Now that we are merged, we must begin a process of self-examination wherein we develop our own vision for PACE.

Your new Executive Board, along with the new Rank and File Advisory Board, must begin an intensive dialogue to realize our identity and chart our own course for the future.

My dear friend Bob Wages and I agreed on one thing at the beginning of our merger talks, and that was we would not merge simply to become bigger. We agreed that we would only pursue merger if it would result in a stronger, more dynamic union. That must carry over to the PACE mission statement. We may never be the biggest union, but we can be the best - and that should be our objective.

You see, old unionism is satisfied to merely represent its membership; new unionism strives to become the best representative for its membership.

I believe there are five core principles that will make PACE the best industrial union with its own standards that follow its own path. These core principles are: listen, embrace, educate, organize and grow.

LISTEN: First we must listen to our membership. After all, this is your Union and those of us fortunate enough to work for you are temporary occupants in our positions.

In the fall of this year and for the first time in our 114-year history, the UPIU polled its membership.

We learned who you are in terms of age, race, and sex, but we also learned how you rate your union in terms of organizing, political action and bargaining needs. Through you, we also learned a lot about ourselves. We learned that we were doing a lot of things right and we also learned through you that we were doing some things wrong - which will be changed.

You see, only through self-analysis can we become the best union for our membership. To be sure, old unionism governs by crisis and reaction and new unionism governs with vision and pro-action.

EMBRACE: We must embrace our members' needs. Our polls told us that retirement and pension issues are the most important job-related issues for our membership. I agree. It is a crime that a worker could devote 30 years of his or her life to an employer and retire with less than $1,000 a month. That must change.

We also must embrace challenge. What some call unavoidable effects of a global economy, we must embrace as an opportunity for global solidarity that will strengthen worker rights worldwide.

In the process, we must be angry that the average CEO makes, be mindful that I did not say earns, over 200 times what the average worker makes.

We must become angry that our country doles our millions of dollars in corporate welfare while one in five children in America lives in poverty.

We should be angry that American workers are losing their jobs because of NAFTA - Fast Track - and environmental regulations, without any protection for the workers. Bob Wages has been the strongest voice calling for a just transition for displaced workers which includes training and wage payments during transition.

EDUCATE: Our Peter Hart survey revealed that our younger members do not understand the history and heritage of the American labor movement and the need to organize.

We cannot expect our younger members to go into battle without arming them with a basic understanding of unionism.

We must also educate the misguided employer by proving what we already know, and that is a unionized workforce, properly motivated and empowered, adds value and can out-produce any worker in the world, including their domestic counterpart.

Employers today have three options when it comes to unions. I call it their three "F's" - Fight, Flight or Foster.

If they choose fight, we must be in a position to punish them, and I believe that PACE will be in that position.

If they choose flight, we must track them down no matter where they go, and punish them.

If they choose foster, we must be in a position to reward them with the most productive worker in the world.

ORGANIZE: Anyone who has heard me speak since I became President, has heard me say that we must change to organize. You see, labor only has two options, organize or die. As far as PACE is concerned, we are going to be one of the survivors; we are going to organize.

For our new union to remain where we are today in terms of membership, we must organize 7,000 new members every year forever.

We will train and arm rank and file organizers. When we have a campaign in an area, we will bring out those rank and file organizers to work on the campaign for the International Union.

In the future, when we have a need to hire staff, we will hire the rank and file organizer who made a contribution. Never again will we hire a person to be a representative or to any other position, simply because they are related to us or to return a political favor. Our members deserve better than that.

GROW: We will grow through organizing, but we must also grow through additional mergers. As your International President, I commit to you that I will continue to pursue merger options with those unions worth of our time and effort.

OCAW Reporter, January-February 1999