BEENTHERE IS NOW BACKTHERE
Based on his previous record in office I make the following predictions:
Local 510 will make more contributions to political candidates over a wider geographical area in accord with his belief that the well being of the local is dependant on the good graces of the powers that be. His camp followers will consider his victory a mandate to manifest destiny. Which means spending as much on their political agenda as Downtown does on his.
There will be less of an official presence on the jobsite. He is a politician, not a policeman and will make concessions and call them victories.
We will loose more of those incessant floor battles with other locals. Appeasement is a safe strategy. We will also loose more work to non union workers. An active campaign to protect the natural erosion of our jurisdiction is beyond their collective imagination. And we will return more perogatives to management because we are lucky to have what we have.
We can look forward to more buttons from show management thanking Wingnuts for a wonderful job. Maybe even t-shirts.
The job will become too much for one person. Members will be asked to come up with more bucks and provide him with assistants.
We shall hear over and over again: "We are a union. Stand behind our officers . Stop complaining. We have more work now then ever before. Dont make waves." But not necessarily in that order.

WASTHERE
On election day the retiring Installer Business Agent informed me he thought I had been very unfair to Backthere in the last issue of the WATCHDoG when I countered the electioneering claim that he played a significant role in the early history of the local. This is my reply.
Dear Wasthere
I take this opportunity to inform you that by your own admission your memory is flawed. Early in your tenure in office you were officially requested by a vote of the members to create a written Record of Installer History so that members who were not here during that period could understand how installers succeeded in organizing.
After months of struggling with the project you returned to a membership meeting to report that you simply could not do it and that trying had driven you to the brink of a nervous breakdown. Instead you requested that the members allow you to write something of your own invention. To which they agreed. You then returned a document which focused not on history but attempted to set the parameters of behaviour and dictate the attitudes that members were allowed.
Not only did this document show the narrow scope of your concerns, but you made no effort to see that the concerns of members for a written history was satisfied by someone who could do the job.
Today the Union has no record of its history. Even official meeting minutes are unreadable. Anyone can claim to have been anywhere and add it to their illusion of self importance.
Fortunately my housekeeping habits have never been honed. I have every draft of the Installer Contract in the Making. Every issue of the Wingnut informing members of events and their rights. Every tape made at a committee meeting of which I was the secretary/chairman
Unfortunately financing this life of moral perversity has been an exercise in negative numbers. I discovered there was no place on a tax return to enter all the undying emnity I earned.
In fact, to reduce expenses the WATCHDoG executive board has decided to transfer operations to the net at www.wco.com/~sam/labor where there are the links to both old and new issues and answers to many questions.
Best wishes for a happy retirement.

MORE HISTOOLRY
When the first Installer contract was negotiated a great deal of time was spent defining the list of required tools. The prime concern was to keep to a minimum the weight that installers would have to tranport to and from a job and all around the jobsite. At the same time we had to maintain a high level of craftmanship and effeciency. So the list of required tools containeed a clause saying, ' additional tools necessary for a job would be supplied by the Employer'. Included were ladders, skateboards, powertools.
And it was agreed amongst Installers that any other tools which employers might require installer to carry would be negotiated in the contract. We would sell tools, not give them away.
That strategy was never preached, never advertised and never enforced. As the list of journeymen grew new A's took to carrying additonal tools to compete for work on the jobsite. Once a new A bragged to me about hundreds of dollars he made working overtime hours just because he was 'the guy with the Makita'. When I asked El Honcho BA he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "You can't stop a man from working." This was back in the days when 150 was a low seniority number.
Today installers carry screw guns, socket sets, chop saws, saber saws, reciprocating saws, routers, bolt cutters, and the associated paraphanalia; extension cords, router bits, drill indexes, whole saws and wheels. There is an entire cadre of Wingnuts working call by name for I&Ds who carry gang boxes. One brother's personal cache exceeds the freight handling minimum.
And radios play a significant part in Wingnut World. According to a survey I conducted on a recent show, 22% of the installers on the jobsite carried radios. (6% had cell phones for whatever that means) Not only do workers carry radios but they are turned on and tuned in. And whoever carries a radio stops working to listen to each emination because it is a financial sin to lose the opportunity to advertise one's patronising gratitude. In fact Wingnuts adapted to radios like finches to the Galopagos.
To honor this emerging corner of the Wingnut universe I create the Radio Operator of the Month Award. The first goes to the boss on Channel 3 asking, "What time is the Two O'clock Meeting?"
Some individuals also bring their bikes to work. Not for transportation to and from the job. Those I heartily applaud. But to use as a tool on the jobsite. Well, I just checked the dictionary and the definition has not changed. An Installer with a radio riding around on a bicycle reporting on the whereabouts and activities of other union members is still a fink. What has changed is that this ancient and dishonorable profession is now fashionable.
A couple of years ago I overheard two installers who were having lunch with management denigrate other installers. "He's lazy." "He drinks too much." To my mind that violated our Oath Of Obligation. But what do I know. The Union says you can't stop someone from working and that includes finks. In fact one ex-installer was observered riding shotgun in an unmarked van and assisting in the apprehension of someone smoking on the Folsom street wall during lunch.
Well, I finally got to work with someone as nasty as I am and I learned a few things. Particularly that 'bosses' have an entirely different point of view. Standing back and watching work as they all insidiously do they see everything in perspective and this ferments their native genius. Under the pressumption of improving effeciency they arrested work and changed operational proceedures on whim. Thats why we have bosses, right?
In fact the time has come to pay bosses their due. There are now enough of them to justify the creation of a new classification in the contract, 'Installer Bosses'. And another for Installer Secretaries. We need to add to the section governing jurisdiction 'making lists, filling out forms and filing papers'. Full time employment for many. Then to the required tool list add 'briefcases and radios'. Attache cases for those who wear suits to work. It is very important to record these job descriptions before the companies replace them all with a used 386 and shareware.
Lets free the Bosses and Secretaries to negotiate separately like Builders. Make the best deal they can. Each of them staunchly believes they are the company and the rest of us work for them. Restricting such talented Union Members to the same wage scale and benefits as carpet kickers or furniture pushers or even exhibit installers is a rank injustice.

AHHH
Take a deep breath now its time for another report on air quiality.
I get to South Hall one eight o'clock with the rest of the cattle call and I knew something was wrong. The air was cool and clear like someone had left the air conditioning on all night. And they had. This was the day they were testing the air. Again
When it was tested the first time our Union reported to its membership that the air was OK and workers should stop complaining. They even stopped taking complaints. Then about a year ago the Service Employees Local distributed leaflets about air quality related illness to installers and teamsters on breaks and at lunch. Their Union was able to put pressure in the right places and obviously their officers did not have the same conflicting social and political ambitions because this time the city was not testing itself.
So for three days installers worked under ideal conditions. The ventilation system had new filters and was turned on hours before workers arrived and remained on all day, All the doors to the lower lobby were kept open as well as some doors on Folsum Street. The draft was perceptible.
Another weighted survey.
One wonders who is responsible for health and safety on the job? The city who owns the building or facilities management or show management or individual contractors or the government or labor unions or none or all of the above. It a game of liability and no one wants to be tagged. It required a tragic accident before they painted the loading docks white and provided adequate lighting for safe working conditions.
The longer the situation continues the more it degenerates. It is currently accepted practice for contractors to store equipment in the tunnels around D Hall and many installers work where the only light is supplied by the headlights of passing deisels and the air by their exhausts. While suits wrap air quality in fancy paper and tie it with ribbons and bows, levis eat it.
Let me repeat myself. There is nothing wrong with the air in the Union office and officer salaries elevate them from the working class. The last thing on earth they will do is come back down.

DOCUMENTATION
As a bit of personal documentation I add this story .
One year I installed an exhibit at Semicon located in the southeast corner of the Gateway Ballroon under the low ceiling where air is stagnant. Anyone even passing through the area commented on the stiffling conditions. In order to work there it was necessary to open one of the ballroom doors to the lower lobby.
On Friday I worked in that location for 4 hours with the doors open. On Saturday I worked there 8 hours, much of the time removing tape residue and carpet stains, which required the use of industrial solvents [Bestine, Benzine, Laquer Thinner & Carbontetrachloride]. Again I keep the doors open.
On Monday I returned to the location to finish the exhibit which included more cleaning but the security guard adamantly refused to let me ventilate the working area. Whenever I opened the door the security guard closed it. Closing the door eliminated all air movement and within moments created a serious hazard. Opening the door created ventillation that immediately removed that hazard.
I have worked with chemicals and solvents employed by this industry for 30 years and I carefully read the warning labels which accompany each product and maintain a constant awareness of unsafe conditions and the symtoms of chemical exposure. There was no doubt in my mind that conditions were unsafe and I was suffering the symptoms of toxic vapor inhalation. My throat was sore, I was short of breath, I had flashes of dizziness and I was extremely irritable.
My partner and I asked the security guard repeatedly to bring his superior to the location so that we might explain the seriousnous of the health hazard. We also repeatedly asked the security guard to contact the Union Steward who we felt was responsible for representing us and maintaining health and safety on the jobsite.
Instead the security service convinced several prime deco executives to come to the booth and (1) impuned my manhood for demanding ventillation, (2) threatened to discharge me and never again employ me and (3) have me physically removed from the building if I continued to interfere with the security service and kept opening the door. These people came to deal with me and not with the hazard. I wasn't even working for them. I was infuriated.
Then the Union steward arrived. He said, 'The air seems ok to me'. I needed him like a hole in the head.
Finally my employer arrived. He listen to my evaluation of the danger and immediately authorized the hiring of an extra security guard just to kept that door open. Everything quickly returned to normal.
In retrospect it seems like just another extortion.

THE UNION SPIRIT
Its been a great year for giving. To prove it the Local gave away blanket wrapping. At the end of every major computer or medical show non-Union truck drivers roll dollies of folded blankets right to the booth over the aisle carpets as they are being rolled up. In the booth they are bundles of energy, unplugging equipment, emptying cabinets, dissassembling displays and wrapping it all in blankets. Gone are the occassional independant driver hanging around a booth folding his blankets. This crew is highly organised, non union and agressive. In other jurisdictions these same people drive their trucks onto the show floor, unload them and then assist in the erecting of the displays. Some are experience installers and fully capable of setting up a show behind picket lines.
The history of blanket wrap is brief and simple. When Installers complained to the Union's Officers they were informed, 'It is Teamster jurisdiction' and 'We are waiting.' They are still waiting. In the interim control has been established by non-union workers.
One steward told a complaining worker that the contract jurisdiction specifically reads 'crating and uncrating exhibits' and blankets are not crates. At one time the contract read 'packing and unpacking exhibits'. It doesn't anymore.
The real and hidden danger is in the dilution of the Union workplace.
During the setup of every Gift Show at 9pm on Wednesday night when the building is empty of exhibitors and teamsters and installers, hundreds of glass showcases are delivered to booths, each carefully set and polished clean. Just like elves in the shoemaker's shop, each Thursday morning arrives to find the work all done. This miracle requires the cooperation of the building, show management, show contractor and the both unions. Isn't it wonderful how well they get along together.
One brilliant Wingnut defended the practice and told me, "The reason the Jewelry Vault Exhibitors do not rent Greyhound display cases is because Greyhound charges more for their cases. They use Union labor."
That's straight from the jaws of Equus. In honor of all the clear thinking Union Wingnuts I envoke the following benediction from the Book of Neo Babble.