| Organize
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Organization is so much a part of life it is mostly taken for granted.
Most fail to recognize that nothing of importance gets done without
organization. From a simple project like getting something done around the
house to building a nation, organizing the job is required to get desired
results. Without organization nothing gets done properly.
Organization is the essential tool in all endeavors.
Most workers have learned this lesson. They found unions had to be
organized when they set out to raise living standards. Yet even today some
workers have not learned that lesson. An example is Enron workers' savings
and pensions. They hadn't learned the lesson of organization. Naively,”
they felt "their company could be trusted." If they had had a
strong union like Longshore, which never trusts the boss, they could not
have been screwed by corporate arrogance and greed.
But, unfortunately, unions can also weaken through loss of membership.
This has happened to ILWU through M&M. The essential tool of
organization like the tools for any job requires retooling. This
requirement faces us in the ILWU. We need new strength through new
membership. As everyone knows organizing new members can only do this. If
we had organized one thousand new members in the past year, Mr. Miniace,
President, PMA, wouldn't be so cockily dismissing our union in coming
negotiations.
We have an organizing campaign under way. Members of all Locals have
representatives on the Puget Sound area organizing committee. They are
meeting monthly and firming up organizing plans. There are prospective
areas of new ILWU organizing in areas from Vancouver to Alaska. We need to
support those likely prospects.
You can help. By talking organization on the job, by joining your local
union organizing committee and bringing new ideas and efforts to
organizing a stronger Longshore union.
"There is no power greater under the sun" than organizations
Courtesy: Local 19 Old Timers & RUSTY HOOK. |
