Photo by Herald Grandstaff

Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez

The GCIU must get the message across to members that political action both local and national becomes more and more important as the printing industry moves toward globalization, GCIU Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez told the Graphic Communicator.

Martinez, who chairs the General Board Legislative Committee and is the International's political point-man, said that many GCIU members still fail to see the need to raise money and manpower to elect worker-friendly candidates in the United States and Canada.

"We have never been known as a political player. That means we don't have the influence we need to protect our interests in a changing global economy," he noted.

Many other unions which are more involved in political action have much more influence over legislation that affects their members, he added. That is why it is vital to the future of the GCIU for members to support the GCIU Political Action Fund (PAF) with their dollars and by volunteering time to help candidates in their localities.

Martinez took time for a wide-ranging discussion about why it behooves the GCIU to get more involved as a political player.

Graphic Communicator: Could you tell us what lies ahead in politics in the year 2002 and beyond?

Martinez: I think in the United States we have an excellent chance of holding the U.S. Senate and keeping a majority on the side of working families, as well as winning some congressional seats.

A good example is that the conservatives were talking about Texas giving them a major gain about seven seats. However, with the way the redistricting turned out, it looks like it is going to be a draw. In other words, instead of losing seats, we may be able to maintain the Texas congressional seats we have. And in Georgia, we have another state where we are sure we can win at least two seats and possibly four seats.

There are possibilities in my home state of Colorado, including a run for Congress by my wife Ramona Martinez. There is a redistricting court case in Colorado that is reviewing the makeup of the congressional districts. The current make-up is four Republicans and two Democrats, but it looks like we can gain a seat there if things turn out as expected.

The problem is that, because of the population shift in the census, industrialized states like Michigan are losing seats. We are losing congressional friends like David Bonior, whose district is being eliminated. So, he has chosen to run for governor.

By the way, speaking of gubernatorial races, I can look back happily to the victories of Jim McGreevy in New Jersey and Mark Warner in Virginia. The wins against big-money conservative opponents were because of strong labor support both with money and manpower. Labor played a big part. All unions, including our own, worked very hard in both of those elections.

Both of those governors-elect know what the unions did to get them into office, and I am sure they will remember their debt to workers and their families.

GC: So, you think that the prospects are good for the Democrats to keep the Senate and pick up some seats in the House?

LM: Right. The problem that we have is that the conservatives mobilize money. The Republicans will outspend us, as they always have in the past, by no less than 15 to 1. We can't compete with them. Corporations give them big money to gain influence. We need to raise as much as we can to help those candidates who pledge to help working Americans and their families. We need the people, our members, and their dollars. Although we cannot hope to match the corporate support of conservative candidates, we can sure make a big impact on elections.

GC: What about the situation in Canada?

LM: Many of the provinces in Canada are very conservative. We have more liberal provinces, but most are pretty conservative. It is important that we spend money in those areas to make sure that we get the right people elected to support legislation that helps our members and their families.

For the information of our Canadian members, it is important for them to know that all the money that is raised through our Political Action Fund in Canada stays in Canada to help them win better representation in provincial and local elections.

GC: Do you think that the war we are fighting against terrorism in Afghanistan and around the world will help President Bush and the Republican party in the upcoming 2002 elections in the U.S.?

LM: I think the majority of the feeling among both Democrats and Republicans is that the president has handled this situation very well, but I don't think that it has any partisanship. When this country is attacked, the country comes together. I think that national solidarity will continue regardless who we elect.

The concerns that I have is that the war will be over and domestic policy is as important as anything else that we deal with. Right now, they are talking about presenting the president with five various plans to change Social Security four of them would privatize it. Again, this indicates how important it is to elect the right people so that we can protect our future benefits and those of our senior citizens.

As the stock market has shown, those with investments have not done well during this downturn in the economy.

GC: Social Security is a major difference between conservative Republicans, who want to privatize it and Democrats who want to safeguard the system. What about other differences, like President Bush's rejection of other worker safeguards like project labor agreements, ergonomics and other protections that unions have always fought for? How is the current administration and the Department of Labor treating the GCIU?

LM: It is too early to evaluate since all the appointments have not been finalized. But I think in the future we are going to see the National Labor Relations Board and other agencies make adverse decisions in unfair labor practices and other anti-worker judgments and policies.

GC: Can you tell me why the GCIU, a well-known and respected union, has not become a big player in politics?

LM: I think basically the situation is that many of our members do not realize how important politics is because they are not as closely involved as other unions. For example, the building trades unions are very concerned about Davis-Bacon prevailing wages legislation and job safety laws.

Now, we have printing companies that are competing against prison printing shops and the whole changing situation with multinational printers that could hurt our members. But our members don't realize how important it is to their welfare to have lawmakers to protect our interests.

The building trades, the railroad workers, the firefighters, and the public employees understand the political ramifications, but our people do not. We hope to be able to change that.

We may be scheduling a joint legislative conference and hope to get a good turnout from the membership. I don't have dates as yet.

It is really a shame that we are an international union of close to 100,000 and other international unions with similar membership numbers raise $150,000 a year to support worker-friendly lawmakers while we raise only a small amount.

Consequently, when I go to Capitol Hill, it is difficult to have the people listen to me since they know that we don't have the funds to support them and get them reelected.

GC: So, we are planning to continue this fund-raising through the Political Action Fund and make the members more aware of why it is to their advantage to support friendly lawmakers?

LM: Absolutely. I am hoping to set up a network with all our local unions to keep them up on issues that they can help with by mobilizing their members.

GC: What about international politics? With multinational firms like Quebecor and others, how involved are we right now in dealing with international issues?

LM: We are getting more involved in working with other unions overseas. Many American-owned companies have plants in Latin America. American Banknote has a plant in Brazil. Quebecor opened one in Sao Paolo, and they are talking about further expansion overseas. Quebecor has a huge operation in Europe. At the same time, they are talking about closing plants in North America. Quebecor has announced that they intend to close seven plants.

Our concern is that multinationals in the printing industry can move operations from North American plants overseas and put our members out of work.

We do participate with other unions – both in North America and abroad – to monitor global corporations and try to stay ahead of them and protect jobs.

But I have to emphasize that we do what we can with a limited budget, and that is why it is so important for our members to be aware of the threats to their jobs and support our political action efforts.

We have to get the message across to our membership that the Political Action Fund is a way for them to protect their interests and have some control over the laws that affect their lives and that of their families.