David Moberg (The Nation): Look Who's Walking in the Labor Movement

[Jack Rabbit]

From The Nation
Dated Tuesday July 26

Look Who's Walking
By David Moberg

After months of debate on union strategy at the top echelons of the American labor movement, union leaders could finally agree on one thing: Sunday, July 24, the day before the opening of the fiftieth anniversary of the merger of the AFL and CIO, was an important milestone. But that's as far as the agreement went.

For Steelworkers president Leo Gerard, a supporter of incumbent AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, it was a "tragic day," and a carefully orchestrated rally to generate enthusiasm for Sweeney's re-election had a decidedly discouraged and disappointed undercurrent.

A few blocks away, a few hours later, the mood was defiantly optimistic at a press conference called by the Change to Win Coalition to announce that the Service Employees (SEIU), Teamsters, UNITE HERE (textile and hotel workers) and UFCW (food and commercial workers) had all decided to boycott the convention. Officials of these unions also declared that they would not serve in any AFL-CIO office, including its Executive Council. "This is an exciting day, and a proud moment in the history of the labor movement," declared Anna Burger, SEIU secretary-treasurer and president of the Change to Win Coalition.

This was the prelude to announcements on Monday that SEIU and the Teamsters were ending their affiliation with the AFL-CIO. Two other Change to Win unions, the Laborers and the Farmworkers, the newest member of the coalition, participated in the convention, but along with UNITE HERE and UFCW they are still deliberating whether to remain in the federation. The Carpenters, who recently joined Change to Win, have already disaffiliated. In October Change to Win unions will formalize a new organization that seems destined to be a rival to the AFL-CIO.

Read more.

The American labor movement is in trouble and has been for a long time. It should be no surprise than some unions long affiliated with the AFL-CIO would strike out on their own in search of greater success in organizing.

The modern vision of unbridled global capitalism offers little to either American workers or to workers in developing nations except exported jobs, inadequate wages and poor working conditions. The canard that the decline in unions will make America more competitive in this new global economy is an indictment of that system, not of labor unions; it is an admission that the new system is a race to the bottom in which wage-earners the world over have no stake.

This trend needs to be countered. Only a strong, revitalized union movement can do that.

[DaveT]

1. David Moberg is a good lefty and an honest reporter, but

this is the kind shallow analysis of what really separates Stern from Sweeney that drives me batty.

Check out these threads for another take on the split:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4185521

and

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4194381&mesg_id=4194381


The Nation is about as good as labor coverage gets in America, and it's not that good.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Related thread

Molly Ivins (Working for Change): Solidarity Later started by Jack Rabbit Tuesday at 3L47 pm PDT