WORKING

OF AND
RELATING TO
LABOR


Summer of Labor
Unions stage a comeback, but can it last?

by Doug Collins
The Free Press

At the very least, labor leaders have proved this year that they're not just sitting in the union hall playing cards. The national AFL-CIO, which some might have mistaken for dead a few years ago, has kicked off two lively campaigns: "America Needs a Raise" and "Union Summer" are traveling to many US cities this year, including Seattle. Homegrown campaigns in Washington and Oregon will provide an extra kick. Although these campaigns provide a hopeful glimmer, union leaders will eventually have to take bolder electoral steps before their act will succeed.
America Needs a Raise is a traveling town hall meeting which promotes the importance of a "living wage". It brings testimony of local low-wage workers directly to the podium. Hosted by AFL-CIO vice president Linda Chavez-Thompson, the show came to Seattle in early May. Directly after the meeting, Chavez-Thompson steered a crowd of about 100 to a rally in front of Browning-Ferris Industries' Southpark recycling plant in Seattle, where non-union workers are earning wages significantly below those of unionized waste-handlers in the county. In Oregon, the campaign has accompanied a local drive to raise the state's minimum wage to $6.50.
The other national campaign, Union Summer, is modeled after Freedom Summer, the 1964 civil rights drive which brought thousands of college students to voter registration efforts in the South. Some 1,000 mostly college-age people will be employed for three week stints in at least 18 cities. They'll be trained in organizing techniques, and put to work in the field. Beginning on June 8, about 20 of them will help the Teamsters do battle in Seattle against Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI).

Local Eye on BFI
A non-union newcomer to waste-handling in King County, BFI has become a target of an innovative organizing campaign. Nearly all waste-handlers in the area have historically been union "ever since they were pulled by horses," notes Teamster organizer Steve Williamson. Employees at BFI's Seattle site are mostly Iraqi refugees and Hispanics, 70% of whom have already signed cards of intent to form a union.


Area Teamsters have kicked off an innovative pressure campaign against non-union Browning-Ferris Industries.

But instead of taking the traditional next organizing step, a certification election, Teamsters are first mounting a public pressure campaign against BFI, distributing postcards asking Seattle and King County officials not to grant BFI any government contracts until it shapes up its labor and environmental record. Williamson explains that many large companies are too good at countering your average union election. "They'll fire the active workers, and be forced to hire them back a year later, but by then the campaign is lost."

A separate in-state labor innovation has been a pro-union advertising campaign in papers, radio, and TV. People in Spokane, Yakima, and Olympia have already seen these ads, put out by the Foundation for Working Families. "The ultimate goal of the program is to change public opinion about unions from negative to positive," writes state Labor Council spokesperson Karen Keiser.

Still No Electoral Focus
Labor is beginning to see that US workers are nearing a kindling temperature, and is positioning itself to be the banner-bearer for grass-roots discontent. Still, labor is suffering from a large gap in thinking between labor leaders and actual workers.

Labor leaders shop for the union label, but most workers shop for a good price. Labor leaders at Boeing called for an early end to strikes, but workers voted to keep on striking, and won better contracts. Labor leaders are by-and-large allied with Democrats, but 37 percent of rank-and-file members voted Republican in the 1994 election, according to a recent article in US News. These differences show that workers feel the economic pinch, and are ready to fight. But they have no good political focus to help channel their fight. Although they outnumber Christian Coalition members by about 10 to 1, union members perhaps pack less of an electoral punch.
Although they are undeniably steps in the right direction, Union Summer and other labor campaigns this year don't add much electoral oomph to the movement. As long as the Democrats and Republicans are mostly driven by corporate contributions and $1000-a-plate fundraising dinners, there's little real space for blue collars in either party. Neither party is even considering raising the minimum wage to meet the poverty line, and forget about the national health insurance that the rest of the civilized world has.
Union leaders have demonstrated a great increase in political savvy this year, but they could benefit by cultivating better grassroots. More than ever, conditions are crying out for a union-backed Labor Party, which would act as an efficient, overarching focus of effort. Americans workers are ready for a good electoral fight, but are their union leaders? Some certainly are. Union leaders representing roughly a million US workers have endorsed the new Labor Party, which had its founding convention earlier this month. In Seattle, the ATU #587 (Metro bus drivers) the APWU Seattle (postal workers), two Longshoreworkers locals, and five other locals, have endorsed the new party. The success of labor for the decades after Union Summer depends in large part on the momentum of the Labor Party and other electoral reforms.





Working Around
RUSSIA- Trade unions have attempted to pass a law defining the rights and guarantees for their activities. The law passed both chambers of the Federal Assembly, but was vetoed by President Yeltsin. In other news, government enterprises in the country have lapsed on paying employees, and owe some U.S. $2 billion in back pay. In 1995, there were about 6,000 strikes in the nation, many over the issue of nonpayment of wages. (587 News Review)

PAKISTAN- The Clinton administration in March imposed partial trade restrictions on Pakistan for it's failure to abolish bonded labor and child labor. The U.S. Dept. of Labor estimates that there are more than half a million children in servitude in carpet factories in Pakistan and India.

HAITI- The average worker at Quality Garments in Port-au-Prince earns about $1.67 a day (minimum wage is $2.40). After paying bus fare and lunch, the worker takes home less than a dollar a day in this piece-rate factory. Piece-rate work was banned by President Aristide a year ago, but the practice continues. Workers at Classic Apparel say they have been attaching "Made in USA" labels to League Leader brand clothes made in Haiti. The brand is sold in Wal-Mart stores. (Multinational Monitor)

UNITED STATES- Several large companies, including Boeing and AT&T, have hired PR heavyweight Hill and Knowlton to undertake a pro-China campaign. The firm has been lobbying Congress and paying scholars to write pro-China op-ed pieces for major newspapers. In 1994, soon after Clinton extended China's favorable trade status, the Chinese government began long-delayed trials of labor organizers and other dissidents. (Multinational Monitor)

DETROIT- Circulation at Detroit's Free Press and News have dropped 50 percent since the beginning of the 11-month strike, according to a union survey. The Newspapers claim they have not lost that much circulation, but have refused to release their circulation stats to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, a national company used by advertisers to confirm readership. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has called for a "do not buy" campaign against USA Today, published by Gannett, which also publishes the News. (AFL-CIO News)

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Contents on this page were published in the July/August, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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