IF OCAW DELEGATES to the Jan. 4-5, 1999 convention 
vote to merge with the United Paperworkers International 
Union (UPIU), they will be combining with an organization 
that has taken an aggressive stance on organizing,
environmental justice and cross-border solidarity. 
     Since his election to the UPIU presidency in Sept.
1996, Boyd Young has championed the need for UPIU to
became an even stronger union through organizing. 
     He personally knows the ins and outs of organizing,
having been an organizer for the International in the
mid-1970s. During this time, he participated in a host of
organizing wins at Houston-area paper industry
converters, and brought unionization to woodlands,
newsprint and other east Texas workers. 
     Young's long-term goal is for the UPIU to organize
6,000 new members a year and spend 15 percent of its
budget on organizing. Under the proposed merger
constitution, a minimum of $.50-per-month out of each
member's dues will go toward bringing in new members.
Young expects this figure to increase as organizing gains
in importance. 
     "We and other unions simply became too
service-oriented and forgot where worker power really
comes from," Young said.'We will accept organizing as our
top priority, and many of our servicing staff will be
given the responsibility to organize. We are diffusing
the message throughout our union that organizing is
everyone's responsibility." 
     UPIU is enacting this commitment to organizing by
enlisting the aid of Richard Bensinger, the former AFL-
CIO director of organizing and founder of the Organizing
Institute. Bensinger has acted as a consultant on UPIU's
development of a new organizing structure and has held
several sessions with UPIU staffers on organizing. 
     The latest training, held Oct. 27-28, focused on
setting priorities for targeting, developing campaign
strategies, training member-organizers and using existing
UPIU locals in an area to serve as a platform for further
organizing in the region. OCAW Organizing Director
Richard Leonard and UPIU Organizing Technical Director
Dick Blin assisted in the training for the dozen UPIU
organizers. 
     To get across the message that organizing is the
responsibility of all members, the UPIU has created a
training program for member-organizers. Based on the
premise that workers talking to workers yields the most
organizing wins, the training includes several one-on-one
communications exercises on building the union's message;
how to analyze targets and develop a strong in-plant
committees and methods to "inoculate" workers when they
encounter their company's anti-union messages.
     Member-organizers played a key role in UPIU
obtaining an organizing win at Shepherd Tissue Inc. in
Memphis, Tenn., and in building an activist network to
gain a first contract. The union also enlisted the help
of an association of Memphis ministers and a prominent
county commissioner to persuade the company to come to
the bargaining table. 
     Other recent organizing wins have included a unit of
258 home health aides in New Jersey and a group of Head
Start teachers and support staff in eastern Washington
State.

Environmental Justice
     Like OCAW, the UPIU is concerned with environmental
justice issues. it currently is fighting the state of
Arizona's granting of an air permit to the Arizona
Portland Cement, Inc. plant in Rillito, Ariz.
     The company terminated UPIU Local 30296' s contract
last february after members conducted a well-publicized
informational picket. The union and the company had been
in negotiations since August 1997 to replace the existing
three-year contract, which expired Sept. 20, 1997.
     Environmental problems at the plant have concerned
both the workers and the community. Together with Rillito
resident Jesse McKnight, the union, in addition, has
filed an environmental injustice complaint with the
Environmental Protection Agency. They say the Arizona
Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) "fasttracked" its
approval of the air permit, and that the granting of the
permit violates the Constitution, the Civil Rights Act,
President Clinton's executive order on environmental
justice and EPA rules. 
     According to the complaint, over 50 percent of the
residents who live near the cement plant are people of
color. 
     "This is a small, poor community with many migrant
workers and older people," said McKnight, 58, who is a
retiree and has lived in Rillito for 50 years."The
Portland Cement plant dumps on us." 
     "Winter rains can leave cement on our cars and
everything," he said. "At times the dust and smoke is
just thick." 
     The air permit granted to Arizona Portland Cement
would allow the company to expand its cement-production
capacity by 84 percent. 
     In September 1998 the UPIU filed a state appeal of
the permit to the Arizona Air Pollution Hearing Board
arguing that the permit was illegally "fast-tracked" and
fails to meet Federal Clean Air Act standards. 
     "The company data for the permit attempts to show
the proposed plant expansion will increase pollutant
emissions to Levels just short of those which trigger
greater scrutiny, federal oversight and more costly
pollution controls," said UPIU Communications Director
Keith Romig. "We believe the company's numbers are
faulty."
     Workers are also concerned about two waste pits
Arizona Portland Cement used in the 1970s and 1980s to
dump hazardous substances. Local 30296 filed charges with
the National Labor Relations Board in January 1998 over
the company's withholding of information about the
toxins.
     "We demand to know what's in there so we can be sure
we have the right safety equipment when we work around
the stuff," said Bill Boyett, Local 30296 president.

Cross-border solidarity 
     NAFTA has taken its toll on UPIU members in the
auto-parts industry. Auto supplier Dana Corp., which
purchased Echlin Inc. last summer, plans to cut 3,500
jobs and close 15 plants. 
     Many U.S. auto suppliers are moving their plants to
Mexico. But instead of blaming Mexican workers for losing
their jobs, UPIU members are forging bonds with them and
supporting them in their efforts to obtain independent
unions free of government influence and corruption. 
     The union has sponsored worker-exchanges and
cross-border organizing in Mexico, centered around two
companies in the automotive supply industry - Breed
Technologies (which owns a UPIU-represented facility in
Grabill, Ind.) and Dana Corp. (where UPIU has about 3,500
members in four of the company's plants).
     Dana Corp. reportedly has failed to stop the violent
suppression of its Mexican workers. Supporters of an
independent union at its Itapsa brake plant near Mexico
City were intimidated and attacked by supporters from the
corrupt official union, Confederacion de Trabajadoras
Mexicanos (CTM). 
     To expose NAFTA's weaknesses and support workers
organizing in Mexico, UPIU and other major unions and
human rights groups in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico formed
the Echlin Workers Alliance (now called Dana). The
alliance filed a complaint under the NAFTA labor side
agreement in December 1997 with the U.S. Dept. of Labor
about the violence and threats to the Echlin workers.
This resulted in an eight-month investigation and report,
which substantiated the charges against Echlin.
     The alliance also has filed a complaint under the
NAFTA side-accord in Canada. Four Mexican workers
testified in September about the health and safety
conditions at the Itapsa automotive plant. One worker
told of pervasive sexual harassment at Mexican
facilities. 
     UPIU is hopeful that with the Dana Workers Alliance
there will eventually be coordinated bargaining and
organizing throughout the company's chain. This
international solidarity combats multinationals' "race to
the bottom" in wages, benefits, working conditions,
health and safety, and environmental regulations.