appears to give us another competitive edge.  Studies show that trained union members increase productivity from six to 38 percent.  The improved productivity in manufacturing ranged up to 24 percent. With union membership in our state above the national average, we can claim a productivity and competitive edge.

On every journey, the traveler is faced with a choice when confronted with a fork in the road.  Organized labor has a clear road map for such occasions; we find the best route to creating strong communities and healthy economies is to take the high road.

On the high road, companies compete on the basis of quality goods and services, innovation and value.  On the high road, access to education and training leads to family wage jobs and challenging careers.  On the high road, employees have a voice in the jobs they do.

As a member of the Governor's Competitiveness Council, I will work to make our state the leading competitor as we travel forward on the high road.

Rick Bender is president of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, the largest labor organization in the state.

The following story by intern reporter Amanda Wilber, "Organization helps fill the gap," appeared in today's Centralia Chronicle but is posted here because its links expire very quickly:

As Inland Southwest Washington residents go about their daily lives, odds are they deal with members of organized labor on a regular basis.

Local unions are represented by all kinds of laborers, such as firefighters, postal workers, plumbers and pipe fitters, carpenters, Teamsters and state workers among others.

"The unions are folks that can represent workers who will help negotiate wages, hours and working conditions," explained Bob Guenther, president of the Thurston Lewis Labor Council 10. "For example, if you had a company of 100 workers, and you had 100 workers going to the supervisor trying to negotiate wages, it wouldn't work.

"A labor union is one unit who can negotiate for all the workers."

According to Guenther, the Washington State Labor Council, which represents more than 600 local unions and trade councils, has 450,000 members.

"Historically, unions have provided family wages for their employees," he said.

Guenther cited Wal-Mart's proposed grocery section, which would turn the store into a "super center," as a worry for members of labor unions, especially the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Guenther said Wal-Mart employees are not union members and do not have benefits, such as insurance. They are also paid several dollars an hour less than union workers, he said.

"If you take a look at it," he said, "a single mom working at Fuller's can support a single family. It's pretty tough for a nonunion member to do that."

Dayna Hurtado, Winlock, is an example of that single mother. Hurtado, who works at Fuller's Market Place on Tower Avenue in Centralia, has relied on union insurance to help support her three children for 12 years.

Hurtado had worked at Denny's, and said she took a $5 or $6 wage cut in order to take advantage of the benefits offered with a union job.

"I'm not scared to be nonunion because I'm a hard worker and I know I can always get a job," she said, "but I went 11 years with three little kids with no insurance. That was scary. So when this opportunity came along, I jumped on it."

But as Hurtado continued working at Fuller's, her wages were increased.

"My whole lifestyle has changed. I have my own home, even after a divorce, I have a retirement plan ... what do you say?"

Of Wal-Mart's grocery store expansion plans, Hurtado said, "The whole thing scares me, for the whole town, the people that already live here, the businesses that aren't going to make it through it. The whole area will become depressed."

She admits unions aren't all good.

"In a way, you always have the bad apples, the people that are tough to get rid of because they're union," she reasoned. "But they (the unions) help us all to the extent that they can."

Chris Schultz, who has been a Fuller's employee and UFCW union member for nine years, agrees with Hurtado.

Although Schultz now lives in Tumwater, he said his job is worth the long commute.

Schultz started out as a courtesy clerk at the Tower Avenue Fuller's when he was 17, and currently supports a wife and son with his job.

He attributes the strength of the local economy to the number of union jobs in the area. Workers who earn more money can afford to spend more at local businesses.

"I'm afraid for my job if that place comes in," he said. "If I weren't a union member, my wife would probably have to get a job, and I might have to work two jobs."

Like Hurtado, he fears local economic depression will come with a Wal-Mart "super center."

"It's happened in Shelton, it's happened in Aberdeen." he said. "All of the smaller stores are gone, there's not nearly as much there as there was before -- Wal-Mart's sucking it all in and shoving it back east."

Robin Fuller, president and chief executive officer of Fuller's, said Fuller's has been unionized since its inception in 1941.

"My father and uncle (Bill Jr. and Ed Fuller) worked for Safeway and they were in the union, and when they bought the business, they just remained union," Fuller said.

But unions do more than just negotiate with employees, said Laura Siebuhr, president of the Centralia College Federation of Teachers 4469.

"Every year we make a substantial contribution to the scholarship fund," she said. "We literally invest -- not just our time -- in student success."

Siebuhr said her union helped to build the new college building.

"The (college) foundation had a big campaign to raise money to augment what had been paid for by the state," she said. "The Federation of Teachers made a contribution to that fund as well, as part of not just the Centralia College community, but the Centralia community in our service area. We wanted to do what we could to insure the success of students at the college."

The Federation of Teachers, including Siebuhr herself, also testifies before Washington Legislature "on the part of bills being considered that affect union members in an effort to educate state senators and representatives."

The Centralia College Federation of Teachers is affiliated with the Washington Federation of Teachers, which is in turn affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers.

"I think that teachers are like any other workers, professionals in general are like any other workers, they have the same needs in the work place, and are working for fair wages, good working conditions and fair benefits," Siebuhr said. "Those interest are much more easily represented and met through a union organization."

Kurt Reichert, shop steward for the Centralia Police Department, feels the same.

Police officers in Centralia are represented by Teamsters Local 252, although officers in other city departments sometimes form their own guilds.

"Most of the time you're not starting your very own union," he said. "You need the support of a union, and the deep pockets of a union."

Unions use members dues to help support them if there should need to be a worker strike or something of the sort.

"It doesn't make sense, cost-wise, for them (the officers) to stand as a guild."

Charles Lascurain, president of Operating Engineers Local 612, puts it all in a nutshell.

"I think that if every employer was intent on giving an employee a fair shake or a reasonable share of the profit then probably unions would not be necessary," said the 35-year union member. "Unfortunately, it was realized way back that someone needed to stand up for the working class, that workers were in need of a fair profit and good treatment in the working place and good working environments."