The Veteran and the Protégé

Montana union activists get political.

MISSOULA, MONTANA

The Veteran

In spite of being called “a tough cookie” by the weekly Missoula Independent, she is, on this Election Day, “sweating bullets in my guts.” The veteran incumbent has been through many campaigns, but her worry quotient is still high. Into her biennial ritual of self-doubt, she wonders if she has put out enough effort. Hours before the polls close, her opponent’s big blue signs seem to be growing larger and reproducing like fungi. She is running for State Representative in Missoula, Montana’s 68th District against anti-tax fanatic Jay Sage, whose “Cut the Pork” slogan accompanies the drawing of a pink pig that almost oinks when you look at it.“Maybe I should have done more door-to-door stuff,” she says.

The candidate is Carolyn Squires. In this campaign alone, she has organized a 3,500-piece literature drop, co-ordinated three issue-based mailings, distributed her own yard signs, cut a 30-second radio spot, taped an interview for the local cable access channel, and attended scores of meet-the-candidate nights. Across this backdrop of the campaign chores, Squires weaves her union activities. She is secretary of AFSCME Council 9, secretary-treasurer of Local 398 and president of the Missoula Trades and Labor Council — all this while working her 40-hour job as a nurse at the Community First Care Clinic in Missoula!

Squires is driven by a deep, genuine feeling for working families, especially the working poor. Now a grandmother, she movingly relates her own experience, when as a divorced mother of two and living on the edge of poverty, she was hitting rock bottom. Luckily, she was steered to the Manpower Development and Training Act program and low-cost child care. Juggling motherhood and schoolwork, she earned a nursing degree.

Now a lawmaker in her 14th year, she is in a position to help others. She wants to bring health care to the children of working parents who have no employer-provided health insurance. Parents would pay a premium of $15 per child per year and the state would pony up money to supplement the premiums for insurance companies chosen by the parents. Using a poverty level-based formula, a family of three making $19,000 would be eligible. “Thirty thousand children in Montana, have no health care coverage,” she explains, her voice filled with emotion. “If we can take care of them in their early years, they will have a much better chance to grow up healthy.”

Squires also must tackle a controversial annexation issue and the problems of infrastructure — a nice word for sewers. Working closely with Missoula Mayor Mike Kadas, she has secured $500,000 in state funds to ease the financial pressure on low- and middle-income residents for sewer line construction. She is an all-out opponent of privatization and says her biggest legislative regret was trusting the word of the private company that took over the mental health treatment promising it would provide more access for the mentally ill. It didn’t.

At 15 minutes past midnight, the voting results come in. Her Election Day jitters were unfounded: Squires wins by a landslide. Term limits put Squires in her final stint in the Montana House. To continue as an elected official, she would have to seek a different office in 2000. Whatever she decides, one thing is certain: Armed with a compassionate heart and a union-yes spirit, Carolyn Squires will continue her career as a strong representative — for AFSCME and for the people of Missoula.

The Protégé

Some 120 miles north, in Bigfork, amid the breathtaking beauty of Flathead Lake and the Tamarack trees turning amber, an equally committed candidate is undertaking his first bid for public office. He is a state highway worker running in a GOP stronghold. Encouraged by Squires, he is challenging wealthy and conservative Republican legislator Paul Sliter who has cashiered a family lumber business into a political career in House District 76.

At the end of his work day, John Schieffer swaps his state highway hard hat for a Montana cowboy hat, jumps in his pickup and heads out to check if his homemade campaign signs are surviving the stiff breeze coming off Flathead Mountains. With a low-budget campaign, he has designed and written his own campaign brochures and distributed them door to door. When he is not on his highway job, he is on the campaign trail, talking one-on-one with voters, discussing issues, attending school board and water district meetings, and explaining his programs for working men and women.

Schieffer says he was drawn to the political process by the same intense urgency that compelled him to become active as Local 616 (Council 9) chief steward and secretary-treasurer. “When I saw things that were weakening the union, I got involved,” he says. The highway department attempted to unilaterally implement work rule changes without consulting the union. Schieffer energized his co-workers and the local was able to convince management to follow the contract and post any changes 15 days before new rules are implemented. State management now meets with AFSCME members before any action is taken. Impressed with his hard work, fellow union members elected Schieffer as Montana Council 9’s policy chair for Department of Transportation employees.

Scheiffer hopes to bring the same union enthusiasm to the political arena. He has been an AFSCME member for nine years and before that was a truck driver and a Teamster. His union background has clearly shaped his political views. An articulate spokesperson for working families, he wants the state to allocate more funds for education and less for prisons and favors a fair tax system to finance schools. Schieffer opposes NAFTA because it has cost jobs in Montana, and he takes a moderate position on the logging industry — concerned for the environment but mindful of the need for jobs in a state with the lowest per capita income of all 50 states.

Like Squires, Schieffer has taken a strong stand against privatization, criticizing the Corrections Corporation of America prison in Shelby, Mont. Schieffer says that after the state turned over mental health services to a private contractor, “the system fell apart.” He is outspoken about the apparent conflict of interest of state Senate Highway and Transportation Committee Chairman Arnie Mohl who wants to privatize highway maintenance. Mohl is president of the Montana Contractor Association.

As voting results trickle in, it becomes clear that Schieffer’s first dive into Montana’s political waters will be chilly. He loses but is by no means discouraged. The likable AFSCME activist says he will continue to be a watchdog on issues affecting working Montanans and will stay involved in the politics of his state and the activities of his union.

By Jim Hagan