Brothers and Sisters,

Before I begin, I wanted to say “thank you” again for giving me the opportunity to represent all of you.  It is the honor of my life to be in this position as your Manager, and I want you to know that I never take that support for granted.  I came here to work, to protect, to grow, and collectively fight for who we are and what we have as a local union.  I know firsthand, like so many of us do, what UA Local 393 does.  How this union changes lives for the better, and changes the lives of our families.

It is why when we accept applications into our apprenticeship, we have some seven hundred people apply.  It is also why large real estate developers with money, power, and political connections seek to eliminate us. They try to destroy us paying a worker a good wage to build and service their buildings, because that comes between them and their bottom line.  I’ve said this before, I do not like politics, but we do not have a choice as an organization and a membership to not be engaged.  When these same developers, or the ABC (our non-union counterparts) are the ones writing the rules we live and work under, we lose. The only chance we have as workers is to be the ones setting those rules.

We will do that by being tough, tenacious, and together.  As has been written in the history books and reiterated by other labor leaders before me, the Huns, the fierce warriors of the 4th and 5th centuries, beat the Romans, conquered Asia, conquered Europe, and battled together, wiping out every enemy that stood in their path and they did that by fighting together.  There is an ocean of work out there that we can conquer and put our members to work on.  We will never have the money that our enemies have, but we have our numbers, and that is our power.

That is why we have created our “Campaign for a Secure Future”.  It is building real power for our membership to help ensure we have work in boom times and lean times.  If we are organized, as a membership, we can and will affect whether work is built and serviced union or non-union.  This process will not happen overnight.  I know we will also make mistakes in this process, but we cannot let fear of a mistake stop us from protecting and fighting for our trade and our families.

In solidarity,

Bill Guthrie
Business Manager, UA Local Union 393