Lessons From Chattanooga

As I watched the situation at the Volkswagon plant unfold last night, I was in a state of not so utter disbelief.  I am from Texas, and have a lifetime of experience watching people vote against their own self interest.  While last night was a tough one to swallow for the labor movement, I believe their are some valuable lessons from this defeat that can be applied to future attempts at southern organizing.

I believe that labor organizations have a complete fundamental lack of understanding of southern culture that has been a major obstacle in attempts to organize there.  Often, labor does not understand that the only experience that many southerners have with unions are the hyperbolic, cartoonish mob influenced figures seen in movies.  This is exacerbated when unions have out of state staff run organizing campaigns.  I've previously proposed the salting approach at Wal-Mart, but every time I see a failed organizing drive in the south I am more convinced that salting might be the only approach outside of the Employee Free Choice Act(EFCA) that will work.

Speaking of EFCA, the loss at VW might be the best example you'll ever see on why labor must focus its attention on passing EFCA.  In Chattanooga, you had a situation in which the employer was fairly neutral.  And by neutral, I mean that they did not run a viscous anti-union campaign.  Although they did not recognize the union via card-check, they were much more friendly than you usually see, especially in the south.  Even with somewhat friendly management, without card-check, politicians and outside groups were able to influence the election. 

We are allowed to enter into legal contracts by signing our names on everything from gym memberships, to buying a house.  Why are we as workers not allowed to do the same when it comes to joining a union?  This system of double jeopardy when it comes to forcing unions to organize twice, while allowing corporations and politicians several months to scare people into voting against their own self interest has to stop, and EFCA could do just that.    I just don't see a logical path forward for the American labor movement without substantial labor reform.  The system is that broken.

I spoke to my stepfather, Scott Noon, who worked at the GM plant in Spring Hill, TN that is represented by UAW.  He was saddened by the loss in Chattanooga, and thought that the heavy-handed anti-union stance taken by local and state politicians played a big part in the result of the election.  He also believed that Senator Bob Corker was likely pressured by Grover Norquist and other top GOP donors into taking a public stance against the union. "Nobody looks out for the little guy anymore," he added.  "It's all about the big money and corporations." 

Can unions win in the south?  I still believe they can, but it will take combined legislative and social change to make it happen, and it could take a little while.  Don't give up on us yet.

In Solidarity,

Joseph Riedel

Book Review: Civil Wars In U.S. Labor by Steve Early

 

Ever since Florence Reese wrote the lyrics to Which Side Are You On? in 1931, that question has been posed between labor and the bosses. With his latest offering, The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor, Steve Early will have workers and activists asking themselves where they stand in the labor movement.

In Civil Wars, Early, who is a well known critic of SEIU’s lack of internal democracy, meticulously dissects the various internal issues that have plagued the organization over the last several years. At the same time he also gives a historical background to provide adequate context for the reader to understand where the problems originated. Early discusses the failure of the MAC (Member Action Center) Call Centers in a chapter that is humorously titled, Dial 1-800-My-Union? The MAC line was a running joke during my time as an SEIU Organizer with District 1199 in West Virginia, as it consisted of an answering machine and an email being sent to the organizer to fix whatever issue had been reported.

While Civil Wars gives a very detailed account of the hostile takeover of United Healthcare West that led to the formation of NUHW (National Union of Healthcare Workers), Early also points out that while this trusteeship is by far the most publicized and biggest action by SEIU, it is certainly not the first. Early explains how Andy Stern crushed dissent in other locals by forcing their members into other locals who were either already under trusteeship, or under the leadership of Stern loyalists.

Early does not end his coverage of SEIU’s woes with internal issues. In a section titled How EFCA Died for ObamaCare, Early explains how SEIU burrowed into a position of influence inside the Obama administration and effectively elbowed out other unions. This is something that has put even more stress on the already fractured relationship SEIU has with the rest of big labor.

As a former SEIU staffer, I found myself cringing as I read Civil Wars, much as many rock stars must have cringed watching Spinal Tap for the first time. I believe this book should be required reading, not only for members of SEIU, who will find Civil Wars to be a disturbing peek behind the purple curtain, but also for anyone who cares about the future of the labor movement.  I found Civil Wars to be a disturbing validation of what I experienced firsthand as an organizer with SEIU.  The chickens have finally come home to roost after twenty years of shifting from a grassroots democratic union into a top-down bureaucratic corporation that places a higher value on political influence than it does on member representation.  

Civil Wars offers a unique look inside the challenging proposition facing NUHW that is all too familiar for IWW members – surviving as an independent union.  Among the major labor organizations in the United States, only a few, namely IWW and the United Electrical Workers(UE) have survived over the long-term.  NUHW’s recent partnership with the Machinists(IAM) demonstrates just how difficult it can be.

While Early focuses on SEIU, the issues that are raised in Civil Wars are faced by members in many other unions. When unions begin to look more like the corporations they are supposed to be fighting than the militant, democratic voice for workers that they are meant to be, it is only natural that the battle lines will begin to form, as Civil Wars clearly shows.

The real question Early seems to be asking is, very simply, Which Side Are You On?

Creating A National Organizing Drive

Something I've often thought about is how to develop a strategy to organize workers across various industries in a national blitz to jump start a renewed sense of union membership in the United States.

I've mentioned before that Labor Day would be an ideal opportunity to run commercials nationwide showing what unions have done historically for working people, and displaying a number on the screen that people can call to get information about organizing.  People who call the number would be directed to the appropriate union for more information.

Sounds simple enough, right?  Well...

The reasons why this has not happened are many, but here are a couple of the big issues that I believe would hamstring this sort of effort:

1.  There is far too much overlapping of various unions in similar industries.  For instance, you have hospitals that are represented by Teamsters, United Steelworkers, in addition to SEIU.  Hell, SEIU and the Teamsters don't seem to have any boundaries as to what they'll go after.  The old adage Jimmy Hoffa used was "If there's a wheel anywhere in the facility, including inside someone's watch, they should be Teamsters." There would have to be some serious ego swallowing and negotiating take place in order for this to work.

2.  It would require unions to spend significant money up front.  This has been something unions have been reluctant to do in the past - unless it's blowing half a billion dollars watching spineless Democrats lose control of the House of Representatives.  Unions would have to hire more organizers and internal member representatives.  Given the fact that a lot of unions are already stretched thin on staff, this would be a sizable commitment.

If unions could ever just take a page out of the old IWW playbook and just stop jumping into ever industry imaginable, this would be a vision that could come true.  The Wobblies had this basic principle right - you don't need more than one union per industry.  When there is more than one union vying for the same workers, we raid each other instead of going after the 93% of private sector workers who need a union.

In Solidarity,

Joseph