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NEWSLETTER |
Past Newsletters |
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Carpenters Local 247 August 2003 meeting report
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General membership
Meets the second Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. at the Carpenters Hall, 2215 N.
Lombard, Portland.
Retirees
Retirees meet for lunch the second Monday, Oct. 13, at 11 a.m. at JJ North’s,
10520 NE Halsey, Portland.
Executive Board
Executive Board meets the fourth Tuesday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. at the Carpenters
Hall, 2215 N. Lombard.
When you come to meetings, please remember to bring donations for the food bank.
I would like to take this time to talk about the Sean Harkin Memorial Fund for Sick and Injured Members. The fund that we are not fully funding by not selling all of the tickets. It seems to me that if the full dues paying members would have bought three tickets for the Harley drawing or two tickets for the travel package, we would not have had to go out of the local for the ticket sales. The way I see it, no matter what, we all benefit from having this fund to help out our brothers and sisters. So what do you say, in the future, how about helping to keep this in the local?
Your fellow brother in service.
Tom Daugherty
Shining a light into dark places
By Mike Couch
On a job a year or so ago, we were having a discussion to do with the issue of bringing power tools to the job. Something I’m against, but my partner Bill shared this point of view. “In the old days”, he said, “a carpenter was expected to supply some hand tools like planes that would cost them more than many cordlesses cost us today.” Now I can see some sense in what he was saying – times change, so should we. But the bottom line for me is that it’s a bad practice to violate our contract. It weakens us. Don’t undercut the brother who keeps his obligation. With that said, would it make us stronger to change the language of our master agreement?
Too many times I’ve learned that cordless drills, chop saws, routers, etc., belonged to a coworker. Recently an apprentice and myself were the only ones on the crew who weren’t supplying our own cordlesses, putting us at a disadvantage production wise. On that job I fielded many curious questions and puzzled looks regarding the Yankee screwdriver I operated. But, if all you members who want to supply the contractors with your personal power tools speak up, explain why that’s a good thing, we can bring this out into the light and look at it. If you’ve got the right idea we may all be going to work battery equipped, but unless the contract is changed don’t undercut the brothers that follow union rules. You may think it’s stupid, but I ask you, without rules what kind of union are we? And how long will we last?
Okay, okay, I’ve banged the drum long enough; I’m certainly no fanatic about rules. I’m not known for causing a ruckus. I’ve many a time brought clamps on a job, and my four-foot level is usually handy. Did you know these things are a no no?
I also need to say I respect our reps. I remember a job when the contractor brought in a non-union demo company to install some beams, we were prepared to do the job and it was work that obviously belong to the carpenters. A debate in the lunch shack involved one camp saying we call the District Council and the other camp that said what’s the point, the rep will only say “this is kind of a gray area” like they always do. Then all we’ll get is a pissed off boss! Well the next afternoon the rep was there kicking ass and taking names. He made the Union look like a force. We got our work back and a pissed off boss. A good and proud bargain, I’d say.
Just a couple of things to think about.
Matewan: The story of a working class struggle that started a union revolution
By Erik Savage
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The year was 1920 and the world was rebuilding after the Great World War that had just ended two years prior. The world was a spinning vortex of revolution and reform and the United States was no exception. Workers from every trade and industry that felt they were being taken advantage of and not given their fair share were fighting for their rights. The workers began to organize and unite like never before in order to improve their working and living conditions. The Industrial Revolution was at an end and workers had been forced to perform at the highest possible levels for the lowest possible pay. The rich were becoming richer everyday at the expense of the workers that they employed. The workers united as a group, but they were an isolated group. At that time in the world the unions were looked upon by outsiders as a close relative to Communism, Socialism or even the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. With worker based uprisings occurring and other such activity, most people in the United States were scared of Unions and the people that comprised them. The government was scared of a workers revolution and the leaders of industry were afraid that they would loose their large wealth to rises in pay. It seemed as though nobody wanted to stand along side the unions and the working class. Well, that all began to change in a little town called Matewan, in Mingo county West Virginia.
The strongest union activity of the spring of 1920 was in Matewan, West Virginia. It was a small coal-mining town that lied along the Tug Fork River. The only work in the town was with the Stone Mountain Mining Company. The coal operator owned most of the land in and near Matewan and even the houses that the miners lived in. The company also had many politicians, newspaper owners, and other influential individuals in the surrounding area under its control. The miners worked all day and were paid not by the hour but by the ton. Their compensation at the end of every month came in the form of company script that could only be redeemed at the company store. It was as if time had stopped in Matewan, the miners and their families lived under nearly feudalistic conditions. Not to mention that the company was too cheap to even spray the walls of the tunnels down with water in order to keep the coal dust from exploding from the slightest spark. The mining company didn’t care whatsoever about the well being of its employees. They were treated as if they were tools, they were used until they broke, and then they were quickly replaced. There was only one hope for the miners and their families, and it lied in the hands of the newly elected president John L. Lewis and the loyal members of the United Mine Workers of America.
The UMWA had just won an unprecedented twenty seven percent pay increase in the Midwest and was now on a roll as it headed for Matewan. One stipulation of the contract negotiated between the Midwestern coal operators and the union specified that the miners in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky had to be organized in order to make the coal market more competitive. Coal producers in that region had been taking advantage of their workers in order to keep their prices below their union competitors. As the UMWA made its way to the southern Appalachians the miners welcomed it with open arms, but as expected, the mine owners resisted the movement with every ounce of strength they had.
As soon as miners joined the union they were fired and evicted from their homes. The mine operator hired the infamous Baldwin and Felts Agency. Baldwin and Felts sent armed thugs to evict the miners from their homes and to keep the union from gaining a foothold in Matewan. Then the Coal Company brought in African Americans and Italian immigrants in to work while the local miners began to join the union in large numbers and strike. It seemed hopeless for the struggling chapter of the UMWA, but one man stood up for the rights of the workers and citizens of Matewan. It was the chief of police, Sid Hatfield. He was a well-respected man who had fought for the United States during World War 1 and was once a miner himself. Although he couldn’t stop the Baldwin and Felts thugs from what they did outside city limits, when they came to town he made sure that they knew he was going to protect the miners and their families. Hatfield used every extent of the law to insure that the people of Matewan would have an equal opportunity to better their situation. Even though Hatfield himself was weary of the union he respected the miners choice to join the union and he would protect their right to do so. Soon enough he would find himself in a position to prove that he meant what he said.
Quickly the Baldwin and Felts thugs tried to evict one of the union miners and his family from their home in Matewan. The owner of the Coal Company owned the house that he lived in and wanted him evicted for joining the union. Hatfield confronted the thugs as they were unlawfully removing the miner’s possessions and putting them out in the road. The thugs tried to say that they had the proper paperwork to evict the union man and his family. Hatfield stared them down and told them that their paperwork was worthless. He told them that they would have to go to Charleston and return with the proper paperwork before he would let them evict anyone from Matewan. He then made the Baldwin and Felts men return all the items back where they found them and leave town immediately. After that day the coal mine operator alongside the Baldwin and Felts Agency tried to bribe Hatfield and even threaten his own life, but he stood by his convictions.
As the union in Matewan grew they created something so beautiful that it should be celebrated as a shining example of union brotherhood. Every miner that entered Matewan became a union miner; white, black, foreign, or domestic they were union and proud. They held meetings almost every night and they began to spread the union word all over Mingo County. No matter who told them they wouldn’t succeed or that they were doing the wrong thing, they overcame and they wouldn’t be broken. They realized that they had to come together as workers, as brothers, no matter how different they may appear they were all fighting for the same cause. If they couldn’t fight for their rights together as one, then they stood no chance, as Benjamin Franklin once said “if we don’t stand together, we will surely hang separately”.
The operator of the Stone Mountain Coal mines was fed up with the miners and he was prepared to end the stand off by any means necessary. He gave the Baldwin and Felts “detectives” the go ahead to evict the miners at all costs, using any force necessary. The head of the Baldwin and Felts agency even came to Matewan himself to personally see that the job was done. Hatfield met the gang of armed thugs in front of the railroad depot, in the center of Matewan on May 19th. Nobody really knows who shot first, but Hatfield wasn’t about to let any harm come to the people of his town that he so deeply cared about, union or not. That day ten people were killed in which is today known as “The Matewan Massacre”. Seven Baldwin and Felts men, including two Felts brothers, Albert and Lee were dead, and another was wounded. Also that day two miners that had been alongside Hatfield were killed; Bob Mullins, and a young unarmed onlooker named Tot Tinsley. Even the Mayor, Cabel Testerman was shot dead. In retaliation for the shoot out, Sid Hatfield was shot by remaining members of the Baldwin and Felts Agency only a few months later on the front steps of the McDowell County courthouse.
I’m sad to say that those men died, but I’m happy to say that they didn’t die in vain. Over 2,000 people walked in Sid Hatfield’s funeral procession and less than a month later more than 10,000 West Virginia coal miners marched from the capitol of Charleston to Logan County to organize the southern coal fields. It was the largest insurrection of armed men in the United States since the civil war. They believed so strongly in the union and what it stood for that they were willing to sacrifice their bodies so that their souls may rest eternally at peace. They may have not done the easy thing, but if you ask me they did the right thing and in the end that is all that matters. So the next time you go to a union meeting or go to the doctor with your health insurance or even come home after your eight hour day to see your family, remember that people once had to die for what you can sign up for at your local union.
Never forget.
Franklin High School is looking for woods shop volunteers
Dear Brothers and Sisters at Local 247,
I am a Franklin H.S. parent who is trying to help the wood shop teacher, Jim Ferner, locate volunteers who can help him out in his wood shop classes. He is teaching furniture and cabinetmaking rather than construction carpentry, but I'm betting that your members have many talents in these areas. As you know, high school classes have gotten very large and it is difficult for a single instructor to give students the individual attention that they need.
Many high schools have closed their shop programs entirely, but Franklin has managed to keep its program going, thanks to the dedication of teachers such as Mr. Ferner. Your help will make the program even stronger.
Do you have a way to let your members know of this volunteer opportunity, such as on your website or through a newsletter? We would appreciate any help that you can provide. Anyone who wants more information or wants to volunteer can contact Jim Ferner at Franklin H.S. (503-916-5140 or jferner@pps.k12.or.us ) or call me at Monica Smith (503) 229-0400 ext. 180
Dan Wanberg and Damian Hughes volunteered to work on the North Precinct community policing office. Ron Kochman and Tim Collins volunteered as well and will be pictured next month.
