Ten thousand members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees participated in a national “Healthcare not Wealthcare” sticker day June 8. They're fighting attempts by profitable Class 1 railroad operators to impose major health care concessions. Photo: BMWE
Peter Knowlton, General President of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE), wrote a piece that appeared in the July 2016 issue of Labor Notes on developing tools and strategies to engage in offensive -- instead of defensive -- bargaining around healthcare:
For decades unions have been on the defensive, battling for access to affordable health care.
It’s evident in the excuses we hear from co-workers and even some union leaders, when employers push cuts to our insurance: “It’s better than what non-union workers get.” “At least we still have dental.” “Everybody else is paying more, so we have to, too.”
In a country where only 11 percent of workers belong to unions, and where the leaders of both major parties oppose single-payer health care, it’s not surprising that the bosses and insurance executives get their way.
But in the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE), the union I’m president of, we’re trying to change that dynamic. We are working to develop tools and strategies to go on the offensive.
A big part of that is changing the conversation at contract time about what we propose and what’s fair. By doing this we’re not only getting better immediate results, but also developing in our membership a new common sense about health care and how it’s financed.
We know that the universal health care everyone deserves won’t be won in a single shop—but we’re laying the groundwork to set our sights higher in future fights that can bring workers together across a whole chain or geographic area.
Read the full article here and visit the UE's website for a toolkit.
Published July 29th, 2016Like this post? Consider sharing it on
Facebook or 
Twitter.