Lodge panelists describe political activity

Mike Ventrone, Local 154 vice president, cites 99.8 percent CAF success.

Activists share insights into fund raising, campaigning

FOUR BOILERMAKERS WHO are involved in their local lodge political action efforts shared their experiences with LEAP delegates by serving on a best practices panel March 11. The purpose of the panel was to pass on information about what works best and to identify challenges that must be overcome.

Mike Ventrone, vice president for Local 154 (Pittsburgh), said his lodge first got involved in CAF in 1993 under then BM-ST Michael Murphy. CAF stands for Campaign Assistance Fund, which is a voluntary fund-raising effort to support pro-worker candidates. No money can be drawn from dues or the lodge treasury for this purpose.

Ventrone said the lodge’s early efforts included a semi-annual $10 payroll deduction authorized voluntarily by the members. “Effective August 1, 2000, our participation reached a far greater level,” Ventrone stated, “when Local 154 Business Manager Raymond Ventrone negotiated a provision into our local bargaining agreement which provided for a five-cent-per-hour paid employee contribution.” Since then, Local 154 has reached a voluntary participation level of 99.8 percent — just three non-participating members out of 1,500.

Local 154 was the top local lodge for CAF contributions in 2006, raising $58,421.

Panelist Wyndham Sparling, assistant BM and president of Local 105 (Chillicothe, Ohio), said his lodge became active in CAF and LEAP in 1999, making sure all members had access to payroll deduction forms for CAF. He had high praise for the International leadership, including the government affairs department, for putting on the LEAP conference. He said the exchange of information at LEAP is very helpful. “We take this information home, and what we do at our local is we pass it on to our members and we get our apprentices involved and make sure they are registered to vote. Then we bring them into the office and put them on the International [LEAP] Web site. We ask them to send a letter on an issue that’s important to them. Then we take the membership and ask them to get involved in a campaign. There’s nothing like phone banking and getting involved in a national campaign to get your membership ready to go.”

Sparling described how his local catered a luncheon for the Women’s Democratic Society in his area and met with the wife of senatorial candidate Sherrod Brown. He also talked about going on the campaign trail for Brown and Ted Strickland, who ran for governor in 2006. Both men won their races.

“None of these things would have been possible if it wasn’t for this conference and the people here [at LEAP],” Sparling said.

Panelist Joe Birolini, assistant business manager for Local 29 (Boston), said his lodge began supporting CAF by passing the hat at union meetings, but because many members don’t attend these meetings, the lodge implemented a voluntary five-cents-per-hour check-off. In 2006, Local 29 raised $15,693 for CAF.

Birolini said when his lodge passes out check-off forms at each new job site, one question that often comes up is, “What have the politicians done for us?” He related a story he shares with those members about how a pro-union U.S. congressman, the late Joe Moakley of Massachusetts, intervened on a massive Boston Harbor project that ultimately generated more than 60 Local 29 jobs and 50 NTL jobs for up to 15 months.

The work in question — constructing digesters — had initially gone to an out-of-state nonunion company. It was only because Local 29 had a political ally in Joe Moakley, who then served as chairman of the Rules Committee, that the local won the work.

“Not only did it generate revenue for our members,” Birolini recalled, “but it also generated revenue for our great organization, it generated revenue for our local, and it generated revenue for CAF. Make no mistake; had it not been for CAF and LEAP, we would not have turned this job around. I look at CAF as an investment in our future.”

Panelist Len Gunderson, IR for the Great Lakes Section, also discussed objections that are often heard when asking for CAF or LEF donations. He praised the work of Bridget Martin and her staff, saying, “We could not reach the congressmen and senators — yes, you can write letters and, yes, they may respond — but they will not directly give you the attention that you need without their [the government affairs department’s] services.”

Gunderson also cautioned Boilermaker members to recognize that many election issues — abortion, gun rights, and gay rights, for example — are issues that are meant to distract voters from the real, job-related, meat and potatoes issues. A LEAP delegate from the floor supported Gunderson’s remarks by noting that even though conservatives controlled Congress for 12 years, there was no serious effort to repeal Roe vs. Wade or to make any other fundamental changes to hot button issues.

What the current administration is really about, Gunderson stated, is destroying or weakening programs like Social Security, Medicare, and OSHA. “They would like to repeal the NLRB, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Jones Act,” he said. “These are under serious attack. Your CAF money goes to elect men and women who are willing to [defend and improve these programs].”

Gunderson went on to call for a renewed effort by local lodges to educate and reorganize their members so they understand all the obligations of belonging to a union — not just paying dues, but actively participating in union activities, including LEF and CAF.