Point of view from Robert's desk- 2
LOCAL 6222
Unions And The Little Red Hen Reprinted from May 1999 Many of life’s greatest lessons I learned as a child. As I get older I often find myself reflecting on those lessons and the medium they came from. One such medium was the children’s story “The Little Red Hen”. Most are familiar with the story; but, for those who are not, the little red hen asked many of the characters in the story for help in the long process that led to the making of a loaf of bread. In every case and at every step no one offered to help so she “did it herself”. Once the work was done it was time to enjoy the fruits of her labor, she again asked who wanted to help her eat the bread, everyone wanted to help her eat the bread but she declined and stated that she would eat it herself. The lessons to be learned here is for there to be the fruits of your labor, there first has to be the labor! Unions and locals that comprise them are living entities constantly changing due to their makeup at any given time. The locals of today are different than the locals of our parents. But on thing that is still the same today as in early days of organized labor, is that the individual has to be willing to work at making the union strong. The vast majority of union members believe that simply paying dues is all that is required to keep the union alive and well. In my particular local and from what I hear many others as well, membership meeting attendance is tragically low. Very few are willing to join any committee or volunteer any of their time to further ANY cause the local may be working on. They would rather sit and watch others do the work. Even worse, many have the audacity to complain about how others are doing it wrong! Maybe it is the makeup of our unions now that has lead them into this comatose state of apathy, after all, most unions are composed of 3rd and 4th generation rank and file. Members, who for the most part, had their locals given to them and never had to build, or fight to keep them. Whatever the case, if the average member across this nation is never willing to help past the paying of dues, then there may again come a time when there will be nothing to pay them to. RM/nr opeiu 129 afl-cio
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