One Sunday morning a few weeks back, my 2-year-old daughter, Keira, came downstairs while I was making breakfast.

She went to her toy box and unloaded almost every item in it. She spread everything on the floor and then took out the last two items in the box: two plastic teacups. She handed one to me and she held the other one and we had a little tea party as her older brother and sister watched.   

Ten minutes later, when breakfast was ready, I told Keira she needed to pick up her toys and put them away.

During the clean-up process, her mother usually sings a song along with her: “Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up, clean up, clean up now.”

So Keira began singing the song: “Clean up, clean up, ’body clean up...” Then she walked over to her older brother and sister and pulled them to the mess and the three of them picked up. (Connor wasn’t too happy, but he did it anyway.)

Conflicting agendas

On TV that morning was a discussion about politics. A Tea Party guy was talking about his group’s agenda and about how the Speaker of the House was going to answer to this fringe wing of the Republican Party or it intends to go after him in the next election.

The Speaker has held up legislation, almost bankrupted the country and nearly shut the government down twice, but he still hasn’t gone far enough to satisfy the Tea Partiers.

In the meantime, the President introduced a jobs bill to put Americans back to work. At a time when we all need leadership, the President finally was showing some, and the Republican-held House of Representatives, egged on by the Tea Party, wanted to stop him.

When I think of the Tea Party, I don’t think of Republicans. I know a lot of Republicans who are well-intentioned and care about our country. But they, like the rest of the country, are being held hostage by this powerful minority whose agenda is to promote the interests of the ultra-rich like the Koch brothers while removing protections for workers, their families and the environment.

The next elections are only a year away. We all have to come together — Republicans, Democrats, Independents, etc. — and take our government back. Our leaders need to work for the people, not for a small group of wealthy individuals and their thugs who are trying to shut working Americans out of the process and make a mess out of our democracy.

By next November, we all need to work together and elect serious politicians who have a vision for our country that will move it forward into the 21st century, not backward into the early 20th century.

We may have to look to our children for help. It is their future, anyway.

Clean up, clean up, ’body clean up... It’s going to be a lot of work.

Preparing for success in 2012
By Jim McLaughlin President, UFCW Local 99, and UFCW International Vice President

It’s not too soon to start thinking about 2012.

I know, it feels like 2011 has just begun and I’m still not sure where the last six months have gone. But 2012 is such an important year we’ve actually been preparing for it since 2010.

I’m going to stay away from the “end of the world” theories (it seems the last one kinda bombed), what with the whole Mayan calendar and all, but 2012 is going to bring some interesting times: national elections, our state legislative and initiative elections, and, of course, our industry negotiations.

The national scene

Let’s start with the national elections. Arizona will have an open U.S. Senate seat — that will be exciting to watch — and we’re picking up one more seat in the House of Representatives. But the even more thrilling race will be the presidential election.

Voters across the country will make a decision that could un-do health care reform, financial reform and a number of other laws that have gone into effect. If they vote out the current administration, then the new president will have a “mandate” from the American people that we went too far. But if President Obama is reelected, then he will have a mandate that the people want to stay with his progressive agenda.

Here in Arizona, we expect to see some interesting ballot referendums and initiatives. Already, we know of three proposed constitutional amendments that will be on the ballot. If passed by the voters, they would disallow the use of public funds in political campaigns, modify our system of appellate and trial court commissions, and prohibit crime victims from being subject to damage claims for causing death or injury.

Grocery negotiations

Meanwhile, the hottest period of the political season will coincide with the expiration of our current grocery contract in October, as well as negotiations for a new agreement to replace it.

In order to succeed in these negotiations, we need to build our power and keep standing strong on important issues like health care, pension, wages and working conditions.

Those talks will be a challenge, but you know what Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers football coach, said: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Here’s another expression we often cite in the Labor Movement: “Success favors the prepared.”

The elections and negotiations of 2012 may seem like a long way off, but they will be upon us with surprising speed. Let’s start preparing now and be ready for whatever comes our way.

Solidarity then, solidarity now, solidarity forever!
By James McLaughlin President, UFCW Local 99, and UFCW International Vice President

‘The most important word in the language of the working class is ‘solidarity’.”

Harry Bridges said those words. Harry understood solidarity. He organized on the docks throughout the West Coast of our great country. He spoke out against the employers who at the time were denying workers’ rights, creating a “class war” on the docks and pitting workers against workers.

Harry knew the workers on the docks could prevail, but only if they stuck together. And he was right. Today, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which he led, is one of the most militant, powerful and successful unions in America.

Harry died in 1990, but we know what he would say about the current attacks on public-sector unions across the United States. He would repeat his affirmations of solidarity and he would work tirelessly to bring workers in the public and private sectors together to defend the institution of collective bargaining.

We don’t have Harry Bridges around any more, but we are inspired by his memory (my “Labor History” column on page 15 is dedicated to him).

In Wisconsin and Ohio and Indiana and Arizona and everywhere else that working families are under attack, we are fighting back in Harry’s spirit of solidarity.

Teachers and janitors are standing with cashiers and meat cutters. Firefighters and police officers are standing with Teamsters and plumbers.

There is no question that the fight that is going on right now affects all working people. If you work for a living, you have a dog in this hunt.

The people behind these attacks on working people were elected last November with the support of the Tea Party movement, and they are going for their spoils. This movement pretends to speak for everyday, frustrated middle-class Americans, but its financial backers have a different agenda. They include some of the wealthiest people in the country, including David and Charles Koch.

The Koch brothers own Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned company in the United States. You may not be familiar with the name, but you’ve heard of many of its products, like Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups and Lycra fibers.

The Koch brothers don’t care about frustrated working people. They care about frustrated billionaires like themselves.

When they push elected officials in states across the country to cripple public-sector unions, it’s because they want to weaken the Labor Movement across the board. They want to silence their opponents politically so they can run the government as they please to protect their interests, without meaningful resistance from hardworking middle class families.

Here’s yet another quote that I find inspiring. The great organizer Saul Alinsky said, “Power goes to two poles — to those who’ve got the money and those who’ve got the people.”

The Koch brothers and their billionaire friends have the money, but we have the people. That gives us the kind of power the Kochs can only dream of.

Harry Bridges was right. Solidarity is the key.

We must flex our power and use our solidarity before they try to take it away from us. The entire working class is depending on us.

Tragedy in Tucson
By James McLaughlin President, UFCW Local 99, and UFCW International Vice President

I will always remember where I was and what I was doing at the time I got the call on Saturday morning, Jan. 8.

I was cleaning out the garage when a friend called to say that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was attacked outside a Safeway in Tucson where many of our members work.

This was devastating news. As a congresswoman and as a member of our community, Gabby has proven herself to be a reliable friend and ally of UFCW Local 99.

Soon afterward, I learned that many others were killed and wounded in the attack. Six people lost their lives, including a 9-year-old girl, a federal judge and one of Gabby’s staff members. Thirteen others were wounded — some of them, like Gabby, with catastrophic injuries.

But that was not the full extent of the casualties resulting from the murderer’s rampage. Our community was also wounded, and so was our society’s capability to have civil disagreements.

No employees in the store were hurt, thank goodness! I was proud to know that our members were among the first to provide aid to the victims.

The more I hear more about the events of that day, the more inspired I become by the calmness and resorcefulness of our members at Safeway 1255. In a moment of extreme stress, they cared for the injured and made the best of a horrible situation.

UFCW Local 99 responded immediately to the crisis by dispatching staff to assess the needs of the workers and assist them. In addition, HMC, a firm our members already trust because it is part of our health fund, was quick to send a team of crisis counselors to the scene.

All of our members who may need counseling are urged to seek assistance through our Membership Assistnace Program (MAP).

As our members continue their recovery from this traumatic episode, I am encouraged to hear and read about the progress of our dear friend, Gabrielle Giffords.

Throughout her political career, Gabby has stood at the side of working families, whether that was the popular course to take or not.

She supported health care reform in a state where many opposed it. Some extreme individuals even threatened to harm her and her staff as a result of her principled stands.

Much is being said these days about the tone and substance of our political discourse. Our leaders rarely engage in the sort of calm discussions that President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered as “fireside chats” to an earlier generation of Americans.

Nevertheless, when Gabby Giffords was attacked, she was engaging in an old-fashioned “meet and greet” in which her constituents were invited to talk to her about the issues of our day. In times of crisis, we need to look to leaders who will reach out to share ideas without instigating hate, who will address problems without blaming someone else, and who will make their plans by working collaboratively with others, even if they are on the “other side.” We need to look to leaders like Gabrielle Giffords. President Roosevelt once said: “In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice... the path of faith, the path of hope and the path of love toward our fellow man.” It will take more than bullets to silence that message.