>Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 23:06:29 -0500 >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Precedence: bulk >From: Art Shostak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: Labor Research and Action Project <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: F.Y.I. >Mime-Version: 1.0 >X-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Brothers and Sisters: I would appreciate feedback on this annual Labor Day >essay of mine: > > Labor Day "State of the Unions" Report, 1997 > > So weak and troubled was the nation's labor movement two years ago >when reformer John Sweeney assumed the presidency of the AFL-CIO that a >medical report on it would have read "critical." Now, on the 110th marking >of Labor Day. any such report would read "stabilized," though the prognosis >remains uncertain. > > No one can fault the Sweeney leadership team for not trying. >Organi- zing, always the top challenge, has received more money, people, >and sweat than at any time since the mass organizing campaigns of the >1930s. Accordingly, since last Labor Day organizing successes have enrolled >many thousands of non-tra- ditional workers (doctors, interns, podiatrists, >etc.), once-aloof types labor must reach to survive the downsizing of its >historic areas of strength. >Similarly, labor has scored major successes with the opposite end of the >workforce, with "have-little" types who desperately need its shield and >sword (fruit pickers, strawberry workers, "workfare" enrollees, etc.). >Having now tripled the size of its Organizing Institute, the AFL-CIO >graduates every month >better-than-ever organizers hired immediately by eager affiliated unions. > > A second major problem, changing the public's perception, has the >AFL-CIO this year spending $5-million on TV spots aimed at persuading >viewers labor and America go better together. It recruited nearly 1,000 >collegians for its second annual Union Summer, a "boot camp" for >prospective organizers who commonly return to campus with an upbeat >assessment of labor. Its affilates, in turn, demonstrate new craft in >winning public support (something the Teamsters enjoyed by two-to-one in >the recent UPS strike). Much is made of Sweeney's insistance America needs >a raise, and as union status means 18% more in median weekly earnings, this >resonates well with many hard-pressed non-union workers. > > Modernization, a third major challenge, has the AFL-CIO now >spending $15 million over the next 18 months to turn headquarters into a >high-tech cyberworld center equal to anything available to opponents in >corporate America. The smartest among its 78 affiliates are busy >reinventing themselves as CyberUnions, well-equipped for cyberspace >survival. Their field agents employ high-quality laptops. Their best locals >loft high-quality web pages, encourage e-mail exchanges among members and >officers that raise morale, circulate bright ideas, and bolster solidarity >(while also impressing the heck out of many prospective members). > > Finally, the matter of power remains a central challenge. Labor >takes pride in its low strike count, but it never tires of reminding all of >its ability to win when necessary. Its preference, however, is to highlight >the ability of union workers to work smarter, more safely, and with more >value added to the job than true of non-union types. Eager to cooperate >with employers astute enough to see unions as strategic partners, labor >continues to reward such companies with substantial bottom-line >productivity payoffs (something employers in Europe long ago grasped and >capitalize on). > > More could be said, especially, about 1997 union successes >re-unionizing worksites turned by privitization temprarily non-union. >Attention is also owed new successes in linking unions around the world in >joint actions (union longshoremen, for example, in 105 ports worldwide >acted in concert for a week to help 500 Liverpool dockers win their case). > > Suffice it to say that if labor's prognosis is to move from >"stabilized" to "satisfactory" the projects, progress, and momentum of 1997 >provides a very sound base: America's union movement, the largest social >movement in America, has much in which to take pride, and hope from on this >Labor Day. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of >Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax >610-668-2727. >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ >"This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do >with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson >
