Service Employees President Andrew Stern's plan to radically reform or blow up the AFL-CIO is drawing a combination of strong support from central labor councils and one state fed chief--along with a little flak.
Stern unveiled his plan the day before the federation's Nov. 10 Executive Council meeting. He says organized labor must change radically to keep pace with changes in work and industry.
His proposed changes include forced mergers that would reduce the number of unions and concentration by each union in a particular field of work.
Stern also advocates $2 billion for organizing nationwide and a $25 million campaign to both organize Wal-Mart--the nation's largest, virulently anti-union, company--and to publicize its atrocious record to the wider public.
"I'm ready to stay and fight to fix it," Stern says of the AFL-CIO, after federation President John J. Sweeney promised the council would debate and vote on reform proposals at its February meeting in Los Angeles.
"But one thing is true: At the AFL-CIO convention, I will not be a candidate" to replace Sweeney next July, Stern added.
Stern elaborated on his plan the Unite To Win "blog" on SEIU's website. Arguing for consolidation, he cited airline unions as an example. He said many different unions represent different groups of airline workers. That bars unity, he said.
He also argued for more accountability. That proposal led 12 Central Labor Council presidents to propose creating 75 larger regional labor federations to oversee and provide staffing and direction to the nation's 500 CLCs. But those regional bodies must draft action plans, they added.
Stern's concept of merging unions drew split reactions in the 52 pages of blog comments.
One writer, signed "Aly," strongly backed merging the airline unions. Aly, daughter of a Flight Attendant and a PATCO member--controllers President Reagan fired in 1981 for striking on safety grounds--said "my family would agree with Andy: Airline workers need to stop raiding each other's members, engage in coordinated bargaining along professional lines, and build alliances with foreign airline unions.
"The airline companies have formed business alliances with other U.S. national airlines, not to mention foreign ones. The airline unions must do the same: Unite and set standard agreements across the board to stop the erosion of benefits.
"Union and non-union airline workers should reach out and talk to one another at the airport, in the terminals, on the run-ways, begin a dialogue, and establish common ground to protect their jobs. Airline union leadership needs to realize the stakes are big here, view the industry as a whole, and begin working to-gether for future generations of workers and families," she said.
But another worker who identified himself as "Matty" disagreed. "How does this restructuring change the underlying problems that the industry is facing?
"The autoworkers are all in ONE union (his emphasis) and they bargain with all three automakers at the same time. This is the closest to the ideal situation Stern posits as well as in the strategic principles," he said.
"Yet this 'ideal' structure is impotent in dealing with the massive changes occurring in the auto industry. Why? Because it doesn't matter how a union is structured if the underlying economic conditions do not provide the context where collective bargaining could make gains," Matty pointed out.
Another anonymous commenter said one big airline union--as Stern proposed there and in other industries--would never occur. That writer said the Pilots and mechanics would wind up at the head of the line while Flight Attendants and reservations clerks would trail--and they're all women or minorities.
"Mechanics have been leaving the IAM (Machinists) for AMFA because they want a separate union, a craft union. They want nothing to do with the industrial union model," that commenter wrote, all in capital letters. AMFA, the independent Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, based in New Hampshire, has ousted IAM at several airlines, including Northwest and United.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tim Nesbitt and the CLC chiefs, including John Ryan (Cleveland), Shar Knutson (St. Paul, Minn.), and Miguel Contreras (Los Angeles), commented extensively.
After winning political campaigns in Oregon for the past five years, Nesbitt concluded that "our movement's most important political battles are fought state by state, whether we're trying to win electoral votes in a presidential election, block anti-union ballot measures, defeat anti-union candidates--or move a proactive, progressive agenda.
"We've learned that, when we engage those battles and fight them well, we strengthen both our unions and our union movement," Nesbitt said. His state fed used politics to add members.
"That's why we need well-coordinated, well-financed union campaign organizations at the state and local level. And, that's why...we're saying, on behalf of state federations: Count us in. Re-organize at the local level to fight the battles where we have to fight them and win them now--with every member of Congress whose votes will either block or advance the Radical Right's attack on our unions."
The 12 local presidents also want to establish the 75 regional federations, fund them and have them direct the CLCs.
"National reform will not succeed without more powerful Regional Labor Federations (RLF's) to mobilize political power and community allies to win for working people. And strong RLF's can reinforce the overhaul of local unions their internationals must undertake," they wrote in the blog. But a dissenting unionist warned the RLFs could lead to writing off rural areas.
The 12 propose other changes, including:
* Requiring all locals to join CLCs, and pay per capita dues based on full membership. "On the one hand labor councils are chronically under-resourced, and on the other hand they are often hamstrung by threats of disaffiliation when political and organizational risks must be taken," they said. The sums would give those feds secure funding for major campaigns, they added.
* Increase accountability, with the AFL-CIO setting stan-dards for the RLFs, providing training and holding them to goals. Too many locals, the 12 complained, "reflexively support the status quo." The AFL-CIO should directly charter regional feds, they said. Local unions should also hold RLFs accountable.
"RLFs must also be required to carry out a more focused version of Union Cities, to build an effective local political program focused on electing labor candidates to office, moving a working families legislative agenda and neutralizing employer opposition" to organizing, they added.
* Create stronger community alliances. But one anonymous writer, a community organizer, replied that CLCs themselves often refuse to reach out to such groups.
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Service Employees President Andrew Stern’s plan to radically reform or blow up the AFL-CIO is drawing a combination of strong support from central labor councils and one state fed chief–along with a little flak.
Stern unveiled his plan the day before the federation’s Nov. 10 Executive Council meeting. He says organized labor must change radically to keep pace with changes in work and industry.
His proposed changes include forced mergers that would reduce the number of unions and concentration by each union in a particular field of work.
Stern also advocates $2 billion for organizing nationwide and a $25 million campaign to both organize Wal-Mart–the nation’s largest, virulently anti-union, company–and to publicize its atrocious record to the wider public.
“I’m ready to stay and fight to fix it,” Stern says of the AFL-CIO, after federation President John J. Sweeney promised the council would debate and vote on reform proposals at its February meeting in Los Angeles.
“But one thing is true: At the AFL-CIO convention, I will not be a candidate” to replace Sweeney next July, Stern added.
Stern elaborated on his plan the Unite To Win “blog” on SEIU’s website. Arguing for consolidation, he cited airline unions as an example. He said many different unions represent different groups of airline workers. That bars unity, he said.
He also argued for more accountability. That proposal led 12 Central Labor Council presidents to propose creating 75 larger regional labor federations to oversee and provide staffing and direction to the nation’s 500 CLCs. But those regional bodies must draft action plans, they added.
Stern’s concept of merging unions drew split reactions in the 52 pages of blog comments.
One writer, signed “Aly,” strongly backed merging the airline unions. Aly, daughter of a Flight Attendant and a PATCO member–controllers President Reagan fired in 1981 for striking on safety grounds–said “my family would agree with Andy: Airline workers need to stop raiding each other’s members, engage in coordinated bargaining along professional lines, and build alliances with foreign airline unions.
“The airline companies have formed business alliances with other U.S. national airlines, not to mention foreign ones. The airline unions must do the same: Unite and set standard agreements across the board to stop the erosion of benefits.
“Union and non-union airline workers should reach out and talk to one another at the airport, in the terminals, on the run-ways, begin a dialogue, and establish common ground to protect their jobs. Airline union leadership needs to realize the stakes are big here, view the industry as a whole, and begin working to-gether for future generations of workers and families,” she said.
But another worker who identified himself as “Matty” disagreed. “How does this restructuring change the underlying problems that the industry is facing?
“The autoworkers are all in ONE union (his emphasis) and they bargain with all three automakers at the same time. This is the closest to the ideal situation Stern posits as well as in the strategic principles,” he said.
“Yet this ‘ideal’ structure is impotent in dealing with the massive changes occurring in the auto industry. Why? Because it doesn’t matter how a union is structured if the underlying economic conditions do not provide the context where collective bargaining could make gains,” Matty pointed out.
Another anonymous commenter said one big airline union–as Stern proposed there and in other industries–would never occur. That writer said the Pilots and mechanics would wind up at the head of the line while Flight Attendants and reservations clerks would trail–and they’re all women or minorities.
“Mechanics have been leaving the IAM (Machinists) for AMFA because they want a separate union, a craft union. They want nothing to do with the industrial union model,” that commenter wrote, all in capital letters. AMFA, the independent Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, based in New Hampshire, has ousted IAM at several airlines, including Northwest and United.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tim Nesbitt and the CLC chiefs, including John Ryan (Cleveland), Shar Knutson (St. Paul, Minn.), and Miguel Contreras (Los Angeles), commented extensively.
After winning political campaigns in Oregon for the past five years, Nesbitt concluded that “our movement’s most important political battles are fought state by state, whether we’re trying to win electoral votes in a presidential election, block anti-union ballot measures, defeat anti-union candidates–or move a proactive, progressive agenda.
“We’ve learned that, when we engage those battles and fight them well, we strengthen both our unions and our union movement,” Nesbitt said. His state fed used politics to add members.
“That’s why we need well-coordinated, well-financed union campaign organizations at the state and local level. And, that’s why…we’re saying, on behalf of state federations: Count us in. Re-organize at the local level to fight the battles where we have to fight them and win them now–with every member of Congress whose votes will either block or advance the Radical Right’s attack on our unions.”
The 12 local presidents also want to establish the 75 regional federations, fund them and have them direct the CLCs.
“National reform will not succeed without more powerful Regional Labor Federations (RLF’s) to mobilize political power and community allies to win for working people. And strong RLF’s can reinforce the overhaul of local unions their internationals must undertake,” they wrote in the blog. But a dissenting unionist warned the RLFs could lead to writing off rural areas.
The 12 propose other changes, including:
* Requiring all locals to join CLCs, and pay per capita dues based on full membership. “On the one hand labor councils are chronically under-resourced, and on the other hand they are often hamstrung by threats of disaffiliation when political and organizational risks must be taken,” they said. The sums would give those feds secure funding for major campaigns, they added.
* Increase accountability, with the AFL-CIO setting stan-dards for the RLFs, providing training and holding them to goals. Too many locals, the 12 complained, “reflexively support the status quo.” The AFL-CIO should directly charter regional feds, they said. Local unions should also hold RLFs accountable.
“RLFs must also be required to carry out a more focused version of Union Cities, to build an effective local political program focused on electing labor candidates to office, moving a working families legislative agenda and neutralizing employer opposition” to organizing, they added.
* Create stronger community alliances. But one anonymous writer, a community organizer, replied that CLCs themselves often refuse to reach out to such groups.