Union Power and the Crisis at Hand: An Interview with Vermont AFL-CIO President Dave Van Deusen

We interviewed Dave Van Deusen, DSA member and President of the Vermont AFL-CIO, on workplace and union responses to the Covid-19 crisis. With 70 local affiliates representing 10,000 workers in Vermont, the AFL-CIO advocates for a stronger role for unions in responding to the crisis and forging a worker led Green New Deal in the future.

We started by asking about the response of Vermont State government.

“The elimination of out of pocket costs for COIVD treatment and tests and the lowering of the unemployment threshold for the tens of thousands of Vermonters, who otherwise would have nothing, was a very positive thing.”

Yet despite these initial responses there is still a mountain of work to be done.             

“We still need to see a moratorium on evictions for renters and for folks paying mortgages to be implemented by the state. We’ve been pushing hard for that and we feel we have a good chance of achieving that soon.” 

Another AFL-CIO priority is hazard pay for all essential workers.

“The unfortunate reality is that there are people in our state working at gas stations and grocery stores making little more than minimum wage. We have to find a mechanism, a universal mechanism, to make sure these folks get additional pay for putting their health and their lives on the line to serve all of us.”

Local unions have faced mixed responses from local governments. Burlington and Rutland have moved to protect both union and non-union workers and provide better public services.

“But we have other towns like Newport which has done a terrible job and continue to have their public works crews labor just like it was two months ago, all together in one place at one time. So, if one person gets sick everybody gets sick. We’re fighting that and our stewards are actually taking the lead in the shops and implementing safer workplace procedures. Something the city has failed to do.”

“That’s something where workers themselves, without having to go through those who would resist positive change, can circumvent it. They can do it on their own and they are doing it on their own.”

Collective action has yielded other victories for organized labor and public safety. Local UE 203, representing City Market grocery workers, bargained with management and won a three dollar an hour extra hazard pay. City Market also installed plastic shields at checkouts. So, how do we protect our workplace safety and incomes as we move further into this crisis?

“Well number one is working people be they union or non-union have to practice absolute solidarity during this time of crisis. If you’re working in a non-union shop that isn’t following basic safety practices you need to stand together and demand they be implemented or be prepared to withhold your labor. Our solidarity is our strength.”

“Every effort in the world needs to be taken now in Vermont to make sure front line medical workers have the basic personal protective equipment they need to mitigate their own chances of infection or inadvertent infections of folks if they get exposed to it.”

Production priorities have to change as well. Vermont Teddy Bear has changed up production in order to produce facemasks.

“But we need to go much further with that. The fact that the non-union GE plant in Rutland, instead of ramping up production of ventilators, have instead announced that they are laying off sixty percent of the workforce, that’s garbage. If private industry refuses to do the public good in a time of need then we should take over the industries and nationalize them and make them serve the public good.”

We also need to look ahead to the impacts of the economic recession that threatens to cripple state and economic infrastructure.

“We can’t be looking at dealing with the revenue shortfall through austerity. We need to be looking at taxing the wealthy, taxing the corporations, and begin looking for creative ways to increase public spending in the recovery period.” 

There is a real danger of rightwing responses to the economic crisis.

“We can’t accept more austerity that places the burden of recovery on the backs of the worker. We cannot allow corporations to bail themselves out once again by cutting our benefits, our social programs, and looting our savings. The opposite must happen. This time the capitalist class must be the ones to foot the bill and return what they have stolen.”

“We need universal access to healthcare, more paid sick leave, paid family and medical leave. These are the kinds of things we need to implement in the wake of this disaster. And that’s where there will be a long-term fight and we need to engage that in Vermont, across the nation, and across the world.”

 “There can be no excuses now. We need all our efforts to be geared towards the public good. Now is not the time to put profit first.”