continued from previous page

Rebecca Kanner, UAW Local 157 steward at the Ecology Center, takes environmental education into Michigan schools. Kanner is active on the local’s environmental committee.

The UAW was among the groups that came together in 1982 to form Great Lakes United (GLU), an international coalition that works to preserve and restore the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River ecosystem. GLU includes environmentalists, hunters and anglers, conservationists, unions, and other groups from the U.S. and Canada.

GLU’s initiatives range from toxic waste clean up to anti-pollution, clean production efforts, and its goals include working with unions for "transition to a toxic-free economy that does not damage workers’ living standards."

Labor involvement in these issues is crucial, says Dan Emerton, a UAW Local 599 member who sits on the GLU board. "We all want a clean environment, but we don’t want to sacrifice good paying jobs. Clean production and the just transition from dirty jobs to clean jobs is crucial. We need to pressure the Big Three to produce clean cars."

GLU staffers have been UAW Local 55 members since 1994. A "bad boss, who was mistreating us and running the organization into the ground, and the firing of a senior staff member sparked the organizing drive," says unit steward Reg Gilbert.

The GLU board agreed to recognize the UAW, and workers bargained a contract that provides strong grievance, discipline, and layoff provisions.

"The contract is completely invaluable," says Gilbert. "In addition to protecting our rights, it cools down management-employee flashpoints. The working environment is much nicer for both sides."

Sierra Club employees in San Francisco faced many of the same problems as GLU workers, leading them to join the UAW in 1992. As one of the nation’s leading conservation groups, the Sierra Club has often worked in coalition with the UAW and other unions to promote environmental safeguards.

Sierra Club Director Carl Pope was in the front line of labor’s march on the WTO in Seattle in November with UAW President Stephen P. Yokich and other union leaders.

"Trade policy has become the vehicle of choice for the world’s large corporations to advance their interests at the expense of the environment and workers rights," Pope wrote in a recent issue of Sierra magazine.

Even though the Sierra Club has worked with the UAW over the years, employees faced strong management opposition to their organizing drive. Arbitrary layoff of about 20 percent of the workforce and increased work hours pushed workers to seek UAW protection.

"One of the first things we did was work out a decent layoff policy," says Mark Maslow, a Sierra Club employee and president of Local 2103. "It’s much cleaner now, and everyone is much better off. The organization has not suffered under a union contract, and it has actually made management better."

Unit chair John Zwierzycki says the contract standardized work rules. A labor-management committee resolves issues that are not specified in the contract, and stewards step in when employees face difficulties with management.

The UAW contracts at the Ecology Center, Recycle Ann Arbor, Great Lakes United, and the Sierra Club build on the UAW’s long-standing commitment to a safe and healthy environment and protection of the world’s natural resources--strengthening the labor-green alliance.

Michael Funke