Speaking for Ourselves
•
y
w
i Ameri n
Studi Center to for i tance
beca the union office I eked con
tac with local i n-P ific com
muni ty group. "We need
Vietname e translator," S otne
id.
The UA W needed a translator be
ca it f ced a crisis: decertifica
tion c mp ign. As wi th mo t
decertification campaigrs, thi one
had been hatched by Jonathan execu
tive . But it d the upport of many
employ upset by their union'
failure to protect worker rights and
combat m nagement wage and
benefit take-aways.
Moreover, this decertification
�ign had larger ramificatio .
Co ely watching were execu
tives from nearby plants, all with
UA W contracts coming up within a
year.
Clearly, a union defeat at
Jonathan would set off other decer
tification drives.
Skotnes had already held meet
ings with ome plant workers and
l�med that they were angry about
the poor services provided by the
local union and the lack of com
munication from union staff. "Many
are also very upset about a strike
three years go," he aid. "Our mem
bers struck when management tried
to take away their ·bealth plan. But
we lost the trike, and our members
bad to return to work without the
health plan they needed."
So far no Vietnamese members
had attended Skotnes' meetings. He
added that local union officials knew
nothing about how the Vietnamese
JONA THN INDUSTRIES stood on the decretification question,
and he found this ignorance appall
Jonathan Industrie in Orange .
mg.
County could be any of the hundreds "I think our Vietnamese members
of small companies that dot the
are the key to victory," he stressed.
Sourhern California landscape.
Workers at Jonathan make computer "We need to hold some meetings
equipment, but they could just as to find out what they think. We need
well make stereo components, to get union materials translated into
hardware supplies, processed food, Vietnamese. T.he company has al
or gannents. ' ready put out anti-union leaflets in
both Vietnamese and Spanish."
Like most light manufacturing I suggested that Skotnes contact
plants in the region, the workforce
experienced major changes in the Anh Tran, a graduate student in our
1980' . At one time, workers were Asian American Studies program. A
mainly American-born: Mexican- Vietnamese refugee, Anh had special
Amen'can a� white Ho b sensitivity to the needs of her com-
,., . wever, y
the late 1�, new immigrants and munity.
refugees from Latin America and However, Anh expressed some
Alia comprised the majority. By misgivings about serving as a trans-
19S7 Vietnamese refugee ac- lator for the union. "I don't know
COJ1J1ted for a quarter of Janathan's anything about unions," she told
250 production employees. Skotness. "And, anyway, what has
The United Auto Workers repre- this union actually done to help the
sen Jonathan workers. like most Vietnamese people at that corn-
unions, the UA W local h s not pan)'?"
responded well to the rapid Skotness told her that undoubted
demographic shifts occurring in the ly the union officials had made some
reJlon. There is DO one in the union mistakes, and that the Vietnamese
office who peaks Vietnamese. And probably had as many criticisms as
the� are � programs designed to other workers. "I want to find out
recruit Vietname e members into what the Vietnamese are thinking. I
union activities. want to ask their support for the
Nevertheless, UA W local om- union. If me union wins, there i a
cials, like other labor leaders, tend to chance that we can improve the situa-
tion."
blamelhe new Asian workers them-
selves for their lack of union par- Skotnes addCd that before tatqng
ticipation. According to this the post as a UAWorganizer, he had
argument, there is something in- worked in a shop similar to Jonathan.
herentinAsiancultures that prevents He had helped the Vietnamese in
new immigrants and refugees from the shop become active in the union,
appreciating unions. although initially the union official
1bia type of thinking is pervasive did not know how to repspond to
among labor leaders. I believe it is their new members.
rooted in the peculiar history of or- After listening to Skotnes, Anh
ganizcd labor and the Asian-Pacific decided to translate at the meeting,
orter. but said her main role would be to
gather complaints the Vietnlme5C
might have about their union wor -
ing conditions in the plant and trans
late the. union' response.
"I think it's wrong tbat the only
time the union wants to oold a meet
ing with the Vietnamese people is
when it needs their help," she aid.
YG
u
o
Reprin ed from Labor No
Anyone tudied 1 bor
. tory n that American unio
ere built on fOuOOation of anti
Asian raci m.
In the late nineteenth century, the
American Federation of Labor rose
to prominence with i campaigns to
"protect American job " by expell
ing all Chinese d Japanese im
migran .
During the next 100 yea , 1 bor·
le �ers-with very few excep
tions-lobbied to ban all immigra
tion from la, barred remaining
immigran from joining unio , and
led mob to beat, and sometim kill,
tho e who could not be banned,
barred, or expelled.
Even as recently as World War II,
union leaders-again, with very few
exceptions-agi tated for the eviction
and internment of J panese
Americans. .
Time have obviously changed.
Today, no unions exclude workers
on the b i of race, and some unions
are actively recruiting Asian-Pacific
members.
Yet the depth and intensity of
anti-Asian entiments--rooted as
they are in labor history-raise a
critical question: what legacy has this
racism left?
Perhaps. the best way to approach
thi question i from the perspective
of the newest Asian-Pacific workers:
the Vietnamese refugees in Southern
California.
. "We need help."
The man king for help, Keith
Skotnea, a UA W organizer as-
i&J1ed to help the local union at
Jonathan. He contac1ed me in late
TH
When Anh met with the Viet
nam e wor rs and local union of
ficial , he quickly learned about the
tti tude of labor to ards Ali n-
P cific people.
vote for the union. But if the union
wins, we want thin to change."
Three wee later, employee
voted by mall mar n to retain
were pan of the winning m [ority,
Perha the tory could conclude
with this happy ending. But thi
,
"I think it's wrong
that the only time
the union wants to
hold a meeting with
the Vietnamese
people is when it
needs their help"
Anh.Tran
"[The union Officials] did not
even want to listen to the Viet
namese," said Anh. "Only Keith
[Skotnes] was willing to listen, and
finally he had to tell the other offi
cials that they needed to hear what
the Vietnamese were saying. But
even then, they did not really listen.
"[The union officials] kept saying
the Vietnamese did not understand
the union and had to get more in
volved by learning English. But if
they reallt' listened, they would
know that the Vietnamese supported
the union but needed to know why
certain bad things had happened."
Anh learned that Vletnamese
were still puzzled by the settlement
of the strike three years earlier. No
union official had been ever told
them why the strike had been lost.
"We were out on the picket line
every day: one man told the offi
cials.
"We, the Vietnamese, stopped the
delivery trucks. And then one morn
ing, the union told us to go back to
work. And then later we found out
we had lost our health plan. We
wanted to keep on fighting. So why
did the union give up?"
Another man strongly criticized
the union officials for faiiing to help
not only the Vietnamese but also the
new Latino immigrants. "The super
visors give us and the Latinos the
worst jobs," he said. "We keep u
king for help, but nothing happem.
It seems that the union only helps
those woo speak English." ,
"We' Vietnamese," another man
added, "want to help the union. But
mostofusdon'tspeakmuchEnglish.
We want to go union meetings are
in English. Why can't the union
have a Vietnamese translator at the
meetings 0 we can participate?·
Throughout the disc ion, the
Vietnamese had many things to. say.
But none of the union officials
,
except for Skotnes, really listened.
Only on the critical decertifica
tion question did the officia listen
intently, and on this question tbey .
liked what they heard •
·We support the union," urn
marized one worker. "The company
bas made many promises, but we
don't trust the company. We will
story does not end here.
'NOTHING CHANGED'
Four months following the vic
tory, Anh Tran received an urgent
call from one of the Vietnamese
workers.
"I was ned last night," he told
her.
"My supervisor says I refused to
follow his orders and that I
threatened to hit him. It's not true!
So I went to the union said they can't
help me." .
Anh spent the afternoon frantical
ly trying to reach the man's union
representatives, but could not get
•
Ir
m re
non, he p
le med that e w
Skotnes d been
organizing campai hortly ter
the victory at Jonathan. Ho ever,
later th t evening Skot called
�'li tened to her tory, nd id be
would call the local union'
the following morning.
"Nothing seem to h ve
changed," aid Anh ftly. "The
union on the election, but now this
man is fired unj tly, nd be can't get
help."
Yet, due to Anh' intervention,
things did change slightly. The
union took up the fired worker'
case, filed a grievance, and won his
job back.
Aggre sively preparing the
grievance wa Tony, a young
Chicano hop teward who wor ed
with Vietnamese in the plant and
knew of their trong upport of the
union.
Vietnamese in the plant greeted
the new of the reinstatement and
applauded Tony's efforts. But they
also stressed that they were till wait
ing for an official re ponse to their
request for a translator at union meet
ings.
And 0 the story remains un
finished. For while Vietnamese
workers have won some victories,
they are till fighting to gain full
recognition and equality within their
own union ..
de nitely batbor reo
lan-Pacific peopl
e 0 to build their on. Perba
the stereo ypes due to their f -
norance bout ne immigran and
refu and their lac of day-to-day
con ct with ne communi . But
the problem rep n mething
deeper than individual racial at
titudes or ignorance. The problem i
rooted in history.
Rae m has always been a per
lve factor in American history,
aoo anti-Asian rae' m has been a
defining fe ture of American his
tory. Just we can only understand
American history by knowing about
the en lavement of African
American people, so can we only
unders tand the development of
American unions by knowing the.
legacy of tact m against Asian
Pacific peopl .
When we see labor history from
thi per pectlve, certain
"peculiarities" existing in unions
today become decipherable. We
begin to understand why unions in
Southern California have yet to hire
Asian-Pacific organizers despite the
growing numbers of immigrants and
refugees in thi re on' workforce.
We begin to understand why so
many union leaders have little
familiarity with 0 r communiti
d pite our presence in America for
nearly 150 years. We begin to real
ize the massive amount of education
we must do to remove the institu
tional barriers facing us.
As we approach the twenty-first
century, the time has long passed
when unions can exclude Asian
Pacific Amertcans, But the time i
yet to come when union will
embrace our peoples as isters and
brothers. .
Glen Omassu is a staff member of
tbe UCLA Asian American Studies
Center. He is a former Teamsters
chief shop stewarc( and a founding
member 0/ the Alliance of Asian
Pacific Labor, AFL-CIO.
HISTORY
Nearly a century has passed since
the American Federation of Labor
and its celebrated leader Samuel
Gompers launched campaigns to
expel, bar, and ometimes kill Asian
Pacific immigrant workers. Today,
most union leaders know nothing
about this history. Yet the legacy of
anti-Asian racism continues to in
fluence unions today.
Certainly UA W officials repre
senting Vietnamese workers at
Jonathan are not racists. But they
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