Report On The Detroit Ox-Roast For AMFA Strike
by John Joslin - IBEW 58
STAND BY FOR A long, close look at our IBEW today, ..don't even start
if you can't stand a whiff of bad news ... ya' can't fix what you don't
know is broke though, .....it's nothing you didn't know about or
haven't suspected but if you want to help air out our small corner of
the House of Labor...you gotta' hang in a bit here to see if you
believe what follows and what I eyewitnessed :
IBEW Local #58 members Kevin Mackey and I , John Joslin , ( along with
other local #58 members ) have been involved with putting on events for
locked-out & striking workers for going on 11 years. We have cooked in
most union halls that have decent ( or just barely adequate) kitchens
within a 25 mile radius of Detroit . As you can imagine, that includes
a lot of U.A.W. ( United Auto Workers ) halls ; spread all over the
geographic map and designated with an array of numerical
identifiers..... # 600, #909 , #22, #174, #157 ( ?), ....and more. We
have fed folks at UFCW halls , churches , parking lots and a couple of
street corners , in the snow & in the rain ; we have occasionally used
the word "fundraiser ", but we have always figured that the MAIN idea
was to make some low-cost edible protein available for striking or
Locked-out families ( take-home in a box afterwards, especially ), AND
provide a place for people to meet , socialize , strategize etc.
Beneficiaries of our efforts have included Newspaper workers in Detroit
( 4 years of Ox-Roasts as we tend to call the affairs) , during the
great infamous detroit Newspaper strike , Steelworkers in Michigan &
Ohio, sugar beet farmers and mill workers in rural Michigan ( we broke
a lock-out that had been going on for 5 months ,no end in sight ),
north of Port Huron, Screen Actor's Guild strike in U.S. ( we got
directly involved in strike strategy in that one & some in their Int'l
office in L.A. today credit that effort with enabling them to survive
the national strike ... ) Most times we take a little hit, a few times
we break even , and once in a while we end up with 2 or 3 thousand
bucks in a bag which we commonly give to a lawyer or two (....sometimes
we have mounted civil disobedience or other picket line activity apres
dinner and usually there's a couple of friendly pro-bono type attorneys
that never get paid securing our neglected civil liberties etc....) Our
all-time record so far is feeding 3,000 people over 18 hours; 3 days of
actual cooking around the clock , a crew of 50 electrician/cooks and
$35,000 for the victims of a powerhouse explosion...) To get the ball
rolling we just pool money out of our paychecks & get to work. Our
co-worker/cooking crews usually include IBEW, ( many traveling bros.
and sisters ...yo" Diane" we missed you at this one, sure could'a used
ya' "Tom Pine" ! ) UAW , Newspaper Guild, GCIU, Wobblies, Steelworkers,
pretty much u-name it ... Just to give you a flavor , our menus often
feature deep fried turkey cajun-style (..a tip of the hat to some New
Orleans brothers who graciously taught us how to properly prepare the
birds... ), slow cooked top rounds of beef , ( 250 #'s on the spit at a
time ; 12 hour charcoal roasted , liberal application of garlic , salt,
& pepper every hour or so...., redskin potatoes, corn -on-the-cob,
salads, vegetarian options,desserts, taco & enchilada appetizers ...ALL
simultaneously , usually.( Early on in our culinary solidarity work ,
we were actually seriously criticized for cooking too well. Turns out
the local labor/political fundraisers were pretty much locked into
chicken or macaroni & cheese and they told us we were SPOILING people
by turning out fancy meals for almost NO money..... true, we were
fucking up their "good thing", so they said....we ignored the hacks...)
This Saturday night ( Aug. 27th ) for the AMFA ( Airline Mechanics
Fraternal Association )strikers we just went with the beef mostly,
since we were under the gun....all dressed up for dinner with no place
to go , so to speak. Because we are IBEW members and have a hall with a
pretty good kitchen ( comfortably feed 500 ) we have " used "
Local#58's facilities more than any other location over the years. .
Well , two days after the AMFA strike began, we reserved the hall &
kitchen , as we normally would. On Thursday , August 25th, an Int'l
rep. for the Machinists Union ( IAM ) called our hall to express "
outrage " that anything was being contemplated to support the AMFA
strikers...( the mechanics had come up with the balls & imagination a
few years ago to ditch the machinist's union and create their own union
by VOTE of the membership and the machinist's brass were nursing a
grudge....) He was told that the hall had been rented by a community
group with a good record(" Friends of Labor " - that's us ...) and a
stellar labor rep to boot, and that it was a done deal. You can be
fairly sure it was noted ,as well, that the "Local " itself ( the
"administration" ) was NOT sponsoring the affair. So far , so good.
The NEXT day, Friday- Aug 26th, the IBEW Int'l called ( this is murky
here , it could have been an e-mail ) and "ordered " the local to "lock
the doors from Friday evening ( normal end of week closing time ) until
Monday morning " to prevent any solidarity activity on behalf of AMFA .
Our flier had been out & circulating , you can find it on the AMFA
website.... the event was scheduled for Saturday night ( last night ,
August 27th ) so you can imagine the havoc this caused. No details
needed , just complete chaos with a generous helping of despair. A
striking mechanic's spouse who was in charge of the program for the
evening was openly weeping at midnight . We started cooking anyway,
despite the banning "order", in the back of a downtown detroit gin-mill
sporting a filthy ,grease infested kitchen ( 5 people@ two hours of
scrubbing to reach the bare metal surface of the prep tables ) at 5:00
AM Saturday morning with no place to go as of noon and strikers ,
supporters, and media confusing us & themselves with "what the hell is
going on? & where are we supposed to be ? "..... continuous phone calls
& panic . Of course , we were counseled to "cancel" by some well
meaning folks because ..." doing nothing is better than lowering your
standards and doing a half-assed job "...so there was a good deal of
confusion. Anyhow , we quickly determined to persevere even if we had
to serve crackers & water . Just the idea that a couple of anonymous
over-stuffed suits in D.C. w/ IBEW "tickets" pinned to their lapels
thought they could "order " folks around by remote control gave us all
the extra energy we needed......
If you made it this far , you deserve a helping of good news ! Saturday
night ,after 30 hours of searching for alternate venues at the LAST
minute, hunting up chairs& tables , cooking, swearing, shuttling food
in and out of kitchens , scrubbing , arguing & probably a little silent
praying we had TWO downtown Detroit nightspots ( within 10 blocks of
each other) rocking with 500 people, .... The Airline mechanics were
AMAZED at the IBEW brothers & sisters and were impressed that we pulled
it off after the well-timed crippling blow delivered by the expense
account boys in our nation's capitol....
Well, the Monday ( Aug. 29th ) New York Times covered the thing
complete with a large photo . So did the "Detroit Free Press" in their
Monday edition , buried in the Business section.... ( they FIRED their
last "Labor" writer prior to the 1995 Detroit Newspaper strike.....
Here's where we go further into the" twilight zone" , courtesy of Ed
Hill's office.....
The Detroit Free Press article mistakenly reported that the fundraiser
was "held at and sponsored by IBEW Local #58 in Detroit". They went on
to say that the Airline Mechanics were starting to forge bonds of
SOLIDARITY with other unions in Detroit. They got that part right ! Ed
Hill's people apparently read the whole article and flew off the
handle. They contacted Local #58 in Detroit Monday afternoon demanding
to know why their "orders" were disobeyed . Apparently, they figured
that not only had the dinner for striking workers THAT THEY TRIED TO
SABOTAGE by "locking us out " of our own union hall been a wild success
...they now thought that local 58's officers must be lying to them as
well ! The IBEW Int'l DEMANDED that the hall turn over the burglar
alarm company's records for the period of time between Friday afternoon
( normal closing time ) and Monday morning to prove that our hall had
not been secretly used for the purpose of aiding & defending the latest
targets of corporate America's union -killing spree...... the Airline
Mechanics ! Believe it or not, ... a month before , The " IBEW JOURNAL
" , our own union's official magazine had featured a prominent
editorial by Edward Hill entitled, : " DIVIDED WE FALL ". ( July
/August 2005 issue -check your wastebaskets... )
Under Ed Hill's mug shot , the caption reads..." The labor movement is
in danger of forgetting its foremost principle-solidarity."
I didn't forget , Ed. - John A. Joslin , D-797650 , j-wireman,
organized brother , and supporter of unions from Tallahassee to
Fairbanks because " an injury to one is an injury to all.."
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