Saying "institutions need to transform themselves to be successful" in the new global environment, Service Employees President Andrew Stern is contending the AFL-CIO must do so, too.
In an exclusive interview with labor writers several weeks before the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago, Stern, president of the federation's largest union, reiterated the 12.95-million-member organization must undergo a top-to-bottom restructuring, making itself more centralized to fight top-down corporations that easily move around the world to exploit workers. Stern is the moving force behind the year-long revamp debate.
That means more organizing in core industries, and more joint organizing campaigns, Stern adds. It also means that unions must concentrate in key areas and not try to organize workers willy-nilly where they can find them.
Stern told reporters he believes his union coalition, which is pushing for radical change in the AFL-CIO, "probably shares the same goals" as current leaders of the labor movement "but we just disagree on how to get there." That disagreement may well lead to a split at the Chicago conclave.
Stern touched off the revamp debate at his 1.354-million member union's convention in San Francisco in June 2004. He said then the AFL-CIO should become more top-down, that there should be forced union mergers of smaller unions into larger ones and that the emphasis should be almost totally on organizing. Failing that major revamp, the AFL-CIO should be broken up, he added.
"Do we believe the AFL is waking up every day with a prime goal to organize the 91 percent of private workers who are not organized, and not take care of the 9 percent who are?" he asked rhetorically in the interview this month. "How can we get common strategies, so that industries that are divided -- like the airlines -- can be bargained with?"
Stern also advocates accountability, with unions having to meet set targets for organizing in their core industries. He claims without accountability, unions are free to organize whom they can where they can, even in each others' industries. "It's a smorgasbord where you can pick and choose" who to organize, he comments.
"We can't just be a member of a club with no standards whatsoever," he says of the AFL-CIO.
And Stern disagreed with what he deems to be an overfocus on politics by federation President John Sweeney and his allies. The revamp debate accelerated after labor turned out in record numbers and spent more money than ever before on politics last year, concentrating on electing Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, to the exclusion of virtually everything else. Even organizers got diverted to the campaign. And then Kerry lost to anti-worker GOP nominee George W. Bush.
"We don't just elect Democratic politicians. It seems that's what their strategy is," Stern said of Sweeney and his backers. He especially criticized the federation for backing Democrats who could well turn around and vote for the job-losing Bush-pushed Central American Free Trade Agreement.
If Stern and his allies in the "Change to Win" group don't win at the convention, "if there's not a focus and strategy for rewarding workers, then we'll pursue one on our own, respectfully -- hoping that we succeed and they succeed," he adds. That means withdrawing from the AFL-CIO.
Stern's union, the federation's largest, and the 1.054-million United Food and Commercial Workers have formally voted to disaffiliate -- withdraw -- from the AFL-CIO if their wide-ranging revamp plan is defeated at Chicago.
"They made some changes," Stern says of the current leaders, including Sweeney, one of his predecessors as SEIU president. "But they don't quite get it. We can't be a loose federation in a world where voluntarism and wishful thinking is not the way to success."
But even the radical revamp that Stern advocates doesn't go far enough, he admits. With corporations -- both industrial firms and service firms, such as janitorial service companies his union deals with -- going global, "country-based unions in a global economy are not sufficient," he says. So janitors' unions worldwide will also gather in Chicago, in August, to form their own international coalition.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
For more information
Visit the Workday Minnesota special section, Labor's Future
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Saying “institutions need to transform themselves to be successful” in the new global environment, Service Employees President Andrew Stern is contending the AFL-CIO must do so, too.
In an exclusive interview with labor writers several weeks before the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago, Stern, president of the federation’s largest union, reiterated the 12.95-million-member organization must undergo a top-to-bottom restructuring, making itself more centralized to fight top-down corporations that easily move around the world to exploit workers. Stern is the moving force behind the year-long revamp debate.
That means more organizing in core industries, and more joint organizing campaigns, Stern adds. It also means that unions must concentrate in key areas and not try to organize workers willy-nilly where they can find them.
Stern told reporters he believes his union coalition, which is pushing for radical change in the AFL-CIO, “probably shares the same goals” as current leaders of the labor movement “but we just disagree on how to get there.” That disagreement may well lead to a split at the Chicago conclave.
Stern touched off the revamp debate at his 1.354-million member union’s convention in San Francisco in June 2004. He said then the AFL-CIO should become more top-down, that there should be forced union mergers of smaller unions into larger ones and that the emphasis should be almost totally on organizing. Failing that major revamp, the AFL-CIO should be broken up, he added.
“Do we believe the AFL is waking up every day with a prime goal to organize the 91 percent of private workers who are not organized, and not take care of the 9 percent who are?” he asked rhetorically in the interview this month. “How can we get common strategies, so that industries that are divided — like the airlines — can be bargained with?”
Stern also advocates accountability, with unions having to meet set targets for organizing in their core industries. He claims without accountability, unions are free to organize whom they can where they can, even in each others’ industries. “It’s a smorgasbord where you can pick and choose” who to organize, he comments.
“We can’t just be a member of a club with no standards whatsoever,” he says of the AFL-CIO.
And Stern disagreed with what he deems to be an overfocus on politics by federation President John Sweeney and his allies. The revamp debate accelerated after labor turned out in record numbers and spent more money than ever before on politics last year, concentrating on electing Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, to the exclusion of virtually everything else. Even organizers got diverted to the campaign. And then Kerry lost to anti-worker GOP nominee George W. Bush.
“We don’t just elect Democratic politicians. It seems that’s what their strategy is,” Stern said of Sweeney and his backers. He especially criticized the federation for backing Democrats who could well turn around and vote for the job-losing Bush-pushed Central American Free Trade Agreement.
If Stern and his allies in the “Change to Win” group don’t win at the convention, “if there’s not a focus and strategy for rewarding workers, then we’ll pursue one on our own, respectfully — hoping that we succeed and they succeed,” he adds. That means withdrawing from the AFL-CIO.
Stern’s union, the federation’s largest, and the 1.054-million United Food and Commercial Workers have formally voted to disaffiliate — withdraw — from the AFL-CIO if their wide-ranging revamp plan is defeated at Chicago.
“They made some changes,” Stern says of the current leaders, including Sweeney, one of his predecessors as SEIU president. “But they don’t quite get it. We can’t be a loose federation in a world where voluntarism and wishful thinking is not the way to success.”
But even the radical revamp that Stern advocates doesn’t go far enough, he admits. With corporations — both industrial firms and service firms, such as janitorial service companies his union deals with — going global, “country-based unions in a global economy are not sufficient,” he says. So janitors’ unions worldwide will also gather in Chicago, in August, to form their own international coalition.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
For more information
Visit the Workday Minnesota special section, Labor’s Future