IUPAT Local 10

Saturday, December 9: Labor’s Fight to Free Mumia

Class Struggle Workers flier, forum , , ,

Labor’s Fight to Free Mumia
Saturday, December 9 2023 at 2pm

Musicians Local 99
325 NE 20th Avenue Portland, OR 97232

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Now!

Painters Union Local 10 invites you to an educational forum on the fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and the history of working-class struggle against racist police repression. Workers strikes and protest mobilizations have helped to save Mumia, an innocent man, from America’s racist death penalty. Now the power of the workers movement must be unleashed to free our brother, who has been behind bars since 1982.

RSVP for more information: freemumiapdx@eml.cc

Vote Wyatt M. & Alex G. for Delegates from Local 10

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As members of Local 10, our record speaks for itself. We have taken the lead on standing up to the contractors when they tried to grab for our pension, building for a strike and organizing our co-workers. We have served on several committees, including the contract committee. Now painters’ hands aren’t tied by “binding arbitration.” We served on the Volunteer Activist committee, and the Anti-racist Mobilization committee, where we were able to mobilize our local to oppose the “Patriot Prayer” fascists.

We have supported translation, both for union meetings and for apprenticeship classes, because our Spanish speaking sisters and brothers are the life blood of our local and should have no barrier to full education, promotion, and participation in our union. Wyatt fought for years to get our contracts translated into Spanish. Finally, they are.

We also stand on the slogan “An Injury to One is an Injury to All”. All workers are our sisters and brothers, and any attack on workers rights is an attack on our rights. We need to build workers defense guards to stand up to racist and fascist groups. We stand for women’s rights, the right to free childcare, and in defense of abortion rights. We need to tear down divisions between the trades. A picket line means don’t cross. We are for massive united action of all the trades against the bosses.

We need to break with the Democrats, the Republicans, and all parties of the bosses and build real class struggle workers party. We need to untie our hands and fight to win.

Vote on Saturday, June 8, any time from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at any of three locations:

Local 10 hall, 11105 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97220

Best Western, 3125 Ryan Dr. SE, Salem, OR 97301

Plumbers & Pipefitters 290 Training Center, 2861 Pierce Parkway, Springfield, OR 97477

Only Vote For Class-Struggle Candidates!

IUPAT Local 10 Condemns Attack on Union Activists in Oaxaca, Mexico

Quote Class Struggle Workers resolution , , , ,

On May 16 Painters and Drywall Finishers IUPAT Local 10 approved the following Statement in Solidarity With Dr. Arturo Villalobos and Patricia Méndez, and against the brutal attack on their son, Nizván. Click here for more information on the international campaign against this atrocity.

Statement of Solidarity with Arturo Villalobos and his Family: On May 7, 2018, thugs entered the home of prominent labor leaders Dr. Arturo Villalobos and Patricia Méndez in Oaxaca, Mexico where they tortured and beat the couple’s adolescent son Nizván, leaving him unconscious. Dr. Villalobos is an opposition leader among health workers and recently was a leader of a two-month work stoppage by Oaxaca medical personnel against the Mexican government’s privatizing “reform” of the public health system. Dr. Villalobos has repeatedly been the object of threats of repression and arrest orders ever since leading the action of doctors and other health workers who defied a government cordon to bring medical assistance to the over 100 surviving victims of the June 19, 2016 police massacre in Nochixtlán, Oaxaca during a hard-fought teachers strike. From the 2014 “disappearance” of 43 teachers college students of Ayotzinapa to the massacre of residents of Nochixtlán to this latest attack on a teenager, behind it all one can see the hand of the Mexican government. Arturo Villalobos is a prominent spokesman in Oaxaca for the Grupo Internacionalista, which has been the object of physical aggression for its opposition to all parties of the bosses, particularly during the current election campaign. IUPAT Local 10 joins with trade-unionists, left and social activists and defenders of democratic rights in denouncing the vile crime perpetrated against 16-year-old Nizván Villalobos Méndez, and declares our steadfast solidarity with Dr. Arturo Villalobos and Patricia Méndez. An injury to one is an injury to all!
Click here for a PDF version.

On May 7, 2018, thugs entered the home of prominent labor leaders Dr. Arturo Villalobos and Patricia Méndez in Oaxaca, Mexico where they tortured and beat the couple’s adolescent son Nizván, leaving him unconscious. Dr. Villalobos is an opposition leader among health workers and recently was a leader of a two-month work stoppage by Oaxaca medical personnel against the Mexican government’s privatizing “reform” of the public health system. Dr. Villalobos has repeatedly been the object of threats of repression and arrest orders ever since leading the action of doctors and other health workers who defied a government cordon to bring medical assistance to the over 100 surviving victims of the June 19, 2016 police massacre in Nochixtlán, Oaxaca during a hard-fought teachers strike.

From the 2014 “disappearance” of 43 teachers college students of Ayotzinapa to the massacre of residents of Nochixtlán to this latest attack on a teenager, behind it all one can see the hand of the Mexican government. Arturo Villalobos is a prominent spokesman in Oaxaca for the Grupo Internacionalista, which has been the object of physical aggression for its opposition to all parties of the bosses, particularly during the current election campaign.

IUPAT Local 10 joins with trade-unionists, left and social activists and defenders of democratic rights in denouncing the vile crime perpetrated against 16-year-old Nizván Villalobos Méndez, and declares our steadfast solidarity with Dr. Arturo Villalobos and Patricia Méndez.  An injury to one is an injury to all!

In solidarity,
Membership present and voting at the May 16, 2018 regular local meeting.

Wyatt McMinn para vicepresidente, IUPAT Local 10

Class Struggle Workers elections, en español , ,

English version here

Wyatt at work
Wyatt trabajando

Quiero anunciar mi candidatura a la vicepresidencia del Local 10 de nuestro sindicato, el IUPAT (pintores y drywaleros). Actualmente, soy delegado al consejo regional de la unión (DC 5). Soy presidente del comité de activistas voluntarios (VAC) en el Local 10, y formo parte de la subcomisión de negociación del contrato. Esta última fue fundamental para liberar a los pintores del arbitraje obligatorio que estipulaba el contrato. He tenido el privilegio de cumplir dos mandatos en la junta directiva de nuestro Local. En ese tiempo formulé la propuesta para establecer el MASH Fund (fondo de asistencia para los miembros). Impulsé la traducción de los contratos colectivos al español. Además, he sido elegido tres veces como delegado al congreso estatal de la AFL-CIO. En el congreso de 2015, presenté y defendí la moción para movilizar el poder sindical contra el falsamente llamado “derecho al trabajo” (“right to work”). Representé con orgullo a nuestro sindicato en varios eventos y actividades sindicales, como nuestro contingente en el Primero de Mayo, desde hace muchos años.

Como sindicato y como movimiento obrero enfrentamos tiempos difíciles. Esto exige una estrategia para organizar a los no organizados, para unirnos a través de las divisiones gremiales contra los patrones, para oponernos a todo intento de dividirnos mediante el racismo y el sexismo, y para romper las cadenas que nos atan al partido Demócrata, como hizo nuestro Local cuando resolvimos no dar ningún apoyo a los demócratas ni republicanos, ni a ningún partido de los patrones. Como vicepresidente del Local 10, he apoyado esta estrategia, trabajando para organizar a los pintores no sindicalizados de Edwards Painting y apoyando la campaña de organización sindical en Burgerville.

El Primero de Mayo de este año nuestra consigna fue “defender a los inmigrantes, romper con los demócratas y republicanos, forjar un partido obrero de lucha clasista”. Nuestro Local se ha puesto en la primera fila al impulsar la política de usar el poder de la clase obrera para defender a los inmigrantes, movilizarse contra los fascistas y supremacistas blancos y oponerse a la legislación anti-laboral. No es secreto que nos encontramos bajo ataque – del parte de los patrones, el gobierno y otras fuerzas reaccionarias – y hay que resistir. Tenemos en nuestras manos el poder no solo para resistir estos ataques, sino para derrotarlos, en el camino a que la clase obrera llegue al poder.

En solidaridad,

Wyatt McMinn

Wyatt McMinn for Vice President, IUPAT Local 10

Class Struggle Workers elections , ,

en español aquí

Wyatt at work
Wyatt at work

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

Painters Local 10 forms anti-racist mobilization committee

Quote Class Struggle Workers report , , ,

At the monthly membership meeting March 15, Painters and Drywall Finishers IUPAT Local 10 voted to establish an anti-racist mobilization committee, joining similar efforts in other local unions to prepare to put into practice the resolution to “Stop the KKK and All Racist Groups.” This comes in the context of increasing racist and fascist threats across the Northwest, including the arson of a mosque in Bellevue, WA in January to the appearance of fascist graffiti in Portland earlier this month.

We reprint below the statement of the newly-elected chairman of the Local 10 committee, a journeyman painter with many years in the industry.

Sisters and Brothers, we are bound by oath to oppose racism within our ranks wherever and whenever. Our Constitution states:

To unite into one labor organization all workers eligible for membership, regardless of religion, race, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, or sexual orientation

We also have an non-negotiable moral duty to extend this oath to our brothers and sisters outside our ranks. Not only is this a moral duty but also a clear opportunity to strengthen Union ranks and reverse the slow poisoning of our Institution. Racism past and present has driven a wedge between all workers which severally weakens the power of a united front (the basic fundamental factor in organized labor). It only serves to benefit those that profit from our labor and consolidate the corrupt power of corporate America. We must grab this opportunity presented to us by the current political climate of heightened racism and put all our institutional support behind the anti-racist movement. Both the labor and anti-racist struggle are inextricably intertwined. None should take priority. We as Union will reap huge benefit from fighting and finally eradicating racism. I will go as far to say that our very survival depends on it.

In light of this urgency, I here by purpose that we form our own Anti-Racist Mobilization committee. A committee that will stand shoulder to shoulder with other Anti-Fascist Committees formed by our brothers and sisters of different  trade unions. We will work to encourage fellow Unions to adopt the same principles and fight, we will reach out to all those organizations that have taken up this struggle in solidarity,  we will mobilize to support those who are increasingly under attack by racist elements, and we will show by example that Union brothers and sisters have the moral fortitude to not shrink from an oath bound duty.

Portland Painters and Drywall Finishers Say: Mobilize Labor to Stop the KKK and All Racist Groups

Class Struggle Workers resolution , , , , ,

Mobilize Labor to Stop the KKK Whereas, there has been a sharp increase in racist and anti-immigrant attacks across the country in recent days, and Whereas, the Ku Klux Klan has announced it would stage menacing provocations in many areas, and Whereas, the KKK and other racist organizations represent a deadly threat to African Americans, Latinos and immigrants, as well as to Muslim, LGBTQ, and Jewish people, among many others, and directly to the members of this Union and the labor movement as a whole. Whereas, the white supremacist forces are related to the origins of anti-labor “right to work” law in order to destroy unions because they believed unions would lead to “race mixing” among workers, and Whereas unions are considered a threat to the KKK and other racist organizations because they are a working class defense organization for all workers in the community. Therefore be it resolved that the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Local Union 10 stands ready to join with the community in mobilizing against the clear and present danger that the KKK and other racist organizations provocations pose to us all. Resolution approved by the membership of Local 10 at the monthly membership meeting on November 16th, 2016 at Portland, OR.
Painters and Drywall Finishers IUPAT Local 10 resolution: Mobilize Labor to Stop the KKK. Click to download printable version

CSWP calls on labor organizations to follow Local 10’s lead and prepare to defend immigrants, Blacks, Muslims and all the oppressed against racist attacks and provocations. Disponible aquí en español.

Mobilize Labor to Stop the KKK

Whereas, there has been a sharp increase in racist and anti-immigrant attacks across the country in recent days, and

Whereas, the Ku Klux Klan has announced it would stage menacing provocations in many areas, and

Whereas, the KKK and other racist organizations represent a deadly threat to African Americans, Latinos and immigrants, as well as to Muslim, LGBTQ, and Jewish people, among many others, and directly to the members of this Union and the labor movement as a whole.

Whereas, the white supremacist forces are related to the origins of anti-labor “right to work” law in order to destroy unions because they believed unions would lead to “race mixing” among workers, and

Whereas unions are considered a threat to the KKK and other racist organizations because they are a working class defense organization for all workers in the community.

Therefore be it resolved that the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Local Union 10 stands ready to join with the community in mobilizing against the clear and present danger that the KKK and other racist organizations provocations pose to us all.

Resolution approved by the membership of Local 10 at the monthly membership meeting on November 16th, 2016 at Portland, OR.