Unknown to most anglers and hunters, the Good Old USA has been quietly working in the background for the past 18 months protecting their rights and future.
And I’m not talking about the United States of America, but a new nonprofit organization called the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance.
Announced in January 2007 and launched five months later, the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) focuses on “The Union Way” – working hard and playing hard to build support within organized labor for preserving our hunting and fishing heritage.
USA is a one-of-a-kind project of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and its trade union partners, that is, according to the USA website, “exclusively for conservation-minded union members, retirees and their families that hunt, fish and appreciate the outdoors.”
“Millions more are about to join the fight to guarantee all Americans a place to hunt and fish,” former TRCP President and CEO Matthew B. Connolly Jr., said at the announcement, “adding strength and influence to the TRCP’s efforts to guarantee access for hunters and anglers, conserve fish and wildlife habitat, and increase funding for conservation.”
“Quality places to hunt and fish are disappearing – threatening America’s sporting heritage,” agreed Tom Buffenbarger, President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and TRCP board member. “The USA will help turn the tide by unifying union sportsmen and women across the country to form a strong voice of influence.”
“We’re proud to offer a program to help our hardworking men and women enjoy the activities they’re passionate about,” said Harold Schaitberger, General President of International Association of Fire Fighters.
And, according to Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, “When union workers get on a job, they get it done right, so bringing them together in this new way promises to dramatically advance the effort to better conserve our natural resources.”
Initially funded with $1.2 million in seed money from seven labor unions, the USA now depends on other sources of revenue such as memberships, sponsorships and contributions. Already 20 labor unions have signed on as TRCP partners in the effort as well as 8,000 individual union members, USA Senior Communications Manager Kate Cywinski boasts, and those numbers continue to climb.
And the USA has a lot of potential for growth, she added. America has roughly 9 million union members of which 3.2 million belong to the 20 unions already signed on to this new program. Roughly 70 percent of those 3.2 million union members hunt, fish and enjoy other outdoor activities, Cywinski noted, but only 29 percent belong to a conservation group.
“Yet,” she meant to add to that statement because USA is working hard to fix that problem, which makes the project “an unparalleled opportunity” to promote conservation among people used to working hard for everything they have, including an opportunity to hunt and fish and to have access to somewhere to do it.
Perhaps the major effort put forth by USA to date is the launching of a new television program called Escape to the Wild, which airs on Sundays on Versus from January through March. Plus reruns, of course.
Escape to the Wild picks one “hard-working union member” (lucky, too) and surprises him or her with a hunting and fishing dream trip of a lifetime. I caught the program last weekend when host Tom Ackerman surprised a Minnesota union member at a local pub and told him to go home and pack his bags because he was leaving for Costa Rica in the morning to catch a few sailfish and marlin, which he did.
(TRCP, incidentally, also hosts another television show called Life in the Open, which runs October through December on The Sportsman’s Channel and celebrates “the grandeurs of the sporting life.” Host Ken Barrett travels around the country, often in Roosevelt’s footsteps, features conservation efforts and the outdoor experience.)
Now for my $0.02. To me, the dawn of the USA seems significant because we finally have a conservation group specifically for organized labor. Union members, of course, can join any of the nation’s hundreds of conservation groups, but only about 30 percent do. Most don’t because, in part, of political perception.
I realize this is dangerous general-speak, but nonetheless, in general, many machinists, bricklayers, autoworkers, truck drivers, et al are right-leaning and tend to suspiciously shy away from any nonprofit perceived as “environmental,” thinking environmentalists are out to close down industry and send them to the unemployment line. This might be perception rather than reality in many cases, but we all know perception becomes reality.
To me, there’s no real difference between a “conservationist” and an “environmentalist,” but many people – and I suspect most union members among them –disagree with my opinion. Regardless, it’s vital that the TRCP has come along and given organized labor a pure, union-focused group, the Good Old USA, and solved that real or imagined political problem.
Chances of continued success seem good to me, and I’m sure all hunters and anglers, including most of them who do not belong to a union, can count themselves among the beneficiaries of this new project.
P.S. Be careful not to confuse the Union Sportsman’s Alliance with the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, which has been around since 1978 and is a political advocacy group aggressively defending our hunting heritage against anti-hunting and anti-trapping legislation and ballot measures. Another story for another time.