Report From The Road

If I could think of three words to describe this week, they just might be "exciting," "exhilarating" and "exhausting." And I can honestly say I wouldn't have made it through the week without my great team behind me.

As I write this, I'm on my way back from Long Island, New York, where Matt, Pat and I have spent the past few days getting the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association up and running as UnionTrack's newest customer. Like most of our customers, the SCPBA had been using a number of disparate, disjointed databases to track member data. With UnionTrack in place, the SCPBA staff will be able to devote less of their time to paperwork and more time to member engagement, political activity and advocacy on behalf of their more than 2,000 active and retired members.

I came here straight from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where UnionTrack was a sponsor of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO's biennial legislative conference, where labor leaders from around the state came to the capital to set priorities for the new legislative session. The crowd was especially excited this year to hear from newly sworn in Governor Tom Wolf, a friend of labor who will be an important ally in the fight against an anti-worker agenda in the state House and Senate. What made the governor's visit even more exciting was his announcement at the conference that he would support pending legislation to raise the state's minimum wage to $10.10/hour.  We also heard from Lt. Governor Mike Stack and State Labor & Industry Secretary Kathy Manderino.

Of all the speakers I saw over the two days, I was most struck by Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder's speech to the delegates. Frank pointed out that Pennsylvanians, with Philadelphia in the east and Pittsburgh in the west get emotionally invested in their sports teams, and encouraged the members to get just as invested in the fight for working Pennsylvanians. "You'll literally get into fights about Eagles or Steelers," he said. "You'll fight for the Penguins or the Flyers, the Phillies or the Pirates..but will you fight for your Union?"

With the AFL-CIO's legislative agenda at the heart of the meeting, Frank was adamant that union members have to be engaged in the battles that affect not just union members-such as the 40 year fight against privatizing the state's liquor stores, which employ more than 23,000 UFCW members-but also fights for a livable minimum wage and against the "Right to Work (for less)."

On top of legislation, Frank mentioned a number of upcoming elections around the state that could have profound impacts for working families around the state-from special elections to fill the seats of Rep. Brendan Boyle (who left the state house to represent the 13th Congressional District in Washington) and Lt. Governor Stack, who left the state Senate, to the upcoming mayoral election in Philadelphia and county-wide races across the state, to the three vacancies on the state's supreme court-which plays an important role in drawing legislative districts.

With all of this on the agenda, Frank reminded us we could either "invest now or pay later."  Either we get to work electing pro-Labor candidates now or we suffer the consequences of their actions in the future.

For me, there were two main highlights from my time in Harrisburg. The first was having the opportunity to address the Executive Committee on Wednesday, to share with them our vision of a unified labor movement and explain how UnionTrack begins to play a role in realizing that vision.

Even better, though, was the opportunity to meet with so many labor leaders. We got to talk to Ken Kertesz, State Legislative Director of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, who will be using UnionTrack in a matter of weeks, to John Kane from UA Local 690, who is deeply committed to unifying his own union's operations in the near future. We left Harrisburg with a better understanding of Pennsylvania's deep labor roots and, more importantly, with a lot of new friends.

It was an exhausting week, and I'm ready for the weekend.but this was also a great reminder of why we're here. I want to especially thank the leadership and staff of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO for making us feel so welcome in Harrisburg: President Rick Bloomingdale, Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder, the Pams (Cohen and McClellan), Mike Johnson, and especially Christine Allen.

To paraphrase the Decemberists, it was a great reminder of why we fight.

In Solidarity,

Ken

Ken Green photo