and another back view

WHY DO I SQUEEZE 
ALL THESE DUNG  BALLS
LIKE THEY'RE FRUIT?


WHO     KNOWS

BUT FUCK.......
============================

  
February 24, 2005


EXCERPTS FROM:


Labor Debates Its Future

by David Moberg 

  
 
" Andy Stern is not shy 
about speaking his mind

 For several years 
the energetic
 54-year-old president
 of the 1.8 million-strong 
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

 the nation's second-largest 
and fastest-growing union

 has argued in a bold
   and often provocative way 

that the labor movement
 must organize new members 
faster or die

 And he claims that unions 
can do so
 despite a hostile political climate
 but only if they revamp 
their structure and strategy
 consolidating forces
 to create bigger
 more muscular unions 
in each sector of the economy....." 



 "STERN HAS  triggered 
a fiery internal debate
 that may reach some resolution 
at either the labor federation's
 March executive council meeting 
or this summer's quadrennial convention"

 "There's also 
the possibility 
that the arguments will set the stage
 for a dramatic contest 
for the presidency of the AFL-CIO 
and an organizational split
 on the fiftieth anniversary 
of the merger 
of its two forerunner federations"

" so far
 the discussion 
has been too much about
 the AFL-CIO and union structure
 and not enough about
 how to revitalize labor 
and a broader movement 
for economic democracy 
and social justice"

" This debate
 with no clear "left" or "right" side
 takes place against a grim backdrop..."



 "Does Stern--or anyone--have the answer?"

" Will any changes 
be too little
     too late? "
-------------------------------------------------------


"The AFL-CIO: In Weakness and in Strength "

"Ten years ago John Sweeney
 then president of SEIU 
and Stern's mentor
 challenged the incumbent leadership 
of the AFL-CIO on similar grounds"

" Unions had to work more aggressively
 to organize new members
 and increase their political power"

 " Since then the AFL-CIO
 has souped up its political operation
 greatly increasing unity
 energy
 sophistication and mobilization
 of staff and members" 

" But unions have not recognized 
the equal importance 
of working together 
and mobilizing members 
to organize new workers" 

"To the extent there's a glue
 that holds the AFL-CIO together,
 it's politics " 
says John Wilhelm
 the hospitality industry president 
of the merged UNITE HERE, 
"but there has not been 
a consensus over the proper role
   for the AFL-CIO in organizing."

"Compared with other citizen organizations
 Machinist president Tom Buffenbarger
 correctly argues
 unions are still strong"


" At the same time
 though
 they are becoming 
skinny weaklings 
facing corporate Charles Atlases"

" Most of their woes 
are inflicted from outside:
 corporate attacks
 on the right to organize
 laws that hamstring unions
 a global economy 
without meaningful labor rights
 a shift to a service economy
 with unstable employment relations 
and the ascendant pro-corporate
 political right"

" These forces have also weakened
 labor movements in many other industrial countries
 But in the United States unions
 have had less political support
 and many have become internally sclerotic
 have retreated from organizing 
  or are organized indiscriminately 
and ineffectively"

" The different positions 
in the current debate 
partly reflect
how much emphasis 
each union puts on changing
 the external environment
 (like Buffenbarger) 
or the internal workings
 of labor 
(like Stern) 
  as a key to labor revival" 

----------------------------------

 " Under Sweeney 
the AFL-CIO has tried to tackle both fronts
 It has exhorted unions 
to spend more on organizing 
(aiming for 30 percent 
of national budgets)
 trained more new organizers
 encouraged strategically targeted organizing
 and assisted organizing campaigns 
with money or staff

 Sweeney has also urged small unions 
to merge
there have been thirty-one mergers
 since he took office
and for unions to concentrate
 on increasing the density 
of union representation 
in their key industries

 Increasingly
 the federation has focused 
on a campaign for
 the right to organize
 including legislation 
that would grant recognition
 to unions that sign up a majority 
of employees at any workplace"

" But critics contend 
that Sweeney and his staff 
have run the AFL-CIO 
with tightly scripted meetings 
that discourage the open discussion 
among leaders 
needed to strengthen 
the labor movement 
and resolve the issues 
that are flaring up "

Now roughly twenty-five 
of the fifty-eight AFL-CIO unions
 devote 10-50 percent 
of their budgets to organizing
 up from an estimated average 
of 3 percent in the early 1990s
 Many are slowly changing 
their internal cultures 
to support organizing
 and are learning 
how to use collective bargaining
 political clout
 pension power
 member organizers 
and strategic planning
 to organize on a larger scale
 But despite their claims 
to be recruiting
 around half a million new members
 each year 
(though closer to 350,000
 during the 2004 election year)
 AFL-CIO unions have continued 
to lose ground 
at nearly the same rate 
as under Sweeney's predecessor
 according to Richard Hurd 
of Cornell University
 and the density 
of union representation
 continues to fall 
even in industries 
where unions have done 
their best organizing 
(with the exception 
of hospitals 
and possibly 
industrial laundries).


------------------------------------------------------
Stern's Determination

Stern's ideas about reorganizing 
the labor movement grew 
in part out of SEIU's success 
in organizing more than 730,000 workers
 in nine years
 mainly by building strength systematically
 in a few strategic industries
building services
 hospitals
 long-term-care providers

 He has even allowed 
some SEIU locals outside its core
 (like utility or laundry workers)
 to move to other unions
 But he has been frustrated
 by other unions' attempts 
to undercut SEIU's strategic campaigns
 (For example, as SEIU organized security guards 
in Los Angeles last year
 it had to fend off organizing 
by Teamsters
 Operating Engineer 
and independent union locals 
that offered employers deals
 to avoid SEIU.) 

Stern concluded 
that the labor movement 
should be reorganized 
from a collection 
of a few large general unions 
and many small
 narrow ones 
into about fifteen to twenty 
big unions
 each of which concentrates 
on a distinct economic sector
 like healthcare 
or transportation
 When unions represent 
a large share of workers
 in an industry
 they acquire more power
 to organize and bargain
 Since employers 
are increasingly multinational
 he argued
 unions need to reach across borders 
and become global as well

 

Even before Stern made his formal proposals
 last November
, many labor leaders
 had rejected his ideas 
on reorganization
 from his first offhand remarks 
soon after he took office
 to a long SEIU discussion document
 widely circulated several years ago

 They threatened 
the self-interest and practices 
of many union leaders
 and strategists from both left and right 
criticized them as arrogant
 self-interested
 unworkable
 analytically flawed 
or undemocratic

 But some labor leaders
 shared his views

 In the summer of 2003
 four other unions

--HERE (hotel workers),
 UNITE (historically garment and textile workers),
 the Laborers, 
and the Carpenters 
(which had already left the AFL-CIO)
--formed the New Unity Partnership (NUP)
 to cooperate on organizing. 

Then, last summer, 
Stern told his convention 
that either the AFL-CIO had to change
 or SEIU would form something better
 raising the specter of a split 
in organized labor
 like John L. Lewis's departure
 from the AFL in 1935 
to form the new CIO.

 

Stern's ten-point plan 
included much that was 
at first glance relatively noncontroversial
 
It called for a major national healthcare battle
 but skirted the crucial question
 of whether labor should pursue
 national health insurance 
Or piecemeal reforms. 

 fortyUNIONS  in the AFL-CIO HAVE  fewer than 
100,000 members
 they seztern don't  have the resources to organize

 Even more important
 most of the fifteen unions
 with more than 250,000 members
 were turning into general unions

 Sixteen unions 
in a recent four-year period
 had tried organizing
 in at least five different sectors

 And each sector was represented
 by many different unions

 In thirteen of fifteen major economic sectors 
there are at least four significant unions
 with as many as fifteen 
in transportation

 But in some of the biggest
 fastest-growing sectors 
there was very little organizing

 As a result, Stern sez
 unions are  unfocused and divided
 while they increasingly face
 national or global corporations
 

Stern proposed 
to unite workers "in the same industry
 sector or craft
 under three leading national unions
 with the idea that this would yield 
not just greater numbers 
but enhanced power and leverage
 for unions

 This strategy
 familiar to industrial
 or even craft union organizers
 of decades past
 collides with the shape 
of many unions today
 especially as they have tried
 to survive by merging 
or organizing simply 
to add members

 The plan also triggered 
a backlash 
because it seemed to give 
the AFL-CIO great authority 
to merge unions and transfer responsibilities 
for organizing among unions
 which critics regarded
 as an undemocratic violation
 of the traditional autonomy 
of individual unions

 Equally important
 Stern argued for three other reforms
 rebating to unions half their AFL-CIO dues 
as an incentive to boost spending
 on organizing
 prohibiting unions 
from undercutting established contract standards 
in an industry 
and mandating
 that the AFL-CIO either form 
new unions and innovative organizations 
or help old unions expand 
on labor's unorganized frontier.

Ideas, Ideas Everywhere

The debate picked up 
as the Teamsters
 then several other unions
 offered their own proposals
 and hundreds of union members 
weighed in on SEIU 
and AFL-CIO websites

 The discussion--both in public
 and in AFL-CIO committees-
-has been unusually free-ranging,
 leading Stern, Sweeney and others 
to feel more optimistic
 about reaching an agreement.


 "My hope is that we're going
 to have as dramatic a set 
of recommendations 
as we can possibly put together 
to grow the labor movement
 and to have a strong federation,
 but to be focused on where
 the affiliates want to be focused," Sweeney says.
 "We're not talking about 
cosmetic changes but meaningful changes." 

The proposals, reflecting individual union experience
 and self-interest,
 did not always directly respond
 to Stern's plan. 
Often the participants seem 
to be talking past each other
. And none of the plans, 
including Stern's, 
lay out a comprehensive strategy 
for an organizing revival.
 But at least there is a debate,
 which is healthy. 
The Teamsters, for example,
 emphasized AFL-CIO dues rebates 
for unions that meet standards
 for spending on organizing, 
encouraging more mergers,
 streamlining the AFL-CIO, 
enforcing contract standards 
in industries 
and giving a small committee 
of the ten biggest unions more power
--reinforcing many SEIU proposals 
in a more voluntaristic way

. Without directly addressing
 many structural issues
 AFSCME stressed expanding political operations
 into a full-time offensive,
 not just around elections. 

  

   
The Machinists, in opposition to Stern,
 emphasized using existing union power
 more effectively,
 especially to reach allies 
and the public. 
Taking issue with SEIU in a different way, 
the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) 
argued that unions should concentrate
 on their broad social goals 
as the "people's lobby," 
and rely on coalitions 
of any interested unions,
 not just the strongest few,
 to map strategy for each industry
 or occupation. 

As an alternative to radical restructuring,
 the Communications Workers of America (CWA) 
proposed strengthening unions
 (more union democracy,
 strike benefits and shop stewards) 
and focusing expanded political work 
on collective bargaining 
and organizing rights,
 healthcare and retirement security. 

As part of labor reform,
 nearly everyone wants 
to strengthen the local arms
 of the AFL-CIO, 
which have become innovative and influential
 in many cities, 
like Cleveland,
 Milwaukee 
and San Jose.

 But in a restructuring debate 
that has taken on a life of its own,
 there was tension between proposals 
for more control from the center
 and the plan of some local leaders
 to create seventy-five 
strategic metropolitan federations
 that could be more powerful 
in local politics,
 not just a vehicle
 for national policies. 


It became apparent early 
that there was no support, 
even among his immediate allies, 
for Stern's suggestions 
to give the AFL-CIO power 
to dictate mergers 
or organizing jurisdictions

 Indeed, insiders say other NUP leaders 
were furious when Stern 
launched his proposals independently

 By early January 
they decided to disband
 as a group
 even though they continued 
some projects together
 since being treated 
as a caucus hurt their effectiveness

 "Our goal now is to make 
the AFL-CIO 
and the unions in it
 as successful as possible,"
 Stern says.
 "The existence of NUP was a distraction.
 We can get back together again."

There is wide support 
for encouraging more voluntary mergers
 which can increase efficiency
 or help shrinking unions survive
 Yet many mergers
 such as the incorporation 
of some small garment unions 
into the United Food and Commercial Workers 
rather than UNITE, 
make little strategic sense.
 The question is,
 what qualifies as a "good" merger 
and who decides?

 For example, although the UNITE merger
 with HERE may ultimately work, 
it doesn't follow Stern's guidelines.

Stern wanted mergers 
to align unions 
with well-defined sectors
--although he later included 
both industries and occupations,
 blurring his categories.

 "I don't think you can decide 
to continue the AFL vs. CIO vs. Wobbly debate
 over the best way to organize unions," 
Stern says,
 referring to the debate 
over craft and industrial unionism
 "The AFL and CIO never reconciled
 their differences.
 They just decided to stop competing.
 We never philosophically
 reached agreement.
 And it's only gotten worse." 

That's certainly true,
 but logical as it seems, 
it's not always easy to define 
one best approach.
 For example, CWA executive vice president 
Larry Cohen argues 
that workers can have many communities 
of interest 
that unite them 
and give them power, 
including a common industry,
 employer, occupation or region.

 The balance among different
 potential organizational identities 
and strengths isn't always obvious.

 While some strategists 
think the construction craft unions
 should move toward a construction industry union,
 others argue that the craft model
 is not only still workable 
n construction but may also be appealing 
to many technical and professional workers

, who already are nearly half 
of all union members 
and a promising constituency
for organizing. 

One alternative to mergers 
or strategic leadership 
of a few unions 
along industry lines 
would be greater cooperation
 among all unions in an industry,
 as promoted by the AFT 
(which organizes nurses,
 an area SEIU sees as part of its
 healthcare domain). 

But Stern is skeptical.
 "We've talked to [the AFT] 
many times about doing things jointly,
" he said with some pique.
 "It's never happened in healthcare,
 our industry,
 or in their industry, school systems. 
Voluntarism doesn't work. 
The [multi-union] Houston Organizing Project
 didn't work. 
The building trades project 
in Las Vegas didn't work.
 We've got to stop trying things 
that don't work. 
We are in a voluntary association
 that has tried voluntary efforts,
 and we're now down to 8 percent
      of the private sector."

If the objective 
is increased union growth,
 it's not clear 
that mergers are the answer.
 Whatever merits they offer,
 union mergers 
in the United States 
and around the world
 rarely lead to union growth,
 according to several studies
, certainly not without
 serious internal transformation.

 Indeed, competition among unions
 actually stimulated organizing
 when both the AFL and CIO
 were fighting for members
 before their merger in 1955.

 But with Bush rather 
than FDR in the White House 
and no sign of a spontaneous working-class upsurge
 competition now seems
 more likely to be counterproductive
 The big question is whether unions 
can learn to work more closely together
 perhaps turning 
the AFL-CIO into a real alliance
 as NUP was trying to do among a few unions
 not a feudal court
 Under such conditions
 with each union 
more accountable
 to every other as well as
 to its members
 productive realignments 
might develop more naturally.

"There's no panacea, 
whether spending more money or mergers," 
Stern says, 
"but there are things 
that work better or worse.
 Resources matter, 
strategy matters,
 staff and leadership matter,
 collective bargaining matters.
 None is sufficient alone.
 When you're missing too many, 
there's no possibility for growth.
 When we have ten or twenty unions,
 does the world change overnight?
 No. But I guarantee that there will be
 no change if we don't." 

It's unclear whether a workable compromise 
can be forged.
 UNITE HERE's Wilhelm,
 who declines comment
 on perpetual rumors
 that he will challenge Sweeney 
for the AFL-CIO presidency,
 favors a few unions' 
taking the lead in core industries 
but recognizes that many will keep 
organizing outside their usual jurisdictions.

 "It's clear we're not going 
to be able to make 
a set of rules preventing people 
from organizing outside their industry,"
 he says
 "but if we look at the 90 percent
 [of workers] 
who are unorganized
 and divvy up responsibility
 we can do a lot
 If we fight over a tiny portion
 of the workforce 
while 90 percent are unorganized,
 it's stupid." 

If each union can be persuaded 
to lay out a strategic plan
, showing how much 
it will devote to organizing 
in both its historic core 
and in wide-open areas, 
they might find they have 
more than enough
 to do without stepping 
on each other.

There is substantial support 
for giving unions dues rebates 
to encourage organizing 
in their core areas,
 but there are several problems.
 Not only is it tricky
 to define each union's core,
 it's hard to determine
 who would qualify, 
though giving rebates
 only for successful organizing
 might work best.

 Massive rebates would also eat deeply
 into the AFL-CIO budget.

 Although there's widespread support
 for streamlining the AFL-CIO,
 there are virtually no proposals 
on what to cut. 
Indeed, nearly every plan 
proposes costly new programs 
for the fed,
 such as helping to start
 new unions 
in unorganized industries 
as both the AFL and CIO did years ago

. "You can't have a rebate discussion
 before you have a discussion
 of the roles and responsibilities
 of the federation and affiliates,"
 argues Laborers president 
Terry O'Sullivan, 
"and then based on that discussion,
 what kind of budget you need." 

If union leaders seem not to have 
resolved desires to both streamline
 and expand the AFL-CIO, 
they do want more 
of a voice about whatever it does.
 But the plan to give more power
 to the ten to fifteen biggest unions
 pushed by the Teamsters
 has led women and minorities 
who had long fought 
to gain a place 
on the expanded executive committee 
to complain 
that they would be shut out
 with a small group 
of white men in power. 

Many agree at least in principle 
on expanding and making permanent 
labor's successful political work.

 AFSCME particularly emphasizes 
reaching workers in suburbs 
and exurbs where labor was weak 
in the 2004 elections, 
developing a stronger labor presence
 in the red states 
and strengthening 
the new Working America organization
 for nonunion workers. 

But there's emerging disagreement
 on strategy. 

While many unions want 
to concentrate on expanding labor's 
influence within the Democratic Party

 Wilhelm, with support from others,
 argues for greater independence
 from the Democrats. 

Unions, he says, 
should be
"not only much more open 
to sensible Republicans 
but we need to find opportunities
 to withhold support 
from Democrats 
who don't support working people 
and, where appropriate, 
run in primaries 
with people who do support working people."

It's Not Just the Structure 

Broad as the debate has been,
 it hasn't focused much 
on the vision and purpose 
of the movement,
 or on developing a strategy
 that new structures should serve.
 Some think it's been 
"vacuous and empty," 
in the words of one organizer,
 for failing to emphasize 
grassroots mobilization. 

"I think we need more focus on members'
 role in winning back the right
 to organize and bargain collectively
 than we've had in this discussion," 
says AFL-CIO organizing director Stewart Acuff

. "And, of course,
 mobilizing members requires 
members to have real investment 
and ownership in their unions." 

Indeed, research by Kate Bronfenbrenner
 of Cornell University 
shows that unions win most often 
when they mount multifaceted campaigns 
built around workers' acting 
as if they were already in a union

 Although on opposite sides 
regarding structural issues
 both Cohen of the CWA 
and O'Sullivan of the Laborers agree
 as O'Sullivan says, 
that "this is about worker empowerment.
 We need to actively engage 
our rank-and-file workers 
more than ever before." 

But there are differing views
 of what worker empowerment means
. "I don't think people join unions
 for democracy in this country,"
 claims Stern, 
who has faced internal rebellions 
and criticism for shortchanging democracy 
within SEIU. 

"I think they join unions
 to gain strength to change their lives
 So it's not like democracy 
isn't a value
 but democracy isn't an end"
rights and power at work are

 Member mobilization is important for power
 but democracy does not always lead 
to mobilization
 Stern argues
 and without the strength 
that comes from good organizing
 there's no possibility 
for real industrial democracy

 Although members can be educated 
to support organizing
 they are often inclined 
to favor more services 
for themselves or lower dues
 not organizing. 

With a swipe at SEIU,
 the AFT argues 
that a strategy for union renewal
 must focus on labor's broad social values
 not just union power
 structures and procedures
 "If we believe 
in self-determination 
in the society at large
 our movement needs 
to promote democracy 
in crafting the means 
for getting there," 
the AFT proposal states.
 "We cannot [adopt] corporate culture
 vocabulary and values
 as our own and thereby run 
the risk of simply redistributing power 
within a diminishing labor movement
 instead of increasing power for
 and for the good of
 all working people everywhere." 

"The fundamental question,"
 Cohen argues,
 "is a voice at work--not only a voice,
 but effective participation
 in the way decisions are made at work." 
If that's the goal, 
then internal union democracy 
is necessary but not sufficient.
 It's necessary because 
workers do want a union 
in which they ultimately make decisions
 and can check abuses of power
 not simply a force working 
on their behalf
 And a union in which members
 do not have a voice 
is not likely to provide the voice
 at work that an increasingly well-educated 
workforce wants
But democracy alone 
is not an organizing strategy
 Unions need effective structures
 organizers who can mobilize members
 adequate resources
 solidarity
 strategy and leadership

 Those are neither identical 
to democracy nor guaranteed
 by democracy

 Ultimately, workers are not
 well served by either
 weak democratic 
or strong autocratic institutions

 

The need for strategic
 focused growth for power
 is undeniable
 Stern rightly urges unions
 to build institutions 
that can match the power 
of global corporations 
and raise the standards
 for workers across an industry
 But it is equally important
 to create a broad working-class movement
 for economic democracy 
driven by existing union members 
and newly recruited workers
 Whatever compromise structural reforms 
they finally adopt
 labor leaders must overcome 
their institutional rivalries 
to recognize 
that they have at least as much shared interest
 in the success of organizing 
as they do in political victory

 The cheery side of labor's plight 
is that even though 
there are many obstacles to organizing
 there's no shortage of opportunities

 The next few months 
will test how labor plans 
to rise to that challenge." 

BLAH  DEE BLAH BLAH BLAH 

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