(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – Dan Boody’s resume in Organized Labor is very impressive. 

Now retired, Boody has been a Member of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) for 50 years, served as IUPAT District Council 4’s Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer for 27 years, was President of the 10,000-Member Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council for 14 years and served as the first President of the 150,000-Member Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation (WNYALF) for five years – after being asked by then National AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to do so, as well as serving as a long-time Board Member for the New York State Building Trades Council.

So it’s no surprise that someone who served in those positions still has Labor coursing through his blood, which gets boiling every once in a while as he scans the Labor News Stories published on WNYLaborToday.com as he not only continues to educate himself on what is going on across the U.S. Labor Movement, but keeps up on the many attacks perpetuated on Labor Unions and the Members by Anti-Union/Worker entities, Big Business and the Republican Party.

It has also prompted Boody to stand up and make those in the Western New York and Buffalo Labor Movements aware of not only what is going on – but what he believes Organized Labor needs to do to ensure the Members it represents do not succumb to those attacks.

Conjuring up a scene right out of the old days of Organized Labor, Boody (Pictured Below/WNYLaborToday.com Photo) recently lit up a cigar in a local smoking lounge, exhaled a round of smoke and then suggested to WNYLaborToday.com- “in two words” - what Labor needs these days: War Rooms.

“When I was President of the Buffalo Building Trades, we had a ‘War Room’ where a lot of strategies were discussed with leaders of the various Trades,” Boody recalled.  “That led to ‘successfully getting’ a PLA (Project Labor Agreement) at (Buffalo’s) Roswell Park Cancer Institute), which was the second PLA ever negotiated and was patterned after the Boston Harbor PLA that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (9-0) in favor of in the early nineties.”

The concept and creation of a Building Trades’ War Room falls right in line with Boody’s demeanor.  Nicknamed “The Champ” in his younger days, Boody boxed while serving in the U.S. Navy.  He actually fought as a Golden Gloves middleweight in Buffalo’s now-gone Memorial Auditorium, making it to a semi-final round before his run came to an end.

It’s that fighter within Boody that propelled him up the Organized Labor Ladder over the years here in Western New York, where he’s still known for not only standing up for all Trades Workers, but for all Workers across the Buffalo Region. 

So it’s no surprise that a fighter like Boody would seek to take full advantage of what a War Room offers for not only Labor’s Leadership, but to benefit all Union Members.

With that said, he took a moment to put his cigar down and pull out a copy of an article that carried the headlined: Why Your Company Needs A War Room Like Uber that recently appeared in Forbes.  He’d taken a pen and crossed out the words Your Company and replaced it with Unions before crossing out the word Uber. 

In the Forbes article (https://www.forbes.com/sites/falonfatemi/2016/02/07/how-to-instill-a-war-room-mentality-in-your-team/#7ff0bff53541), its Author, Falon Fatemi, wrote about “installing a War Room mentality in your team” and how “the right outlook puts an ordinary (Labor Union) meeting on steroids.”

Fatemi outlined how to create a War Room and a War Room Mentality in her story, breaking it into sections: Huddle Up, Buckle Down; Reflect Your (Union’s) Values; Hire Battle-Ready People; Make War Time The Norm; and Prepare For Battle.

“It all about unlocking the Warrior potential of your team to win,” Fatemi wrote.

“I remember reading about corporations having a War Room.  Even if you google it, it comes up as a ‘corporate’ War Room.  But the ‘basis’ of a War Room ‘is to strategically come up with an agreed-to goal for all to buy into.’  This process ‘really bares one’s soul so that at the end of the day, it gets done and everyone is united,’” Boody said.

“Organized Labor ‘needs’ War Rooms ‘because, basically, we are at war.’  There are ‘too many Anti-Union/Anti-Worker entities out there and Labor cannot be happy to what is happening.’  Those people have ‘endless amounts of money and can do anything they want with it.’  ‘But there’s an old saying that there is so much power when you are unified.’  I remember back in the nineties, reading an article when the fight for PLAs began.  The ‘other side thought the Building Trades couldn’t come together – they said: ‘Don’t worry about the Building Trades, they’ll cannibalize themselves (to get work on a project).’  ‘The SOBs didn’t think (the Trades) could stand together,’” he continued.

This was the norm at the time because, Boody says, “there was a ‘lack of communication (in the Labor Movement in terms of) educating themselves to what was going on.’”

“But ‘it got better,’” he continued, “because ‘it has gotten both Public and Private Unions to sit together and discuss issues that impact them both.’  That’s because ‘no one is immune from these attacks’ from these Non-Union forces.  ‘For them, it’s all about money and profit and employer control.’  For example, take Amazon.  I read about a reporter who got inside and witnessed how their Workers ‘are being so horribly treated in the workplace’ - ‘that they can’t take breaks and have to urinate in a bottle so they don’t miss filling their quotas.’  ‘They’re afraid to take a bathroom break.’  These Workers ‘are being treated like shit.’  ‘They have families and have bills to pay too - just like the rest of us.’”

With the current state of attacks - from those on Prevailing Wage to Right-To-Work (for less) State Laws to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Anti-Worker agenda to the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Janus v. AFSCME - which could allow Union Members to opt out of paying Union Dues while requiring their Union to continue to represent them for free, Organized Labor War Rooms just might be needed more now than ever.

“So, ‘why aren’t more who attend Union meetings speaking up?’  ‘Aren’t they mad about what’s going on?’  ‘Only a few speak up.’  ‘How much better would they feel if they spoke up?’  And you know ‘there are a lot of Union people who attend those meetings who are saying what’s really on their minds to other Union Members, but in individual or private conversations.’  But,  again, ‘they won’t speak up publicly.’  By ‘not speaking up, you make all those’ Anti-Union people – ‘the Silent Majority I call them, feel they’re stronger and that they are winning,’” Boody lamented.

While he says he’s not spoken to individual area Labor Leaders about the idea of creating War Rooms to combat the onslaught of these assaults, Boody says he will keep speaking up at local Labor meetings - whether those in the room “like it or not.’

“Hopefully, some of the Labor Leaders in the room ‘will see the worth in what I’m suggesting,’” said Boody, releasing a swirl a smoke from his lit cigar.  “Maybe ‘they’ll approach me after to talk, but it hasn’t happened yet.’  ‘But in the end, it isn’t just about creating’ a War Room - ‘it’s about pulling and keeping people together because there is real power in our numbers.’”   

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: For More On Dan Boody And The Labor Legacy He Worked So Hard To Bring About, Watch WNYLaborToday.com’s Video News Report: Champ - A Tribute To WNY Labor Leader Dan Boody at: www.wnylabortoday.com/videos/wny-labor-news-now/february-2013-edition-segment-iv/?query=category.eq.WNY%20Labor%20News%20Now&back=Videos