Teamsters: A Legacy of Political Action

 By: Rich Petrovsky, 37-year UAL mechanic and Chair of the Committee for Change

 Anyone who thinks that a union should not be involved politically with its government doesn’t understand the dynamics of power involved in the relationship between labor and politicians. The involvement of unions in politics is critical.

Let’s look at United Airlines and the federal government. United Airlines is one of the most powerful corporations in America today because of its political ties. Although the airlines are “regulated” by the government and its many entities, such as the FAA, it could be said that United dictates to the government its desires, and they are generally rewarded with the requests they make. The PBGC’s handling of our pensions is a perfect example of what can be done through a company and its political allies.

The Teamsters also have a very strong presence in Washington, DC. Their International headquarters overlook the nation’s capital. After all, Teamsters General President James R. Hoffa said it was “…so we can keep an eye on the politicians on Capitol Hill.”

I recently had the opportunity to accompany my fellow United mechanic and Committee for Change member, Paul Molenberg, as well as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ political liaisons onto Capitol Hill. Our visit had a very specific purpose: To engage our representatives in setting regulations to make it much more difficult for United to shed its responsibilities of maintaining a safe and secure fleet of aircraft, by selling off its maintenance division to make a buck. In fact, several billion “bucks” for the executive officers—at the sacrifice of jobs for American workers and a decrease in passenger safety.

Fred McLuckie, the Teamsters’ Legislative Director, and Matthew Mayers, the lead Strategic Organizer, set up a very aggressive appointment calendar for us to see as many representatives as we could in our short two-day visit.

We met with staff members for Senator Barbara Boxer, Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, Congressman Dan Lungren and Congressman Jerry McNerney. At each meeting we had the opportunity to educate each representative on the sensitive issues of aircraft safety and homeland security from the aviation technician’s point of view, as well as educate them to the realities of the devastation our fellow workers have endured from the loss of their jobs.

Some of the staff members requested more specific information and this has been supplied by additional visits from Fred and Matthew over the last week.

Altogether, I believe we gave a very personal and passionate overview of the concerns of each and every worker in our field.

One thing is absolutely certain. Our visit to these representatives would not have had the impact or carried the sense of urgency for immediate action as it did by being accompanied by the representatives from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

It was quite evident that when the Teamsters walk onto the “Hill”, our representatives know there is an issue that must be addressed, and the issues will not be swept under the carpet and forgotten!

I am profoundly proud of our choice to organize with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. They are already aggressively engaged in our fight against corporate greed at United Airlines, something we have not yet seen by our current representation! They have truly reinstated my faith in organized labor and the power that comes from an organization that genuinely cares about the workers of America.