en español aquí

I would like to announce my candidacy for Vice President of IUPAT LU 10. I currently serve as a delegate for DC5. I chair the Volunteer Activists Committee as well as the Contract Negotiation Sub-Committee, which was a key factor in helping get rid of binding arbitration in the painters’ master area agreement. I have had the privilege to serve on the Executive Board for two terms. In those two terms I wrote the language to help establish the Local 10 MASH Fund. I pushed to get the contracts translated into Spanish. I have also been a delegate to the Oregon AFL-CIO State Convention three times. In 2015, I brought a resolution to mobilize union power against “Right to Work” and fought for it on the floor of the convention. I have proudly represented Local 10 at labor events and actions including our union’s contingent in May Day for many years.

We as a union and as a whole labor movement are facing tough times ahead. We need a strategy for labor that will carry forward efforts to organize the unorganized, unite against the bosses across craft lines and against attempts to use racism and sexism to divide us, and break the chains that tie labor to the Democratic Party, as our local did when we voted to not support the Democrats, the Republicans, or any party of the bosses. As the Vice President of Local 10, I have carried forward with that strategy, both working to organize unorganized painters at Edwards Painting, and supporting unionization efforts at Burgerville.

This year on May Day, our slogan was “Defend Immigrants, Break with the Democrats and Republicans, For a Class Struggle Workers Party”. Our local has taken the lead in pushing to use the power of labor to defend immigrants, mobilize against fascists and white supremacists, and stand up to anti-worker legislation. It’s no secret that we are under broad attack – from the employers, the government and other reactionary forces – and we have to fight back. We have the power not just to resist these attacks, but defeat them on the way to bringing the workers to power.

 In Solidarity,

Brother Wyatt McMinn