blake 3:17
22nd September 2007, 22:50
The Role of Staff Unions in the Labor Movement: Interview with Paul Krehbiel
— Guillermo Perez
[Editor’s Note: The following interview with a long-time labor activist is meant to spark dialogue and debate about the role staff unions play inside unions.]
Paul Krehbiel has been active in the labor movement since 1968, first as a rank-and-file member in an auto parts factory in Buffalo, and later as a full-time union representative. In 1998, he went on staff at Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 660 in Los Angeles, and helped organize stewards councils at the two largest L.A. County hospitals.
Krehbiel was also president of his staff union, United Union Representatives of Los Angeles (UURLA). He was one of 15 staff workers terminated by SEIU in February 2007 when Local 660 merged with six other southern California SEIU local unions to form Local 721.
Guillermo Perez: Let’s start by talking about the very idea of union staff having a union. The attitude from many progressive labor activists, including some active with Labor Notes, is that union work is a form of social/economic justice activism and therefore a staff union would be inappropriate for people engaged in such work. How do you respond to that?
Paul Krehbiel: First, let’s be clear: a worker is a worker. If you are a worker and are subject to the authority of an employer, or his or her agent, and you are given work assignments, can be disciplined and fired, you should be in a union.
While many unions do treat their staff fairly, unfortunately, this is not always the case. I have spoken to L.A. county workers, who are members of Local 660, who came off their county job temporarily to work for Local 660 as temporary staff, and who told me that they were treated worse working for Local 660 than they were working for the county.
Full interview. (http://labornotes.org/node/1290)
— Guillermo Perez
[Editor’s Note: The following interview with a long-time labor activist is meant to spark dialogue and debate about the role staff unions play inside unions.]
Paul Krehbiel has been active in the labor movement since 1968, first as a rank-and-file member in an auto parts factory in Buffalo, and later as a full-time union representative. In 1998, he went on staff at Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 660 in Los Angeles, and helped organize stewards councils at the two largest L.A. County hospitals.
Krehbiel was also president of his staff union, United Union Representatives of Los Angeles (UURLA). He was one of 15 staff workers terminated by SEIU in February 2007 when Local 660 merged with six other southern California SEIU local unions to form Local 721.
Guillermo Perez: Let’s start by talking about the very idea of union staff having a union. The attitude from many progressive labor activists, including some active with Labor Notes, is that union work is a form of social/economic justice activism and therefore a staff union would be inappropriate for people engaged in such work. How do you respond to that?
Paul Krehbiel: First, let’s be clear: a worker is a worker. If you are a worker and are subject to the authority of an employer, or his or her agent, and you are given work assignments, can be disciplined and fired, you should be in a union.
While many unions do treat their staff fairly, unfortunately, this is not always the case. I have spoken to L.A. county workers, who are members of Local 660, who came off their county job temporarily to work for Local 660 as temporary staff, and who told me that they were treated worse working for Local 660 than they were working for the county.
Full interview. (http://labornotes.org/node/1290)