COMMUNITY COLUMNIST
For once, I'm at odds with organized labor

Bob Dietz

May 2, 2004
 

It's not easy or pleasant to criticize people or the organizations with whom one generally agrees. Self-respect requires it, however. Consider my disappointment with statements made by local union officials about relationships between organized labor and West Sound Democrats over environmental issues. The Fred Hill Materials pit-to-pier monstrosity, to be more precise.

I've been a "union man" since my job with Miller Brewery in Milwaukee, Wis., in the summer of 1948. A labor union made it possible for me and other college students to be hired as summer employees at what was then considered a better-than-average wage --with ample supplies of beer in the lunch room, I might add. My dues for that summer job were minimal, so I returned to college in the fall of that year with more than a pocket full of change.

I also learned a good deal about labor union organization and procedures by talking to the "old timers" and by reading the union notices and publications scattered about in the lunch room. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 which, among other things, had a major impact on labor unions and strikes, was the topic of the day. And the presidential campaigns of Harry Truman and Thomas Dewey of that summer often centered on labor unions and labor unrest of the time.

From the time I entered the world of higher education in 1950 until I retired from that profession in 1995, I belonged to whatever union was available to me, whether it was called the American Association of University Professors, the American Federation of Teachers or the Association for Higher Education. I'm proud to have been a union member and a supporter of union involvement in partisan political debates. Naturally, I wasn't always in agreement with their policies or actions, but I was loyal to my union while also working for change from within.

So, when I read that West Sound union leaders were upset with the Democrats in Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties because they appear to be deserting their traditional support of labor, I paid close attention. The issue that inspired their consternation is the outrageous proposal to permit a pit-to-pier project to be approved on the shore of Hood Canal. Jefferson County will have to grant approval, but the people in surrounding counties who care about responsible control of industrialization on the banks of that dying fjord are also speaking out.

Jobs and related benefits are important. Very important. But all of us, union members and friends of the earth -- not necessarily two different groups -- need to ask, what kinds of jobs. When the Asarco plant was finally forced to close near Tacoma in the 1980s, people lost their jobs, but the Asarco smokestack was no longer spewing arsenic and lead on the homes, gardens and playfields of the Puget Sound region.

It's true that if the pit-to-pier project is prevented, there may be a small number of new jobs unavailable. But potentially, far less industrial waste and pollution will be flowing and seeping into Hood Canal and the ground waters on those shores.

Organized labor has the challenging responsibility of supporting employment that is healthy for more than just a few. I can't deny that that's a significant challenge. I know they wrestle with that dilemma again and again because most of their members care about the environment, the long-term welfare of their members and the health of future generations. What disappoints me in local labor leaders' support of the pit-to-pier project is that they are buying into the self-serving propaganda of the current managers of Fred Hill Materials. Fortunately, the Democrats in Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties have remained firm in support of their earlier resolutions in opposition to increased threats to Hood Canal.

In spite of my disappointment with my friends in the labor movement, I must add that I didn't find the claim that environmental leaders in the Democratic Party have let "their brains fall out" entirely objectionable.

After all, it's that kind of colorful hyperbole that will keep the issue of our threatened Hood Canal in the news. And, if there is one thing the violators of the natural environment treasure above all else, it's an uninformed and unaware public.

BOB DIETZ

columnists@thesunlink.com