(Doug Collins will return as Working columnist next issue)
There it was, month after month - that face. Stern, peering out from behind formidable glasses, the round head covered with gray stubble, the mouth turned in a perpetual scowl, cigar thrust forward ominously. Even the name - "Meany" - was enough to give a small child a scare. For myself and virtually all Americans under 50, the gruff media visage of George Meany, head of the AFL-CIO, and later the less visible but inscrutable one of Lane Kirkland, ended up symbolizing what we knew of organized labor. A leadership ponderous and insular - when combined with frequent stories about Teamsters and the mob - crystallized a view of unions as a spent, historical force best left in the past.
Is the once proud union movement a fading relic? Aren't unions an impediment to our new happy world of high-tech, post-industrial abundance?
No, and for three reasons. First, unions now as always are a main bulwark against the degradation of work. If you like the eight-hour day, overtime after 40 hours, and health and safety standards on the job, you have unions to thank. Not only did unions work to create better conditions in their workplaces, but they also prompted non-union employers to improve working conditions in order to meet the union challenge.
Second, the strength of union movements is directly correlated with social reform. In every country where unionization is high, social benefits are better, medical care is universal, and family support is adequate. In the US, unions have been - and are - the only national movement solely dedicated to improving the quality of workers' lives.
Lastly, the days of stodgy leadership and political myopia in the union movement are over. Meany explicitly disavowed the need to organize new workers, and was a major supporter of the Vietnam War. While Kirkland maintained an efficient lobbying presence in Washington, he was more intent on hobnobbing it with high foreign policy officials, and helping in an anachronistic fight against communism.
As October's AFL-CIO Convention showed, the winds of change in the labor movement have reached gale-force. A hard-fought election between Kirkland's hand-picked successor Tom Donahue, and Service Employees President John Sweeney led to a Sweeney victory. Sweeney justified his campaign by noting that "organized labor is the only voice of American workers and their families and the silence is deafening." The struggle between "new" and "old" guard led to unprecedented commitments to new organizing. The AFL-CIO now has a central organizing fund, and Sweeney has vowed to increase organizing funds fivefold. Sweeney has the record to back up his talk, doubling the ranks of his own union by organizing mostly low-wage service industry workers. The AFL-CIO has also begun to change its "white male" image, revamping its Executive Council so that over one-third of its members are female, black, or Latino.
Change is evident throughout the union movement. The Teamsters are a new union dedicated both to democracy, and to weeding out the last vestiges of corruption. A series of mergers of related unions is eliminating duplication, reducing competition between unions, and ensuring a united front. The Steelworkers, Autoworkers, and Machinists have agreed to form a national industrial union modeled on Germany's powerful IG Metall. The new union is committed to working with management to compete in the global economy, but from a position of strength which protects workers' rights. The two major clothing unions recently merged to form Unite!, which will provide new strength in fighting the reemergence of sweatshops.
Labor is finally getting off its back, and not a moment too soon. A great explosion of lousy service jobs, most of which offer low pay with few benefits, provide no one with a real future. And the steady erosion of "quality" jobs under the relentless stock market-driven pressure for downsizing and the increased use of temps with no benefits and other cost-cutting measures are driving even "upscale" workers to think union. For example, in New York the Buffalo Bills cheerleaders just joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and 1,000 fashion models have applied to join the Office and Professional Employees Union.
If your job has no medical care, if you can be fired at a moments notice, if your boss is a tyrant, who you gonna call? Bill Gates? Newt Gingrich? Linda Smith? One look at proposals from the current Congress - and many current workplaces - makes it clear that there is no "floor" on working conditions if people are unwilling or unable to fight.
Working Around
Staley Strikers
ILLINOIS. The Staley company locked out 762 workers from its Decatur, Illinois corn-sweetener plant in 1993. Staley is demanding the right to contract out every worker's job and to impose rotating 12-hour shifts, in which workers would switch from dayshift to nightshift every six days. (Try having a family with those hours). PepsiCo is one of Staley's biggest customers. Although Pepsi is making claims that it does not buy product from "Staley in Decatur," it buys massive quantities from Staley's non-union plants outside Decatur. The Staley Workers Campaign urges you to tell Pepsi to dump Staley. Pepsi CEO Wayne Callaway can be phoned at 800/433-2652.
Decatur police spray pepper gas on Staley workers and supporters, June 25, 1994. The long Staley conflict is one of many signs of increasing labor militancy around the U.S.
Labor Party Advocates
WASHINGTON. As thousands of striking Boeing workers rallied in Everett last month, members of the newly formed Seattle chapter of Labor Party Advocates worked the crowd, arguing for the need to create a new grassroots working-class political party. "Most people hadn't heard of us," says LPA member Jeff Ingalls, "but we're broadening our reach." LPA had a large banner up near the front of the crowd when newly elected AFL-CIO President John Sweeney addressed the rally. Ingalls says he encountered resistance from some Democrats and he was not allowed to speak at an open mic after he told organizers of the rally that he was from LPA. For information about LPA meeting times and upcoming events or actions, call the LPA Hotline at 382-5712.
Right to Work Foundation
WASHINGTON. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation began operations in Washington recently. Their first action was to file a labor relations complaint against the union security clause at the Bon Marche department stores. The so-called "right-to-work" law is a loophole in the National Labor Relations Act which permits states to prohibit employers from negotiating union security "closed shop" agreements, in which all represented employees must pay union dues. Some states, especially in the South, have passed such a law. The average annual pay in right-to-work states is about $4,000 less per worker than in other states. (587 News Review and AFL-CIO)
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