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Approved by Management
Dear Northies,
A few years ago I got a bunch of militant union posters from you. I posted [them] on the union
bulletin boards around the plant. I told you at the time I'd report back how it went. Although the posters
were pretty militant, the Local President approved them. Management was quite upset and made the following
contract clause one of their top bargaining issues later that year:
All such matters may be posted only upon the authority of
officially designated representatives of the Union and must be
approved by Management.
So for several years I had to get a foreman's initials on anything I posted. I am able to ignore that now,
but only because I impose "self-censorship." Such is life under the dictatorship of the owners. Now I distribute
this stuff at union meetings and in person.
We did do a successful campaign using buttons during negotiations a couple of months ago. We had
been getting "lump sum" payments in place of some raises for many years and we decided we'd had enough.
I had a local shop make up 250 buttons saying "DUMP THE LUMP" and our Rapid Response team saw to it
that on the designated day 85% of the members wore the button. When management still refused, we took a
vote and a big majority voted to strike. On the last day of negotiations management agreed to give across the
board raises each year. The VP of Personnel said, "Now you can tell the people to throw away all those damn
buttons!"
It's people like you that inspire us to use such tactics. Thank you for being there and doing what you do.
Doug Marshall
USW Local 8957
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