Having Friends in City Hall Can Make a Big Difference

The small city of McAlester, Okla., is a textbook case of what happens when pro-worker candidates are in office — and when they aren't.

CWA Local 6012 and McAlester city workers who wanted a union got a slim majority on the city council to back them last year. It was a major victory, until one of their supporters lost his seat in an unrelated recall election. Immediately, the new anti-union majority overturned the ordinance that allowed the workers to organize.

"It shows exactly how politics and organizing go hand-in-hand," Local 6012 Organizer Jon Kirby said.

The Tulsa-based local is fighting to restore the union-friendly majority on the McAlester council, and also to build one on the Tulsa city council. In fact, CWA already has one member on the Tulsa council, Jack Henderson, and Kirby himself is running for a council seat, with the election taking place as the CWA News went to press. CWA also has a voice at the state level, with Local 6086 member Judy McIntyre serving in the Oklahoma Senate.

CWA leaders in Oklahoma and another "red state," Mississippi, say people are often surprised by how many inroads CWA and other unions have made in local politics.

In Jackson, Miss., the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees, CWA Local 3570, helped elect a worker-friendly mayor and has what President Brenda Scott calls a "super majority" on the city council.

Her local had circulated cards for Jackson city workers to sign if they wanted a union. A majority did, and Scott went to the council. "Before I even finished my presentation, six out of seven council members had signed our petition saying they had no problem with city workers being organized," she said.

Details, such as determining which workers will be part of the bargaining unit, are still being hammered out, but the process is underway, Scott said.

In Oklahoma, CWA celebrated a huge victory in March. In early 2005, the state Supreme Court overturned a 2004 law that allowed collective bargaining for public workers in cities of at least 35,000 residents. CWA appealed, asking the same court to hear the case again. Against all odds, Local 6012 President David Ratcliff said the justices overturned their own decision, reinstating the bargaining law.

McAlester isn't affected because it's too small. But Local 6012, a telecom local that is reaching out to public workers, is ready to organize in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow. After the 2004 law was passed, 80 percent of workers there signed cards indicating they want a union.

Ratcliff talks to members regularly about economic issues that affect their lives and how electing pro-worker candidates to office can make all the difference. And then he puts them to work. In March, he and other officers called their 1,600 members and asked them to commit to two hours making phone calls or walking precincts for Kirby's city council race. Most members agreed to help.

While "it's hard grassroots work," Ratcliff said, that's the key to electing more union members to councils, school boards, legislatures and any other office.

"We may be outspent on campaigns, but we're going to outwork them," he said.