Three's Company
UAW members take aim at Iowa legislature
It seems like everybody in Waterloo, Iowa, eats at Morg's diner on meat loaf special day. Inside the place is jumping with clanging silverware, waitresses taking orders, and farmers and factory workers talking politics and weather.
Bill Dotzler, a machine operator for nearly 30 years at the nearby John Deere tractor plant, is a regular at Morg's. The waitresses know him and don't bother handing him a menu.
But since 1996, this Local 838 member has had to catch some of his meals in Des Moines, the state Capital. Dotzler splits his time between the shop floor at Deere's Waterloo Works making transmission shafts and the floor of the state House of Representatives making laws.
A three-term representative, Dotzler is drawn back to Morg's more for talk than meatloaf.
“The stories that people relate to me there about their personal experiences are the ammunition I use when I am speaking on a piece of legislation in the House,” said Doztler, who's led the fight to keep jobs from leaving Iowa, save a worker retraining program and improve public schools.
“Bill Dotzler is a strong and progressive voice for working families,” said Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. “Bill doesn't hesitate to speak passionately on issues that he believes in.”
Target for workers
If elected to the state senate Nov. 5, and indications are that he will be, Dotzler would be the senior of three UAW members in the Iowa legislature. Tom Courtney, a Local 807 member who works at CNH-Global in Burlington, is running unopposed for state senate in District 44. In Ankeny, Dave Campbell, a Local 450 retiree from John Deere Des Moines Works, is running for state House in District 69, a race that is considered a toss up in a nominally Republican district.
Dotzler, Courtney and Campbell are just the kind of candidates the labor movement was looking for when the AFL-CIO launched its 2000 in 2000 program. After surpassing the goal by electing 2,500 union members to all levels of government by the year 2000, the AFL-CIO has raised the bar and renamed the program Target 5000.
“In Region 4, we have 21 members running for offices in city, county or state government,” said Region 4 Director Dennis Williams. “What's important about that is having people in office that we know and we can trust will look out for the interests of UAW members, organized labor and workers in general.”
But even one legislator can make a difference. Democratic Minority Leader Richard Myers explained how Dotzler's doggedness has worked even though Democrats are the minority in the Iowa legislature.
“The Republicans tried to close down the Workforce Development job retraining offices. Bill went to labor; he went to business; he went to everybody in the community to keep these offices open. And he won. If you're ever in a fight, you would want Bill Dotzler on your side,” said Myers.
Growing politicians
Senate candidate Courtney, a 30-year seniority assembler and a southeast Iowa CAP chairperson, was first elected to the Burlington school board in 1994.
“I was already going to the meetings, fighting for the school unions anyhow. So I ran,” said Courtney. “The board wanted to cut costs by outsourcing the janitorial jobs.
“Outsourcing doesn't really save schools money. It just makes private contractors richer. These companies still get the $12 an hour we were paying the janitors, but now the janitors who live in our community are only getting $6.”
House candidate Campbell, currently the Saylor Township clerk, is concerned about good schools and, much like Dotzler, he doesn't want to pay for them with a sales tax.
“It hurts working families the hardest. I want to look at our entire tax structure. Right now, what I see is that corporations and special interests are not paying their fair share,” Campbell said.
Hitting Target 5000 depends on workers who are already involved in the community stepping up and running for public office.
“Looking back, I thought I wasn't prepared, but I was,” said Dotzler. “I had been involved with community services. I had gotten political training at the Region 4 Summer School and at Black Lake. I had served as steward, committeeman, vice-president and newspaper editor for the local.”
“Through the Pat Greathouse Center , our educational center in Ottawa, Ill., we offer 2,800 members every year the opportunity to meet other workers, discuss problems and debate issues,” said Williams. “We give them all political education, and we encourage them to become activists when they go back home.
“We believe in growing our own politicians.”
