Pro-union car parade to be held Friday

Hill County Democrats are planing a Havre “Union Strong Car Parade and Celebration” for Friday, at 5:30 p.m. beginning at the Holiday Village Mall, to voice support for unions and their workers in response to recent right-to-work bills making their way through the state Legislature.

Several area unions have committed to participating in the event, according to a press release last week, including the Montana Federation of Public Employees, the Havre Education Association, the International Association of Fire Fighters, the Havre Fire Department, and the Montana Nurses Association, but Hill County Democrats Chair Krystal Steinmetz said the event is open to any union worker, or anyone who supports them and their cause, and she encouraged as many people as possible to attend.

She said participants are encouraged to dress up their vehicles and honk their horns in support of organized labor.

Steinmetz said the event will hopefully send a message to people that Havre supports unions and the work she said they do to uplift everyone in the workplace.

She said a number of right-to-work bills, which are widely perceived to be anti-union, have been introduced into the Montana Legislature that threaten the ability of unions to do their work.

Bills which seeks to make collecting union dues more difficult are ones she said are particularly troubling and said they had the potential to cripple any union’s ability to collect the funds necessary to fight for the rights of workers and raise their quality of life.

She said bills like these might seem sensible on the surface but, but the ultimate result of these bills is a weakening of unions which benefit people who would, if these bill is passed, no longer be required to pay for those services.

Steinmetz said everyone in a workplace benefits from the work that unions do and hampering the ability of a union to collect dues will have a devastating impact on them.

“They can’t give their services away, but they’re services are so important,” she said.

She said since she was elected as the chair of Hill County Democrats this month people who haven’t had a chance to go down to Helena to testify or are just really worried about bills like this have gotten in touch with her and this parade is a positive way for people stand up to bills that hurt so many people, especially in a place like Havre.

“Havre has long been a proud union-working town and frankly I’m dismayed to see the legislation that has been proposed,” she said.

Steinmetz said while she is not a union worker herself, unions are important for everyone, increasing wages and benefits, pressuring employers to provide a better quality of life to their employees even outside of unionized workplaces.

She said she has no idea how many people will show up to the event in the end, but there are plenty of union workers in town and she’s hoping for a large turn out.

She said she’s not sure how likely these bills are to pass considering their track record in previous session, but she said they have a better chance now than any time in the recent past and she’s worried that Gov. Greg Gianforte will sign them into law despite the objection of so many.

“There was a time when we were a company state,” she said. “We don’t want to go back to that.”

Steinmetz said she’s seen plenty of Republican governors of Montana who she’s sure wouldn’t have supported legislation like this, but Gianforte’s silence about these bills is concerning.

While it’s good to see unions working together to fight this legislation harder than ever, she said, the involvement of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the source of right-to-work bills in states throughout the U.S., is fairly galling.

“It’s frustrating, shameful in a way, to ever see ALEC bills going through the Legislature,” she said. “… This is out-of-state interests trying to influence what we do. We Montanans have always said, ‘No, no one tells us what to do, we know what’s best for our state,” and it’s disgusting to see this kind of legislation even proposed when it does nothing to really benefit us.”

Steinmetz said it’s important, despite the lopsidedness of this Legislature and one party in control of virtually every major state office, that people not give in to apathy or despair.

“I understand that sentiment,” she said. “It’s hard to look at what’s happening this session and not feel a little overwhelmed. Our state’s most vulnerable populations are being attacked by our Legislature. … But I think it’s more important than ever to contact our representatives.”

She said it’s important that legislators, now more than any time in her adult life, know what the people they represent think, and while they may not act on that, they need to at least listen.

Steinmetz said it is no longer sufficient to donate to a cause and vote, more political engagement is needed to fight for not just unions, but the rights of all Montanans.