Support for workers has long been a central tenet of the Democratic Party. Our party fights for fair wages and safe working conditions.
The West County Democrats also have a long tradition of partnering with labor. Many of our members have strong union ties, and, we are fortunate to meet in the home of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655. As a group, we were happy to support the recent petition drive to bring Right To Work before voters, and, we are glad that our friends in labor are ardent proponents of the Clean initiative.
I was surprised to see that the site of our Focus 2018 session – the Walnut Grill in Ellisville – had members of the Carpenter’s Union distributing Handbills and manning a picket.
Like all good Democrats, members of WCD respect picket lines. Since another site for the Focus meeting could not be secured on instant notice, we cancelled the session.
The St. Louis – Kansas City Carpenters Regional Council notes that another area location of Walnut Grill has hired Miller Construction and Contracting “who does not meet the area wage and fringe benefit standards on all work they perform in our communities.”
Before the start of the Focus sessions we checked the Do Not Patronize list available from the Labor Tribune. [ http://labortribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/STLDNP.FullPg.CLR_.pdf ] We chose Walnut Grill, in part, because it had no known issues with our local trade unions. After all, we do not want to reward businesses which do not respect workers’ ability to earn a fair wage. And, as recently as last week other groups with Democratic ties had met at the restaurant – and encountered no picket.
I apologize to any WCD members and friends who were inconvenienced by the abrupt cancellation of the session.
We will not return to Walnut Grill in Ellisville until the issues raised by our friends the Carpenters is resolved.
Please know that we will find another site for future Focus 2018 sessions. (As soon as we have a location we will share a revised schedule.) We belong to a party which values workers and families. We do what is right.
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member