Day 11 – Bill Gillespie’s Road Trip Diary

Today’s entry is the last entry in our Road Trip Diary.

It’s been 11 days since Anna Jover Royo, Jason Alward, Aura Aberback and I jumped into our rented Dodge Caravan in Toronto and headed for the U.S.A.

If you have been clicking on our daily written and video blogs, you will already know our assignment was to investigate how the anti-union Right to Work laws, that a growing number of conservative politicians are now promoting for Canada, actually work in practice.

Right to Work is an insidiously misleading slogan. It suggests it’s about the right to a job but it’s not. It’s a law that allows a union member to stop paying dues but still get the benefits of the collective agreement negotiated by the union and its dues-paying members. I hesitate to use the phrase but that idea sounds a little un-Canadian to me.

We headed first for Michigan where we met high school science teacher Dan Dennis. In 1999 Dennis left his teaching job in non-Right to Work Michigan and moved to Right to Work North Carolina. Immediately his salary dropped 25%, his workload increased, his prep time disappeared, his pension plan was dumbed-down and so was his medical coverage.

In Columbus Ohio I interviewed mathematician Darrell Minor. Minor crunched the numbers and found that far from ushering in prosperity, workers in Right to Work states suffer higher unemployment rates, pay more for health insurance and have shorter life expectancies than in non-Right to Work states.

South Carolina was even more disturbing. It adopted its Right to Work law in 1954. The prosperity? With the 4th highest unemployment rate and the 45th lowest person income in the U.S., folks are still waiting for that.

You can see some of the inspiring people we interviewed in South Carolina on the video blog. People such as Democratic state congresswoman Gilda Cobb-Hunter or the head of the International Longshoremen’s Association Ken Riley.

But the daily blog wasn’t our main assignment. Our primary task is to create a documentary putting the rhetoric of the Right to Work boosters to the test. We gathered firsthand interviews, facts and video. When we get back to Toronto we will start writing and editing.

I want to say however, what a pleasure it has been to work and travel with the three fine OPSEU professionals assigned to this project.

Jason Alward who, in his normal working life, is a graphic artist. Jason was our driver. He got us where we had to go on time and safely. He has an odd habit of backing into every parking space but never backs into a conversation. The Maritimer that he is, he is able to chat up anyone and immediately put them at ease – a real asset when you are strangers in a strange land.

Aura Aberback was our logistics wagon master - meaning she was in charge of just about every aspect of our lives for the 11 days from finding the lowest-cost union hotels, to meals, to editing my writing. She also kept disappearing (Where’s Aura?) to take about 10,000 photographs (some of which you can see by clicking on the photo tab).

Videographer Anna Jover Royo worked harder than any of us. During the day she shot interviews, road signs, fireworks, crowd scenes, the Charleston docks, the Michigan state legislature – the list seems endless. At night she stayed up late editing the video blog. Our workdays ranged from 10 to 15 hours and Anna was always up the latest.

The final member of the team wasn’t with us in the van. Cynthia Clayton was back in Toronto. Cynthia is OPSEU’s web specialist. She stayed up late at night and got up early in the morning and on weekends to take our written and video dispatches from the field and put them up on the website. No matter how many demands we put on her, she was always positive and helpful from start to finish. The blog would not have happened without her.

Ok. Now for the big questions.

Did you get on each other’s nerves? Did you have any big fights? Any small fights? After all, you were packed into that van together for almost two weeks.

The answer is we got along famously.

Ok, we did have to listen to Jason’s boring CBC Radio Three music. But he had to listen to mine and Anna’s annoying country music (go Zac Brown Band). Sadly, Aura could not find a radio station that played her two favourite artists – Burt Bacharach and Supertramp.

So thanks for clicking on the blog.

If we learned anything from our American friends it is we should take the threat of Right to Work legislation very seriously. They told us it is just a first step. Once RTW passed in their state, more anti-labour legislation followed.

Their message was “don’t think it can’t happen to you”. As Democratic congresswoman Gilda Cobb-Hunter put it “you DO NOT want to become South Carolina!”

You’ve read and seen the blog. Get ready for the movie to be released this fall.

Bill Gillespie's Road Diary: Day 8

"Take this seriously. Otherwise, you're going to be just like us. And that ain't what you want."

Gilda Cobb-Hunter has a warning for Ontario Unions.

Don’t think it can’t happen to you.

Cobb-Hunter is the deputy leader of the Democratic Party in the South Carolina legislature. She is a former social worker, the director of a domestic abuse centre and an opponent of anti-labour Right to Work laws.

South Carolina is a conservative southern state. Its young men enlisted in the Confederate army and fought and died in the American civil war against the Yankee north. Today the Confederate flag still flies at the State Legislature in the capitol, Columbia.

Like many southern states, South Carolina didn’t take well to liberal innovations from the north - such as union-friendly labour laws.

So in 1954 the state became one of the first to pass a so-called Right to Work law.

Right to Work Law boosters insist weaker unions are a key to creating a business-friendly Ontario that will usher in a new era of prosperity.

But Gilda Cobb-Hunter says South Carolina has had a Right to Work Law for 59  years and folks are still waiting for the prosperity.

There is no shortage of negative markers in South Carolina. The fourth highest unemployment rate of the 50 United States. The highest percentage of mobile home ownership. The highest violent crime rate. The 47th lowest percentage of children that graduate from high school.

Cobb-Hunter blames much of it on anti-union laws adopted by conservative Republican and Democratic Government over the years. The laws have been very effective in reducing the numbers and influence of unions. Today less than five percent of workers in South Carolina are union members.

As union jobs with decent pay began to decline, the middle class began to shrink.

Amongst the worst off are public employees.

Over the past 20 years Cobb-Hunter says the state of South Carolina has cut the number of state employees from 80,000 to 56,000. During the same period the population of South Carolina increased by about a million to 4.7 million citizens.

She says state employees are woefully underpaid and overworked. In addition, it is against state law for state employees to form a union and bargain collectively. Cobb-Hunter says since it was first passed 59 years ago, the scope of the Right to Work law has been expanded to give employers the right to fire a worker almost without cause. Many state employees have come to her she says, telling her they want to form a union but are afraid if they are heard even discussing the possibility they will be fired. Their fears are well-founded she says.

Cobb-Hunter says what she has seen in South Carolina is that a Right to Work law is just the thin edge of the wedge. Other anti-union laws follow.

And she has a warning for Ontarians. Don’t think this can’t happen to you. It can. The ideologues that are pushing Right to Work laws are lavishly financed and relentless. If those backing this agenda succeed, Cobb-Hunter says Ontario will be on its way to becoming South Carolina.

And she says you DO NOT want to be South Carolina.

If you want to see the force of nature that is Gilda Cobb-Hunter (and her amazing black and yellow robe and headdress) click on the video link and catch a few of her comments.

Today is the fourth of July here in the U.S. A longshoreman has invited us over for a BBQ. After we’ll go down to the waterfront to catch the fireworks and ask the folks we meet how they feel about unions.

 

Bill Gillespie's Road Diary: Day 7

The South Carolina State Employees Association (SCSEA) is doing the best it can.

Its local chapters lobby State politicians for better labour laws. It runs a retirement benefit program for ex-employees. What it cannot do however, is strike or bargain collectively.

In South Carolina collective bargaining for public employees is against the law.

It is not surprising therefore, that South Carolina is one of the oldest Right to Work (RTW) states in the United States. A Right to Work law, like the one Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is vowing to bring to Ontario, was enacted in 1954. Since then other laws designed to weaken unions and give Corporations a freer hand to run the economy – also part of Tim Hudak’s American style vision for Ontario – were passed.

So if a Right to Work law really does bring prosperity, as Mr. Hudak claims it will, by this time it should be working in South Carolina. After all, the state has had Right to Work for 59 years.

How’s it going?

Carleton Washington is the executive director of the South Carolina State Employees Association. He says anti-union laws such as Right Work have saddled state employees in South Carolina with some of the lowest wages and poorest working conditions in the U.S.

Annual wages for the vast majority of South Carolina State employees he says, range from $15,000 for highway workers and school support staff to $35,000 for middle managers. Employees with professional qualifications are paid more. Even so, they earn 20% to 40% less than professionals in the private sector.

Many have left their jobs in the public service but these days it isn’t that easy to leave. Sixty-six years after passing a Right to Work law, South Carolina has the 46^th highest unemployment rate in the U.S.

In addition, during the past 20 years successive state Governments have slashed the number of public employees from 80,000 to 56,000 today. The result says Washington, is that public employees are now saddled with crushing workloads. Take social workers for example.

The national average caseload for a U.S. Social Worker is 270 cases. The average caseload for a social worker in South Carolina is 920! That means burnout and after several punishing years on the job many state employees quit. The state lose the benefit of their experience and taxpayers have to pay the extra costs of training replacements.

Washington and the Association are doing the best they can but in four of the last five years South Carolina state employees received a zero pay increase.

The Association lobbies state legislators for better labour laws but Washington says the Republican Government has ceded control over much of the economy to Corporations and that is where real power now lies.

Today less than five percent of workers in South Carolina are union members. And Washington says over-worked public employees are paying a high price in their personal lives and South Carolinians are experiencing a sharp decline in public service standards.

Tomorrow we’ll interview one of the last bona fide union leaders. Occupy supporter and longshoreman, Ken Riley.

Bill Gillespie’s Road Trip Diary – Day Three

We hopped in the Dodge Caravan bright and early this morning set out for a town called Dexter Michigan.

Why? Because that is where Dan Armstrong - the media relations guy for the Mackinac Center - is sending us to interview Vincent Vernuccio.

Mackinac is a right wing Michigan think tank. Vernuccio is its labour specialist.

When he talks about unions Vernuccio sounds a lot like Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak - co-incidence or not? He talks about the need to “modernize” the labour laws. How? By pressuring politicians to enact so-called “Right to Work” laws that weaken unions.

I was up-front with Dan Armstrong.

I told him we are OPSEU employees shooting a short documentary on Right to Work and that our starting point is WE DON’T LIKE IT. Not one bit! The carrot I offered however was that Mackinac would have the opportunity to speak to 130,000 OPSEU members directly.

Two days later Dan emailed me to say yes but with two conditions – 1) We would allow the Mackinac’s cameraperson to shoot us shooting the interview and 2) We would let the Mackinac Center see the finished film before it is released. Let the bargaining begin.

I said no problem to the first condition and no way to the second. 

Bob said what the heck. We’ll do it and if you want to see just a sneak preview to what Mr. Vernuccio had to say just click on our video tab. Oddly, he bears an eerie resemblance to Tim Hudak!

In the interview Vernuccio claimed the Mackinac Center is not anti-union rather it is pro-worker. At the same time demonized Union leaders as being more interested in plush vacations than serving their members.

Hmmm. Where in Ontario have we heard that before?

As the interview progressed it became even scarier. For the Mackinac Center and other right wing American think tanks, Right to Work legislation is just a first toward a future where unions are reduced to tame employee benefit associations and collective bargaining is no more.

(Note to all amateur grammarians. I did not just misspell the word Centre. Out of respect for our present geographical location, I used the American spelling Center)

OPSEU ROAD TRIP DIARY - Day one

Today was a travel day.

Aura Aberback (who makes great homemade biscotti), Jason Alward, Anna Jover Royo and me, Bill Gillespie, pulled our Dodge Caravan on to the 401 and headed south for Sarnia on our way to Michigan.

Crossing the border is no simple matter for a camera crew.There is paper work and lots of it. We had to record every piece of camera and electronic equipment we have with using a legal document called a Carnet stating its make, its value and where it was manufactured. Then we had to have the document reviewed and certified by both Canadian and American customs.