Labor Leader of the Week: Walt Friedrich, SMWIA Local 19

Walt Friedrich is a Business Agent for SMWIA Local 19 and Secretary Treasurer of the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council.  SMWIA Local 19 has 4,700 members in Philadelphia, the Southeast, and the Central Region.

Friedrich is a third generation member of the SMWIA. In 1984 he started his apprenticeship with SMWIA Local 19 just two years out of high school.  It was as an apprentice that he realized the important connection between politics and the daily lives of union members and became involved with the local’s political program.

“I saw that a lot of times the union, in its involvement in political campaigns, was helping union and non-union workers by staying strong, keeping everyone together, and electing officials that know and recognize our issues.”

One of the biggest issues for working families this year is the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.  In 2000 Friedrich was offered a position as a full time organizer for SMWIA Local 19 in Harrisburg, which informs his views about the importance of the Employee Free Choice Act.  “Today when we help workers form unions and seek recognition from the company we get turned down or ignored.  Then we have to file for an National Labor Relations Board-sanctioned election and in the mean time the company can wage an anti-workers campaign that scares and intimidates the workers.”

“This is why the Employee Free Choice Act is so important.  It will give working people a fair chance at forming unions and negotiating with the company.  The Employee Free Choice Act will make it easier for that first contract to become a reality,” said Friedrich. “My local is doing everything it can for the Employee Free Choice Act by collecting signatures for the Million Member Mobilization Petition.  We pass out the petition at local meetings and hand it out to members to take home and back to the work place.  The Million Member Mobilization Petition is important for the labor movement to grow our numbers and send the message that we want workers to have the freedom to form a union if that is what they want.”

Friedrich emphasized that for his members the most important issues, like the Employee Free Choice Act, all come back to their pocket books.  “My members are concerned about the cost of gas.  They have to travel to worksites and are actually turning down work because it might now cost them $100 to get to a worksite when it used to cost $20.  In addition the cost of heating their homes is going up and people have to make tough decisions between groceries and heat.  And healthcare is always a big concern.  The cost of healthcare keeps going up and it seems like every time we get a wage increase it just goes towards the rising cost of healthcare.”

“We really can’t afford another four years like what we have been going through.  John McCain is just more of the same.  There are no jobs being created in this country right now and everything is going up except our wages.  It is time for a change and I know Barack Obama is the right candidate for the labor movement.  We need to get our members involved and get him elected this year to save our jobs and the future of the labor movement as we know it.”