Baltimore Department of Public Works (DPW) workers are angry that their union, AFSCME Local 44, has failed to properly represent them. In fact, they say it has actually worked hand in hand with the city to create a crony system for hiring and promotion, while not bargaining for better working conditions. This is after two sanitation workers died on the job last year and workers revealed they endure non-airconditioned buildings and filthy facilities that endanger their lives and health. Workers say they are so badly paid that they need second jobs and some are unhoused.
This is not just a problem with AFSCME Local 44. Unions all over the country have gotten cozy with management and forgotten who they represent: the rank-and-file workers who do the dirty, but vital, jobs that make our society run. Many unions have had a long time to hone their top-down brand of unionism, and the result is usually the same – corruption, collusion and betrayal. Meanwhile, the pay and conditions of U.S. workers have gotten worse and worse, and our standard of living has been dragged down year after year.
It should now be clear: the only people who can fight and win big gains for workers are workers themselves. DPW’s rank and file should keep at it until they control their own fight for wages and conditions – and then keep going to spread the struggle to other workers. They have the power to put the city on its knees. A union that refuses to use that power doesn’t deserve the name.
