Steelworker election highlights key question for Left

Are union leaders disconnected from their members?

By: Paul Weinberg

  "In elections, we tend to murder each other," says one Steelworker union president who prefers to remain anonymous. A nasty fight is shaping up for the position of District Six director in the upcoming Nov. 20 election of top executive officers in the United Steelworkers of America. One of the candidates, Peter Leibovitch, says he is fighting for more democracy and accountability in the union. He is challenging Wayne Fraser, part of a team of candidates slated to run for all of the top executive positions in the Steelworkers, including all district directorships and backed by the current international president, Leo Gerard. A Canadian and former head of District 6, which includes most of eastern Canada, he is also up for election.
  Steelworkers take their elections seriously. As one of three Canadian districts in the Steelworkers - representing about 90,000 members in 300 locals across Ontario and the Atlantic region District 6 has a history of unrest and serious electoral contests within a larger American-dominated organization. A parallel might be drawn between the impending Leibovitch-Fraser race and the 1981 election when Sudbury miner and leader of a successful strike against Inco, Dave Patterson pulled a surprise upset over Stuart Cooke, a union staff member and the favoured candidate of the Pittsburgh headquarters of this North America-wide international.
  Patterson himself did not last past one term as district president. According to one insider who asked not to be named, his staff in Toronto was all hired by the Pittsburgh headquarters. They opposed him and undermined his efforts, says this source. His choice for an assistant was even vetoed.
 

"Our members don't see us as relevant because we haven't listened to what their problems are." - Peter Leibovitch

  About a year ago District 6 local presidents held an angry meeting with then-International President George Becker, an American, whose administration had forced various union locals in the Steelworkers to amalgamate without any consultation.
  Further moves by the Pittsburgh headquarters to negotiate a merger with two other large US-based unions - the United Auto Workers and the Machinists - which subsequently fell apart, nevertheless led to the establishment of a traveling task force to study how Canadians fit within a changing Steelworkers' Union. One of the issues it will tackle is the apparent weak role of the national Canadian director in the international, in contrast to the stronger district director positions. The forced local mergers also helped spawn the candidacy of Peter Leibovitch, Vice President of the Steelworkers Local 8782 at Lake Erie Steel southwest of Hamilton. He says he was pushed to run by rank-and-file members. Both Leibovitch and Fraser are very much part of the mainstream of Steelworker political culture in Canada - i.e. they continue to be believers in the union's international set-up, endorse its strong ties to the New Democratic Party and are backing Leo Gerard for international president. As one close observer of the Steelworkers told Straight Goods in confidence, Leibovitch's campaign is not another Patterson insurgency in the making. Leibovitch lacks the charisma, radicalism and zeal for Canadian autonomy that scared the wits out of the Pittsburgh headquarters in the early 80s.
  "Patterson was seen as dangerous; Leibovitch is certainly not." But their battle is more than just warring personalities. Leibovitch is taking on what he describes as a lack of strong leadership at the helm of the Steelworkers in Canada and in District 6 in recent years. He attributes the success of Mike Harris in recent two Ontario provincial elections to a disconnection between the union leaders (who strongly campaigned against the Conservatives and for the NDP, for the most part) and the members who ignored this plea.
 

"I don't believe there is a disconnect whatsoever with respect to our leadership." - Wayne Fraser

  "Part of it is that we have lost the ability to communicate. Our members don't see us as relevant because we haven't listened to what their problems are. Sometimes we act in a manner that we know better than the members do."
  This seems to touch a nerve in Fraser, assistant to the District 6 Director Harry Hynd, who has endorsed his candidacy. "I don't believe there is a disconnect whatsoever with respect to our leadership. That is a campaign that Peter has been putting out."
  Leibovitch is campaigning as a grassroots candidate more in touch with the membership of the union than his opponent, Fraser - a former mining employee at INCO who has been on staff in District 6 since 1986. One of the unique aspects of the Steelworkers is that its elected senior executive officers come out of the staff, hired in turn from the membership on the shop floor.
  "The union has a ladder theory," explains Leibovitch. "You work your way up the ladder [within the Steelworker organization] and then at some point, the powers that be decide you get to run for the leadership." Leibovitch argues that as a non-staffer who has been prominent in the Steelworkers as an elected union official and in various high profile union political activities, he has as much right to run for a top executive position as someone working out of the district office.
  He told Straight Goods he views the current election as a process of renewal. "This is a chance for the workers to take ownership of their union."
  Fraser counters that his campaign is also about responding to the needs and desires of union members. Like Leibovitch he says that the membership of the Steelworkers has changed dramatically in the past two decades - only a third of the members in this diverse organization work in the steel industry. But Fraser adds that while he opposed the shut-down of cities across Ontario in the Days of Protest campaign, he is willing to pursue a general strike in the province, coupled with an education campaign if Mike Harris "goes after the Rand formula." (A form of legislated union security where the employer by law must deduct a portion of a worker's wage for the bargaining unit).
  It is early in the campaign and the Pittsburgh office of the Steelworkers is already playing hardball. By appointing Fraser to the job of Assistant to the Director of District 6, they have given him an immense advantage. Fraser can fly around the district for free on union business, giving him the opportunity to build up a public profile among the members of the Steelworkers. Meanwhile Leibovitch, based in one local, has to fork out his own money for all of his travel expenses during the campaign. "It is extremely unfair, especially when you have a real contest," says Leibovitch.
  John Perquin, the Steelworker official in Pittsburgh overseeing the election in District 6 told Straight Goods he will make sure that all candidates adhere to the election rules of the union, including a provision that they cannot use their time on union business to campaign for office. Leibovitch claims to have support in the Toronto and Hamilton area Steel locals while Fraser boosts of having the northern Ontario section in his back pocket. Each candidate must receive nominations from five separate union locals, plus one nomination for each 10,000 members in the district.
  It is expensive to run for a top executive job within the Steelworkers. Dave Patterson was mired in $120,000 in debt after winning his election and it took years for him to pay it all off. But Leibovitch is confident $50,000 is sufficient in the year 2001 to pay for personal visits and campaign materials. (All the campaign expenses can only be raised within the union and they cannot come from a member's union dues). One former top Steelworker official suggests that if Fraser falters, Leo Gerard will find somebody else in the Steelworkers to tackle Leibovitch. Leibovitch may be a loyal Steelworker, but he is not in the inner circle, Straight Goods was told. "Leibovitch is not part of the palace princes [in Pittsburgh and Toronto]."

Paul Weinberg is a Toronto based freelance journalist.

Editor's note: This article has been revised in light of factual errors contained in the original version. Straight Goods regrets these errors and any misunderstanding or embarrassment that may have resulted.

Posted: March 14, 2001

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