"What can Labor do for itself? The answer is not difficult. Labor can organize, it can unify; it can consolidate its forces. This done, it can demand and command." – Eugene V. Debs
In Philadelphia, in 1794, shoemakers across the city banded together and formed the first labor union in the United States. You can more or less chart the grand arc of Philadelphia labor, and to a lesser degree national labor movements, from that point onward. Today, Philadelphia remains a proud union town. Its large port is home to the Longshoremen's Union, and from there the goods are loaded up into trucks by the Teamsters. The construction goods are then delivered to the Carpenters, the Pipefitters, the Plumbers, the Electricians-- all union --to build the schools for union teachers, and the factories for union assemblers. Union labor gets to and from work in buses and trains operated by union drivers. Union linesmen tend to the power grid and the telecommunications towers while union labor patches the roads. There are exceptions, of course, but in general terms if anything gets done in Philadelphia, it's done by a dues paying member of one of Philadelphia's hundreds of trade unions.
Behind every successful local politician is the support of a trade union. So much so that, over the years, numerous union heads have taken the fall for corruption, or for their ties to organized crime. Names like Jimmy Hoffa and Johnny Doc are synonymous with union corruption and graft, which just goes to show that bad things can spring up out of good ones. For the most part, the unions in Philadelphia ensure the working people of the city-- although admittedly predominantly the white and the male ones --enjoy good health benefits and stable, living wages. Two things Philadelphia's employers would absolutely love to do away with.
Rules and System
Status in a Philadelphia Union reflects how much pull you have within your local and beyond. It represents how much support you can generate for your cause, how much trouble you can cause at a job site, how easily you can call for a strike, or how slow or fast you can cause work to happen within the boundaries of safety. If you want to sway your fellow union members to back a politician, you use your status. If you want them to march in support of a cause, you use your status. In general, the more solidarity you have with your union, the more members know your name and reputation, the higher your status can become.
Status 1: Dues paying member
Status 2: Politically active member, Union foreman
Status 3: Union Delegate, Union Committee Member
Status 4: Union Committee Chair, Union Board Officer
Status 5: Union President
Joining the Sphere
Joining a union is a simple matter, if one exists for your trade. And failing that, the Industrial Workers of the World have a union for just about every occupation conceivable. If you pay your dues, you're in. It's just that easy. What happens from there, however, is entirely up to each individual worker. Is it enough for you to pay your dues, enjoy your health insurance and job protections? Or are you wanting more, determined to eek out more pay, better concessions, and safer working conditions?
Maybe you're a foreman looking out for those under you, or maybe you're a negotiator that wears a suit and tie to represent the interests of people who work in hard hats and work shirts. Maybe you're an attorney representing the union, or a union boss looking to turn your Local into the platform for a political career. Unions represent their members, and they find members from every walk of life. The sky's the limit, really.
There are no particular requirements for Union status beyond working in a given field and, presumably, having appropriate stats to represent that.
Theme and Society
Anti-union campaigns latch on to every story of union corruption as evidence that union dues are a waste. They try to push the point of view that unions limit competition, promote the laziness of some, and punish the dedication and hard work of others. It's an unhistorical and patently false narrative, of course, but it's been successful in keeping unions out of white collar sectors.
Where developers can't union bust, they resort to hiring non-union labor. This has contributed to numerous accidents in and around the city of Philadelphia. In 2013, a non-union work site demolishing a building for a local land developer caused a wall to collapse onto an occupied adjoining building, killing numerous people. The city inspector who granted the work permit committed suicide, and the land developer washed his hands of the whole affair, pinning the blame on the city. The crane operator, who tested positive for drug use, was charged with manslaughter. Meanwhile, the development of the lot continued almost without incident.
Then you have incidents like the indictment of Johnny 'Doc' Dougherty, caught up in corruption investigation that toppled members of the city council and union leaders across the Delaware Valley. Men like Johnny Doc use their unions as unmonitored checking accounts, funding the campaigns of political allies and leveraging their support for contracts for the developer cronies. It's a seedy circle of profiteering that has proven difficult to break up without federal involvement, further tarnishing the reputations of Philadelphia's local unions.
So what's your story? Are you another working stiff just looking to make a good life for yourself and your family? Or are you one of the ones sick of simply getting by who are now determined to get what's rightfully yours, damn the consequences?
