Labor Union Blog

Devin Griggs wishes Murray State University had a labor studies program. “A lot of college kids don’t know much about unions,” said Griggs, a 20-year-old junior at Kentucky’s westernmost public university.

This son of a United Steelworkers (USW) member—Cliff Griggs from USW Local 9447-5—is leading a campus campaign to educate students about unions.

“A lot of people say unions are a special interest. Unions are a public interest. Unions raise wages for union and nonunion workers alike. Unions help all working people.”

Griggs is enlisting local and state union leaders to help him spread the word about the labor movement. He recently lined up a five-member panel for a symposium he called, ”There is Power in a Union.”

The panelists were UAW retirees Jay Latham and Jerry Sykes; Jeff Wiggins, president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council and USW member; labor lawyer and Kentucky Labor Institute founder Dave Suetholz; and Dr. Bill Schell, a Murray State history professor who belonged to the old United Paperworkers International Union. The College Democrats sponsored the program.

Griggs’ labors for labor haven’t gone unappreciated. He earned the 2011 Kentucky State AFL-CIO Youth Award. State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan thinks Griggs is a good candidate for the AFL-CIO’s Young Worker program, which is geared “to engage the next generation of young workers.” Says Londrigan:

Devin is bridging the gap between the labor movement and his fellow students. He is bringing people together to create a common understanding of our movement.

Griggs, who lives near Benton, Ky., is proud of his movement roots. “My grandfather and uncle are members of UA [Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 184] and my mother is a teacher who is in KEA [Kentucky Education Association].”

He said studying American history and politics in high school and college made him “even more of a union supporter.”

History shows how hard workers have had to fight for the right to organize unions and bargain collectively for better pay, benefits and working conditions. More people need to know about that.

A political science major, Griggs also writes about union issues in the Murray State News. In addition, he blogs on labor topics on the area council’s website here and in LA Progressive, an online magazine based in Los Angeles.

Last April, he helped organize a campus Solidarity Day rally for Wisconsin workers battling against Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) public employee union-busting bill. “We had a pretty good turnout considering that there were really bad storms and tornado warnings all over western Kentucky that day,” said Griggs, who can be contacted by email at devin.griggs@murraystate.edu.

Many at the hearing felt was important to be heard since the bills were introduced with little public notice or input. William Cody, who described himself as a retiree since 1976, said he made the trip to the meeting because he felt the measures were deeply unfair.

I vote. I pay my taxes. And this is wrong. Enough is enough.

Joe Diggs, a Phoenix labor representative, testified to the panel how the anti-union bills are an underhanded attempt by conservative lawmakers to circumvent the free and fair elections of unions. State Rep. Chad Campbell, who represents West Phoenix, asked Diggs if he was aware of any union members in the state complaining of being “coerced” into unions as proponents of the anti-union measures claim. Diggs replied that he was not aware of a single one and explained how union membership is completely voluntary in Arizona and that leaving a union is a simple matter of writing a letter expressing that desire.

Diggs had harsh words for conservative legislators and the corporate pressure groups (the American Legislative Exchange Council–ALEC–and the Goldwater Institute) behind the Wisconsin-style bills.

These bills are not an accident. They are delivered by people on marching orders from people we did not elect. This is an overarching strategy by a political movement trying to drive unions out of existence.

State Sen. David Schapira, who represents Tempe and South Scottsdale, drew applause when told the crowd that he and other Democrats have introduced legislation to require the Phoenix-based “think tank” Goldwater Institute to register as lobbyists in Arizona since they very obviously influence legislation, even to the point of writing the bills. Goldwater has carved a very unique niche for itself – a
lobbying group that isn’t officially recognized as a lobby – so they do not have disclose their donors or their expenditures “wining and dining” politicians to get their legislation passed.

The Goldwater Institute has also been instrumental in pushing the falsehood that public-sector workers earn exorbitant salaries and benefits in comparison to their private sector counterparts. Bruce, a retired sheriff’s office employee, rebutted that perception with his own experience. He said he began his career in public safety in 1983, at a wage of just over $6 an hour.

I could have made more in the private sector but I chose a life of dedicated public service. Now they’re after my pension, trying to break that contract.

The Arizona AFL-CIO, which organized Friday’s Phoenix hearing and a similar one in Tucson the prior week, encouraged attendees to “Get Active!” by signing up for online updates and announcing a day of action at the State Capitol on March 1, 2012.

This is a cross-post from American Rights at Work’s Blog at Work.

Van Halen has really got us going. The legendary rock band has reunited with original lead singer David Lee Roth and their first studio album in 14 years has shot to the top of the charts nearly as fast as Eddie Van Halen’s fingers fly up and down the fretboard. We’re jumping for the hit record’s first single, “Tattoo,” which features this great union shout out:

Uncle Danny had a coal tattoo,
he fought for the union, some of us still do.
On my shoulder is the number of the chapter he was in.
That number is forever like the struggle here to win.

In a video interview about the hit single’s lyrics, Roth says he relates to the pride that goes along with being in a union or fighting for one, “What’s more poignant than the union struggle today—you identify [with] that, you join a team, you join a group…when you get a tattoo.”

Roth says that while tattoos can be decorative or celebratory, they also can signify something serious and personal. He goes on to pay tribute to the daily wear and tear on working people by explaining the song’s reference to a “coal tattoo”—the permanent mark left on miners from years of black coal seeping into their pores.

Catch Van Halen on tour now or dance the night away listening to their latest album, “A Different Kind of Truth,” available online and in stores everywhere.

Want to know who else rocks for workers’ rights? Check out our interview with the Street Dogs and our feature on Tom Morello.