Chaparral 2023-2024: On Union Membership with Guild President Richard Kamei

Union Membership

For this article, I was asked to provide some information about what motivated me to take on the role of Guild President.  This is not an easy question for me to answer because there are multiple factors that shaped me as a person and guided my decision to serve as Guild President.  My life experiences, especially with regard to observing and experiencing injustices, led me to want to take part in working towards social justice.  Since I spend a significant amount of time at GCC, it made sense for me to serve in our union local in order to do what I can, with a dedicated team of like-minded individuals, to protect the work-related interests of our fellow faculty as well as fight for social justice in a broader sense, especially as it relates to education.

The first time I had the honor and privilege of serving as Guild President was ten years ago in 2013.  Significant changes have taken place since then.  As far as unions are concerned, one of the most significant changes is the 2018 United States Supreme Court decision on the Janus v. AFSCME case.  A 5-4 court majority overturned a long-standing precedent.  The decision, in effect, allows public sector workers represented by a union who choose not to be union members to not have to pay agency fees despite benefiting from the work of the union.  The major objection for paying agency fees related to concerns that the fees would go towards political activities that the non-members may not support.  The problem with this argument was that an earlier United States Supreme Court case in 1977, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, established that agency fees could only be used to cover the costs of bargaining, which, again, all workers represented by the union benefit from.
 
Of course, attacks against unions and workers, in general, are nothing new.  In fact, the United States has had a very long and often bloody history of class war waged against unions.  To name just a few, we have the 1886 Haymarket Massacre, the 1914 Ludlow Massacre, the Palmer Raids in 1919 and 1920, the Red Scare, and the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.  As time progressed, the techniques applied against unions have become more sophisticated.  Organizations, such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), have worked to pass anti-union laws such as the Right to Work Act, which the Janus decision imposed on public workers, and the Truth in Employment Act, which would allow employers to discriminate against pro-union job applicants.
 
None of this should be surprising.  In fact, it just highlights the realities of the struggles between workers and the capitalist class even in the public sector.  For example, we as professors in a public institution play a critical role in the infrastructure upon which the capitalist class benefits tremendously.  Similar to our siblings in the private sector, there is a desire by the capitalists to minimize our labor costs while maximizing the benefits from the fruits of our labor, such as knowledgeable and skilled graduates who can help the capitalist class generate greater wealth.
 
Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we work to strengthen unions and then hold our unions accountable to ensure that we continue to strive for a more democratic and just society.  Although Janus was a blow to unions, in recent years, we have seen a resurgence of interest in unions and the growth of union membership.  The Pew Research Center and Gallup have recently reported that a large majority of Americans approve of unions and view them as a positive force.  Of course, unions are a positive force.  We must never forget the gains that were won through the struggles of unions, many of which people take for granted today, such as the eight-hour work day, the weekend, safer working conditions, the right to collective bargaining, to name a few.  It is heartening to see workers from corporations such as Starbucks and Amazon vote to unionize and to see workers from both the private and public sectors out on the streets picketing and striking for better wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions.  In Los Angeles alone, this past summer, approximately 100,000 unionized workers were on strike.  Although the resurgence in union activism is positive and inspiring, we must understand it within the context of worsening economic conditions for workers.
 
Faculty at Glendale Community College are, of course, not immune from the struggles of the larger society.  We are impacted by the declining financial support of public institutions, including community colleges, over reliance and exploitation of adjunct faculty, rising health insurance costs, rising housing costs, etc.  The Glendale College Guild, AFT 2276 is the union local that works to protect and improve the wages, benefits, hours, and working conditions of faculty members at GCC.  We have an excellent reputation at the state-level with our parent union the California Federation of Teachers.  We are an exceptionally active union with a high rate of union membership.  None of this is possible without our current and future Guild members.  Therefore, if you are a Guild member, we thank you and look forward to working with you to continue to improve our circumstances at GCC.  If you are not a Guild member, please seriously consider joining our union to help make us even stronger.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at rkamei@glendale.edu or (818) 240-1000 x 3029.

Richard T. Kamei

August 20, 2023