Defending Workers' Rights

Though I am over 72 years of age, I still work full-time in a union shop, a maintenance engineer, at a small, private, religious college in Minnesota. I am a union steward and have let them know that I am a blogger (philosophyfromaworkingman.blogspot.com) very concerned about workers’ rights, and we are up against a thuggish employer out to weaken or break our union, and beat up the workers. It is an uphill battle. I sent out the following email a couple of hours ago, and I want to share it with my readers on the blog site. I will leave out the name of the university (just refer to as U for the university in question. Here is my email sent the campus President, and officers all up and down the Facilities and HR hierarchy, tot he chief union steward, and the local union council—our business agent (the union with just be referred to as The Local). Here is the email No Reign Of Terror Please 8:05 AM (8 hours ago) My supervisor in a mandatory meeting last week and in a conversation with me later that day emphatically emphasized that any union worker that disrespects in any way ever peers, bosses, lecturers, or students will be disciplined and he the supervisor will not waver from that. Let us all agree that being respectful at work is expected and desirable. But, context is everything. I suspect the supervisor and HR have worked together to devise the rolled-out, hyper-emphasis on being hyper-respectful as a mechanism for bringing into line what they construe to be unruly employees. My take on this is three reactions. First, our engineers are rarely disrespectful to anyone. If they are do something about it. We are often treated as second class citizens for being blue collar as students and other staff sometimes mistreat us but we are afraid to speak up or defend ourselves because Management too readily sides with the student or staff abusing us. We do not want to risk being fired for defending ourselves. We are often regarded as guilty until proven innocent if anyone, anywhere complains about us. What about our rights? I guess we have none. Know that the Local will defend its employees if this disrespects thing takes off as anticipated. We are assertive and express ourselves but that is normal and proper and these worker communications must not be shutdown and mislabeled as disrespect in some zealous Management attack on Labor to weaponize disrespect as a means of suppressing worker individuality, independent thinking, self-starting enthusiasm for the work and the job. Intentional or unintentional running a weaponized anti-respect campaign is also a way of maximizing Management control over every aspect of workers thoughts, words and deeds and that is totalitarian supervising, a most effective means of union-busting or union weakening.. Second, we have dedicated, skilled engineers, and if this reign of terror ensues, they will resign, move on, some will be fired. Can the U with its embarrassingly low wages find comparable replacement workers? Judging from recent hires being short on experience, qualifications and licensing, it may be unwise to wipe out great staff already here out of some weird ambition to gain control of Labor at any price by any means necessary. The students and the U will suffer as new engineers will come here for 2 or 3 years to get experience and then move next door for more money, a humane, a democratic supervisory arrangement, better opportunity for advancement. Being an engineer at the U will then be a training  ground only. Few stay and those that may be 2nd tier caliber of employees. This is where the U is headed. How can Managers so educated, personally decent, well-meaning, industrious and smart devise and implement such a stupid, mean, dehumanizing and institution-destroying campaign as this hysterical push, this manic grab for power? Third,  we are entering an age as a people where blue collar skilled technicians' job descriptions are radically evolving and blurring up against supervisory and IT job duties. The intellectual technician of the future needs better pay, paid training, democratic and tolerant supervision, more praise and rewards, more power and say in running the joint, and Management encouragement of, enjoyment of and tolerance for a free-speaking, honest worker--still respectful of course--and if this disrespect, reign of terror campaign is carried out, workers that stay will be obedient, silenced, cowed little zombies, controlled but without the zest and creativity individually stifled-hardly candidates for growing into being intellectual technicians the future demands. Will HR lead us to the Promised Land or send us back to the Pharaoh to be chained-up slaves? Ed Ramsey Workers' Rights Blogger, the Local Union Steward