Dear Editor:
This is a response to Dennis Taylor’s Sept. 17 column regarding
Gilroy First! and, in general, to the assaults that have been
leveled against our union in your pages.
Dear Editor:
This is a response to Dennis Taylor’s Sept. 17 column regarding Gilroy First! and, in general, to the assaults that have been leveled against our union in your pages.
I am president of Local 428, United Food and Commercial Workers, AFL-CIO. We represent more than 9,000 grocery and other workers in Santa Clara County. About 400 of these members live in Gilroy and another 400 work in Gilroy. We are affiliated with the South Bay Labor Council, AFL-CIO, which represents just about all the 100,000 union members in the county.
We get involved in politics, too, encouraging local government to act in ways that are friendly to working families. Our members are citizens, taxpayers, Little League coaches and parents. They care about the environment, they care about jobs, housing, recreation – the whole range of public issues.
Columnist Dennis Taylor, and others, claim that Gilroy First! and organized labor have not acted in good faith, that we have hidden our partisan hand behind a veil of voter registration, education and get-out-the-vote activities.
These accusations center on a few real facts:
• Yes, we allowed Gilroy First! to use the Local 428 office in Gilroy to hold its first meeting or two. I confess that we also bought the pizza and soft drinks for the first few meetings.
• Yes, a Labor Council staff member, our own self-defined “computer geek,” volunteered to set up Gilroy First’s! Web site.
So what?
All Gilroy First meetings are open to the public. Their time, place and location are widely circulated. A Dispatch reporter was invited to the last meeting. Had you or anyone else attended, you would have seen a very mixed group of union members, small business owners, environmentalists and just plain ordinary citizens. You would have been offered a seat and a slice of union-purchased pizza. Your participation would have been welcome.
Gilroy First! has been forthcoming about where it stands on the issues. Its Statement of Principles emphasizes its interests – balanced growth, fiscal accountability, community services, and the environment. The statement criticizes the City Council majority, which I believe is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. It has been widely circulated.
The statement was signed by a number of Gilroy citizens. Some are members of our union. One is a paid staff member who has lived in Gilroy all his life and who believes that he had as much of a right as anyone to participate. Other signatories are independent citizens, environmentalists, and small business people. Three signers subsequently became candidates for city office.
Dennis Taylor, Russ Valiquette or anyone else could have read the Statement of Principles, and noticed the signers, when it was first circulated in July. You all could have attended a Gilroy First! meeting. You could have even made a phone call to check out what Gilroy First! is about. It’s not your fault that you had something else to do. But it’s not Gilroy First’s! fault either.
Local 428 openly and proudly supports Gilroy First! We routinely support organizations whose values and goals we share.
Gilroy First! is in the business of increasing participation in this community’s political life. It believes that a high voter turnout is good for the candidates it supports, and good for the community. We support Gilroy First! because we believe that our future – on Wal-Mart or any other issue – is best served by strong citizen participation in community affairs. We support other groups that work to increase registration and turnout. Indeed, we fear that the ruckus over Gilroy First! has been kicked up by folks who have a vested interest in keeping the voters at home.
It’s also no secret that our members – Democrats and Republicans – oppose the growth of Wal-Mart Supercenters. In Gilroy, this matter will ultimately be decided by the City Council. So, we quite logically and quite publicly have endorsed candidates who will stand with us on this issue. No surprises.
Let’s not treat the union as though it were some alien body. Our union has 400 members living in Gilroy, there’s probably another 800 members of other unions. We are proud of what we’ve achieved throughout Santa Clara County for our members and for this community. We have a right to express our opinions, we have a right to participate. We have not hidden our hand. We have acted fairly and openly.
After the success of last night’s candidates’ forum, I think its time that Mr. Russ Valiquette and others who have assaulted the integrity of Gilroy First! and this union admit the program was conducted very professionally, that all candidates were treated respectfully, that no one was sandbagged or ambushed. Indeed, it’s time to admit that all of Gilroy First’s! activities to date have been conducted impartially and fairly, and to give Gilroy First! credit for bring over 300 new voters – Democrats and Republicans by the way – into the mix.
Roger R. Rivera
President, UFCW Local 428
Submitted Thursday, Sept. 18 to
ed****@ga****.com
