Businesses and consumers are breathing a sigh of relief with the announcement that a national strike by workers at UPS has been averted. This is not the end of the story, however, as a new national union strategy with an explicit goal of dominating key sectors of our economy has only been emboldened.
Some in the Teamsters union that represents UPS workers are openly working with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to expand control over not just one company but the entire national supply chain. The DSA's website is open about the group's agenda: "We want to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation."
From Connecticut to California, these groups are rolling out the pernicious practice of "salting" in the hope of turning employees against their employers. Salting involves paid union organizers applying for jobs and acting as employees of non-union companies. The "salt" then surveils the targeted company, collecting employees' personal information, stirring dissent, isolating non-union employees, and filing unfair labor practice claims. The claims mire employers in frivolous and costly administrative charges.
Fellow employees are frequently victims of the ruse, as well. They often believe the salt is part of an organic movement with other employees' best interests at heart, not a paid agitator who has positioned him- or herself to sow discontent.
Those familiar with the Teamsters won't be surprised that they intend to capitalize on media coverage of a possible strike as they intensify their organizing efforts in the logistics business. But rank-and-file members might be shocked to learn that some Teamsters are teaming up with the Democratic Socialists of America.
The DSA released a National Rank and File Strategy late last month, advertising it on social media and messaging boards to recruit individuals to infiltrate employers and bring a more "militant" style of organizing—tactics now being used against management at UPS.
I (Frank) have walked the picket line supporting Teamsters to ensure employees are treated fairly, secure in the knowledge that workers and business both had to balance the interests and the costs of the labor action—and this balancing would incentivize both sides to get back to the bargaining table.
But a symbiotic relationship between Teamsters and far-left activists transforms this calculus; infused with socialist ideology, the union is no longer invested in the employer's economic survival but rather aims to destroy it in the name of wealth distribution, power, and control.
What makes Big Labor's interest in working with DSA organizers so troubling is that wages, hours, and working conditions—the very subjects of collective bargaining and most essential to members' welfare—are merely a tangential part of the discussion. Instead, ideology takes over.
A recent virtual meeting on salting co-hosted by the Connecticut DSA and Teamsters Local 671 emphasized that the most important task of socialist labor organizing is to infiltrate "strategic sectors" for maximum systemic effect on our economy and society—potentially facilitating a strike that can severely damage national and global supply chains.
In other words, the goal is to cripple key parts of the economy in order to promote a Marxist agenda. Democratic Socialists and their comrades in Corporate Big Labor have destructive designs for the American economy. We, the people, ignore their malevolent designs on our economy, country and way of life at our peril.
Keith Williams is Sr. Vice President at the Center for Independent Employees. He was a public-school teacher and coach in Pennsylvania for 21 years and led the only school district to overturn agency fees prior to the Supreme Court's Janus v. AFSCME decision in 2018. Frank Ricci is a Labor Fellow at Yankee Institute, past Union President for New Haven (CT) Fire Fighters, and a retired Battalion Chief. He was the lead plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano and has testified before Congress. Frank is Author of the book Command Presence.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
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