Region 9 Director Joe Ashton
How does having thousands of casino workers in your ranks affect how you operate?
The organizing of the casino workers hasn’t changed how we operate the union in Region 9. What it has done is given more union density. This gives us and the International UAW more political strength, which is needed to protect everything we’ve negotiated for.
What difference will passage of the Employee Free Choice Act have on organizing in Region 9?
The act will allow employees to express their desire for unionization through a card-check process. It also gives workers who form a union the opportunity, through mediation and arbitration, to achieve a first contract. Many companies use stalling tactics to avoid signing a first contract. Most importantly, employees would not have to deal with the threats and intimidations they now face through a typical election process dominated by union-busting law firms. Workers should have the legal right to organize without intimidation.
You talk about “a responsibility that comes with leadership.” Tell us what you mean by that.
During these most difficult of times, leadership in our ranks is most important. Not only are we negotiating difficult contracts, we are trying to remain competitive, to keep jobs from moving abroad and work being outsourced to nonunion U.S. facilities. It’s up to rank-and-file leadership to remind members that without the UAW, companies like Delphi would implement $9 an hour wages without benefits and pensions. It’s the union that has maintained our ability to bargain during these most difficult times.
Next November, Americans will be voting to set a new direction for our nation. What are your hopes for these next four years?
My hopes are to elect a president who is responsible for protecting the rights and jobs of the middle class who built this nation. It’s important we elect a president who is sympathetic to working men and women. A president who names worker-friendly appointees to head government positions in areas that affect our lives on a daily basis: the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Department of Labor, National Labor Relations Board, Federal Trade Commission, and federal and Supreme Court judges. This administration is the most anti-union in the history of this country. I also hope the next administration will take a closer look at Iraq and the financial and spiritual damage it has caused our country.
