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Pat White: Labor Can Be Stronger Together

Posted on 10/21/2021

From St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune:  “We should all be under the same tent…. Labor can be stronger together,” said St. Louis Labor Council President Pat White during a St. Louis Public Radio interview last week discussing the recent dissolution of the St. Louis-Kansas City Carpenters Regional Council, removal of the council’s leadership and the transfer of all functions of the council to Chicago.

St. Louis Public Radio invited White to discuss the issue along with Anita Manion, Ph.D., an assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.

BENEFITS OF A REUNITED LABOR MOVEMENT

Noting that the Carpenters union pulled out of the St. Louis Labor Council and the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council some years ago, White said he hoped the leadership of the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters would consider the benefits of reuniting with the rest of the Labor Movement in St. Louis.

“What we can do together was clear in our joint efforts in 1978 and 2018 defeating of ‘right-to-work’ and subsequently fighting to protect prevailing wages and against paycheck deception. Going forward, I’m hoping we can solve issues that have kept us apart and when the dust settles, we can make something good out of what is now a difficult situation,” White said.

TO FOSTER UNITY

Noting that both the Carpenters and Electricians unions were founded in St. Louis, White said he would like to meet with the Chicago leadership at some point to help foster the unity that’s essential to a stronger Labor Movement here that works to improve the lives and livelihoods for the hundreds of thousands of working men, women and families served by the Labor Council’s affiliates.

“We’re all better when we’re fighting for the same thing together,” White said.

Source.