COBB — Members of the Calpine Union Organization Committee met Thursday evening and invited former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and other labor union organizers to support its move to unionize Thursday night at the Little Red School House.
Approximately 60 people were present. The meeting preceded a vote by Calpine workers at the Geysers on Jan. 25 and 26 whether to become members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1245.
Mike Farmer, a Calpine employee and union organizer, said the move to unionize began around the end of August, culminating in the group filing in December to hold elections. Farmer said Calpine is fighting the move to unionize and that workers from other Calpine plants across the country have been contacting the group to let them know they are not alone in its unionization movement.
Farmer said labor organizations have been declining in number for years and the workers have an opportunity here to make a statement for the middle class.
“We can win this,” Farmer said. “We have the numbers. Stay strong and don”t succumb to fears.”
Reich was on hand to add support to the group”s movement.
“What you are doing here, what you are standing up for is so important,” Reich said. “With a union, you have a say. The point of having a union is that you have strength in numbers, you”re unified and you have a voice and management has got to listen.”
Reich said companies are faced with pressure to show better profits and higher share prices on the stock market.
“That”s just the way capitalism is and that”s not bad,” he said. “But what that means inevitably is that there is greater and greater pressure to push wages and benefits down to the minimum. That doesn”t mean management”s bad – it doesn”t mean anyone is out to screw anybody else. It means that inevitably the only prevailing pressure you have is when workers stick together through a union to have a voice to make sure that that pressure doesn”t inevitably reduce wages and benefits.”
Ray Thomas, an IBEW senior contract negotiator, was on hand to answer questions about the contract negotiation process and to remind the workers of their rights to organize. “You have nothing to lose and have everything to gain,” Thomas said. “Send us in strong.”
Dave Sankey, an IBEW 1245 member and PG&E bargaining committee member, was also on hand to answer questions about the contract negotiation process. “If you don”t want it, it won”t get asked at the (negotiating) table,” Sankey said. “You will determine your own fate.”
The committee will next meet Jan. 17 ahead of elections.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
