(The following story by Seth Muller appeared on the Arizona Daily Sun website on September 7.)
TUCSON, Ariz. — Greg Kreie could easily serve as a walking personification of labor.
Kreie is a fourth-generation railroad worker. He helps build the tracks and handles track maintenance for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. He’s done the job for the past 23 years, and he has been the sole bread-winner for his wife, Diana, and son and daughter, now 17 and 22, respectively. They live in Prescott.
He knows his trade, and he represents himself and his fellow workers as an AFL-CIO union spokesman along with work with his own trade union, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees.
On Monday, he arrived at Thorpe Park clad in denim overalls and joined other union members in Flagstaff for a picnic in lieu of this year’s canceled parade.
A rock band crooned a twang version of Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” while the trade workers crowded under the park’s main pavilion for grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. But among the usual picnic food and supplies, political and informational fliers filled one of the tables, each tall stack held down by a small stone.
Although the picnic represented a celebration of Labor Day, local unions and their members do not have much to celebrate. Politics aside, the state of labor in the region and rest of the country faces dire challenges.
“With everyone who I’ve talked to, their number one concern is health care,” Kreie said. “When we walk and talk with people, that’s what we hear … People are shopping for jobs not based on pay, but on medical benefits.”
The rising cost of health care has put pressure on employers, who often subsidize the expense by splitting the cost of the benefits with employees.
There’s also a tendency for employers to go for a less expensive, and therefore, less comprehensive package.
Kreie explained that these problems are on the forefront of a lot of workers’ minds. He said that he’s been lucky because the railroad industry has a strong union and its regulations are second only to the airline industry. It lends itself to a labor force that has better wages and benefits.
Kreie said that his wife has a heart condition, but she’s properly covered under his benefits package. He’s finding that not every worker has that luxury.
Along with health care, the AFL-CIO, or Teamsters, has shared its thoughts about the government’s role and impacts on other aspects of labor. Kreie said that the union has grave concerns about jobs heading overseas and the impacts of technology on the work force.
Meanwhile, the 100,000 Teamsters face challenges of life in a right-to-work state such as Arizona, where union and non-union employees work side-by-side.
Also, the union workers face the continued problem of government employees turning to contractors to avoid the high costs of benefits. Kreie said he has seen it in his own trade.
“There’s been a lot of down-sizing, and a lot of jobs that have been handed off to contractors,” he said.
Adding to those concerns, the federal government recently overhauled the nation’s overtime pay rules, even after labor unions and worker advocates tried to block them in Congress and kill them through public and political pressure.
The Labor Department says no more than 107,000 workers will lose overtime eligibility from the changes, but about 1.3 million will gain it. Still, Kreie and others fear it could lead to problems later. Democratic estimates put those losing overtime at closer to 6 million.
“Mostly, the overtime bill didn’t affect us, but it could set a precedent down the road when we try to negotiate,” he said.
Despite the tribulations, the union workers took the day to picnic and relax in the park. For them, it’s the end of a well-earned three-day weekend. “This day is a celebration of the meaning of labor, and how it has been the backbone of this country,” Kreie said.