Wayne Holland Jr of Utah is PAC Member of the Quarter
January 05, 2009
Wayne Holland Jr., a USW staff representative for Utah and northern Nevada, has a stellar track record in recruiting for Political Action Committees. How does he do it?
Knowing that PACs and the funds they raise play a key role in the USW’s ongoing activism on behalf of working people and their families, Holland asks members to sign up at the one occasion where he knows the attendance will be good - contract ratification meetings.
“It’s the only time I get the vast majority of members together. It’s an opportunity you can’t pass up,’’ said Holland, a third generation copper miner and political activist.
Politics, bargaining mesh
Contract ratification meetings are a good place to explain how the political and bargaining environments often mesh since the members expect to hear about the bargaining obstacles faced during the negotiations.
“Steelworker members never fail to step up to the plate and engage in the battle once they have a clear challenge and understand that the bargaining environment is directly affected by the political environment,” Holland said.
Health care is a prime example. Maintaining affordable coverage is a constant struggle as employers push for workers to pay more of the costs and move work to other countries to avoid the expense.
“We can’t solve that at the bargaining table,’’ said Mike Scarver, the USW’s PAC Coordinator. “The only way we’re going to be able to fix the health care mess is through the legislative process. If we can get the right people elected, we can make the problem go away.”
Holland was involved in five separate contract negotiations last year and said he was able to improve PAC participation at every one of those locations. On two different occasions, Holland said more members signed PAC cards than actually voted to ratify the proposed agreements, although in both cases the agreements were approved by comfortable margins.
In Holland’s view, it is a disservice to members to not use ratification meetings to discuss how bargaining successes and political successes intertwine.
“Asking members to be part of the solution so they are not part of the problem should be a natural part of every ratification meeting,” Holland said.
Stepping up at Dugway
At the Dugway Proving Ground, a U.S. Army facility 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, USW members negotiated PAC check-off language for the first time and agreed overwhelmingly to participate in the political fundraising.
PAC sign-up cards were distributed along with contract ratification ballots, Holland said, and 68 out of 78 members agreed to participate by pledging at least $1 a week. Seven members pledged $120 a year.
There are often fears that discussing PAC contributions at the contract ratification will have a negative impact. But Holland said those worries are usually unfounded.
“I still find staff reluctance,” he said. “But the ratification vote is going to go the way it is. You can’t pass up the opportunity to encourage the membership.”
Working family roots
Holland, 50, was born into a working family and raised in a mining community where most of the residents on his street worked for the Kennecott Copper Mine. He joined the union 30 years ago while working for Kennecott during summer breaks from college.
He was interested in politics at an early age. By age 6, he was helping his father, a union miner, put up political signs at intersections where workers would pass.
“I remember governor’s races and U.S. Senate races, putting signs in my dad’s old 58 Chevy pickup,” he said. “I’d hold them while they pounded.”
At 10, he was painting banners for Democrat Hubert Humphrey, and at 23, he was named the western director of Frontlash, an outreach program for young Americans that was funded by the AFL-CIO.
He then worked as a regional community relations director for the AFL-CIO before joining the USW as a staff representative in 1995.
“I guess looking back, it’s always been in my blood,’’ he said.
For more information about how you can get involved in PAC, contact Mike Scarver at 412-562-2342 or mscarver@usw.org.
Political Action Committees and the funds they raise play a key role in the USW's ongoing activism on behalf of working people and their families.
