LABOR: CHANGING TO WIN?

LABOR: CHANGING TO WIN?
By Dick Meister

The U.S. labor movement, split into sometimes hostile factions two years
ago, is coming back together to wage campaigns aimed at recruiting thousands
of new union members and greatly strengthening labor’s growing political
clout.

Although the seven unions that left the AFL-CIO in 2005 to form their own
federation – Change to Win – remain outside the larger federation, they
are pursuing the same goals as AFL-CIO affiliates, in some cases jointly
with them.

The AFL-CIO and the seven seceding affiliates – some of the country’s most
militant, influential and successful unions – had argued heatedly over
whether to put their major emphasis on organizing new members or on
political activities.

“Politics!” said the AFL-CIO, noting that unions could not grow in strength
and numbers until labor-friendly politicians reformed the labor laws and saw
to it that they were strictly enforced.

“Organizing!” countered the seven unions. If unions put their primary
efforts into organizing, that would be enough to reverse their steady
decline. The numbers alone would cause politicians to side with labor.

But the two factions are now in effect putting equal emphasis on organizing
and politics – and beginning to put much more money and much more effort
into both.

That’s essential if they are to reach the primary political goal they share
-- helping elect a pro-labor president next year to replace the virulently
anti-labor George Bush, while also helping elect pro-labor majorities in the
House and Senate.

That in turn would very likely lead to realizing the federations’ primary
organizing goal. That’s enactment of the long-proposed Employee Free Choice
Act which unions, whatever their differences, unanimously see as absolutely
necessary if they are to significantly increase their ranks. It would plug
gaping holes in the National Labor Relations Act that have allowed employers
to block millions of workers from unionizing.

The lack of firm legal rights is the main reason only about 12 percent of
American workers are in unions. Studies by government, academic and union
researchers show fear of employer reprisal keeps at least 40 million workers
who want to unionize from even trying. Every year, more than 60,000 of those
who do try are punished, half of them fired.

Change to Win and the AFL-CIO share other important political goals. They
include creation of a government-financed universal health care system, a
guarantee of decent pensions for all workers and truly equal pay for women,
tightened and stepped up enforcement of job safety regulations in mines and
other workplaces and another increase in the minimum wage. They also want an
immigration system that fully protects the rights of foreign and domestic
workers alike and fair trade laws that penalize countries that violate
workers’ union rights and other human rights and endanger the environment.

The federations are planning to put millions of dollars into campaigns to
elect pro-labor Democrats, and spend millions as well on new organizing
campaigns and on training thousands of organizers. They’re hoping to sign up
more than a quarter-million new members in the next few years.

The biggest push is coming from the Change to Win members: the Teamsters,
Service Employees, Farm Workers, Carpenters, Laborers, Food and Commercial
Workers and Unite Here, which represents mainly hotel, restaurant and
textile workers. They have already launched drives seeking union rights for
some 200,000 truck and bus drivers, supermarket clerks, construction
workers. and others.

AFL-CIO affiliates have meanwhile been signing up significant numbers of new
members. Newly released figures show that 10 affiliates grew by more than 10
percent between 2004 and 2006. That added nearly 300,000 union members to
the AFL-CIO’s ranks, the largest increase in several decades.

The emergence of a rival labor federation obviously has helped reinvigorate
the labor movement generally, just as the emergence of the Congress of
Industrial Organizations as a rival to the American Federation of Labor in
the 1930s led to a resurgence. That helped spur union growth to the point
that by the 1950s one of every three U.S. workers belonged to a union and
organized labor became a major political force.

It could happen again.

Copyright © 2007 Dick Meister

Story ID:	3072
Written by:	Dick Meister (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Musings, Essays and Such
Location:	Everywhere USA
Year:	2007