Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/category/organizing/page/47/)
“What is it going to take to make sure the leadership of the labor
movement looks like the membership of the labor movement?”
That was the question posed Saturday to several hundred labor activists
attending the National Summit on Labor and Diversity.
Two days before the national AFL-CIO convention was set to begin,
delegates who represent local central labor councils and state federations
cheered AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and his lieutenants at a late afternoon
gathering.
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.
As international unions head for this month’s pivotal AFL-CIO convention ? a convention that could spark the most serious split in the nation’s labor movement in 70 years ? Minnesota union leaders say they don’t want “you’re with us or your against us” edicts that force them to quit cooperating with each other.
At the core of the very public dispute among unions nationally are conflicting strategies for rebuilding and reorganizing the nation’s labor movement.
Watch for updates in this special section on the changes going on in the labor movement.
In his new book, The Blue Eagle at Work, author Charles Morris makes the case for a feasible, legal, and powerful way for U.S. unions to organize new workplaces. Read Professor John Budd’s review.
Where is labor going? What should unions do? Professor Charles Morris’ call to re-examine an old method of organizing should be considered on labor’s ideas list, former union staffer Tom Beer writes in this review.
A labor law scholar who argues that workers don’t need to win a majority vote to form a union will speak at two upcoming events in the Twin Cities.
Concerned that rancorous debate among national unions could irreparably harm the future of the labor movement, Minnesota unionists are issuing a call for unity.