Let's not kid ourselves, the AFL-CIO's national organizing director says. Whether we realize it or not, we've lost the right to unionize in the United States ? and it's our duty to win it back.

Accomplishing that will require union members to understand the crisis, then to attack it, Stuart Acuff told the Minnesota AFL-CIO's Organizing Conference May 18.

"It is our moral obligation to future and past generations" to restore the right to organize, he said. The willingness, or unwillingness, of regular union members to take on the fight will determine the future of the nation's labor movement, he said ? and perhaps of the nation itself.

"There is no example in history of a industrial or post-industrial democracy absent a viable and vibrant labor movement," Acuff said in an interview with The Union Advocate after his speech. "Without a labor movement, sooner or later, economic inequality trumps political democracy, and overwhelms political democracy . . . This is a very real crisis for the America we love, which is based on some sense of fairness and justice and democracy. This is a crisis for the country, not just for the labor movement."

Don't ignore reality other workers face
Though the right to organize still exists on paper, "the law is hopelessly broken" in the United States, Acuff said. "We are in a deep and real and serious crisis."

Workers' rights have been under attack for 30 years ? regardless of who has been president, he said. That is one reason the share of American workers in a union has plummeted from one-third in the 1950s to less than 13 percent now, including less than 9 percent in the private sector.

"Now, when workers try to join unions, they are routinely punished, retaliated against, intimidated," Acuff said. Each year, 20,000 workers are fired or otherwise victimized for trying to organize a union in their workplace ? and that's according to the federal government's own count.

Even when companies blatantly break labor law, there is no real punishment, he said. "The only punishment is posting a notice saying you won't do it again." Even union members don't realize how bad it is, because most join a union that's already established in their workplace.

Stuart Acuff: ?We can kiss our dreams goodbye if we allow corporate America and the radical right-wing to destroy the effectiveness of the American labor movement." Union Advocate photo

'The engine for social justice'
Acuff cited the widening gap between the wealthiest Americans and working Americans; the erosion of stable jobs, health insurance and retirement security; and more than 60 recent National Labor Relations Board rulings that he said have weakened protection for workers. "We are under attack," he said. "Our values, our way of life, are under attack."

But losing a labor movement means more than losing a middle class, he said. "Those of us who . . believe in social justice and economic justice ? we can kiss our dreams goodbye if we allow corporate America and the radical right-wing to destroy the effectiveness of the American labor movement.

"Look anywhere in the world. The engine for social justice since the Industrial Age has always been the labor movement. If we don't force them to recognize and restore the right of American workers to form a union, they will take with that our dreams of a just America."

Trying to organize a union "is one of the highest forms of human endeavor," Acuff said, but unions can't do it alone. Progressives, elected officials and all kinds of community allies need to help, he said.

"We have to organize; we have no option." Unions need to launch "broad, deep, aggressive, offensive battles. We have got to take it to them . . . We have to be willing to lose, but we have to have more fights. We'll lose some of those fights, but we've got to confront more corporations with this, and we've got to give this opportunity to more workers."

Acuff said unions will be much more strategic in launching larger campaigns against stridently anti-union monoliths like Wal-Mart and Comcast. More unions are likely to leverage bargaining power and other corporate campaigns to organize nonunion workers at companies they already represent.

Holding politicians accountable
He suggested that unions will be more forceful in demanding that the Democratic Party and other allies make the right to organize a centerpiece of what they stand for. "If there?s going to be a litmus test, this ought to be it," Acuff said.

The same holds true for candidates and elected officials seeking labor's endorsement. "There's no need to support any politician with our work and our money unless they sign a pledge to do whatever it takes for workers to win a union."

One of those new expectations is support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would reform labor law by increasing leverage against companies that break the law, eliminating hurdles workers now face in organizing, and mandating binding arbitration if a first contract can't be settled.

Last year, the legislation gained bipartisan support from 38 senators and 210 representatives. This year, it already has 37 sponsors in the Senate and 178 in the House, only one month after being re-introduced.

The Organizing Conference included five workshops and, just as important to state AFL-CIO organizing director Tim Geelan, plenty of time for organizers to get to know each other. The conference grew out of the Organizers Roundtable, which Geelan convenes every other month so organizers can share information, brainstorm, mentor each other and, when necessary, help at critical points in campaigns.

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org