Features » January 16, 2004

Organizing: The Future of the American Labor Movement

By Gerald McEntee

There is no greater goal right now for the American labor movement, and all progressives, than to put George W. Bush out to pasture on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Indeed, at no other time during my 44 years in labor have I seen members of my union—the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)—nor the House of Labor, more dedicated to getting one person out of office.

And we all know why. Three million jobs lost in three years—the most since the Great Depression: 66 million Americans with inadequate healthcare coverage or no healthcare coverage at all; a median household income that has fallen for three straight years; 3 million Americans who slipped into poverty in 2001; ergonomic rules scrapped; overtime regulations attacked. The list goes on and on.

So, for all of us committed to worker rights and social and economic justice, we must do everything we can to take back America from a president who has spent the last three years dividing our country and taking care of the very rich at the expense of the rest of us.

But those of us within the House of Labor have another responsibility. No matter which candidate wins the 2004 election, and regardless of who controls Congress, to really improve the lives of working men and women, and build lasting power, we must grow our unions by organizing.

That is how we will build real strength in the workplace, at the bargaining table, in the halls of power and on future election days. Growing our unions is how we will build real power for all working families in America. And it is the best way for us to bolster the efforts of the entire progressive community.

The sad fact is that bad employers don’t harass their workers, pay them unfairly, provide them with poor benefits or make them work mandatory overtime based on who is running the country. Bad employers are bad 365 days a year, seven days a week—regardless of who is in office.

Defeating George W. Bush is so important because what we don’t need is for bad employers to expect and receive the support of the president of the United States. Ten thousand West Coast dockworkers can tell you how it feels when that happens. Two years ago, their employer, the Pacific Maritime Association, instituted a lockout after the International Longshore and Warehouse Union requested that any new jobs created by new technology be protected by a union contract.

Instead of allowing the collective bargaining process to settle the dispute, the Bush administration invoked the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act—an action that hadn’t been taken in 25 years and never in a lockout. President Bush’s shameful use of Taft-Hartley sent a message to other employers: When the going gets rough at the bargaining table, the federal government can always step in—to help the boss.

When workers want to exercise their fundamental civil right to organize to bargain and better their lives, the rules should be fair. And they should be fairly enforced by the government. Period.

It is clear that we must defeat George W. Bush. But we must also grow our unions. And whomever the Democratic Party selects as its nominee—AFSCME hopes it is Howard Dean—we must insist that he support a comprehensive social justice agenda, job creation, quality and affordable healthcare for all, the preservation of Medicare and Social Security, civil rights and much more.

And the House of Labor must insist that the next president support an aggressive agenda for worker rights, including real penalties for violators of labor laws, creating a law that will make employers recognize their workers’ desire to form a union, establishing first contract arbitration and giving the National Labor Relations Board the power to enforce laws that protect workers. The next president should also use his bully pulpit to encourage passage of collective bargaining laws for public employees in all the states and localities where workers don’t have this important right.

We will accomplish these goals only by making organizing a top concern throughout the American labor movement and building a stronger, more determined cadre of worker activists. We owe ourselves, our nation and the progressive community nothing less.

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• Reader Comments

  McEntee is a joke.

  Posted by Tom Laney on Jan 17, 2004 at 1:43 AM

  Tom Laney is a farce.

  Posted by neil on Jan 17, 2004 at 3:15 AM

    Yes, labor organizing is the key alternative to the well organized Republican Right. So is Public Relations. A careful study of the websites PRWatch.org and Opensecrets.org should be basic reading for all progressives and labor organizers.  Corporations own the Republican Party, and they use PR to
  confuse and control plain folks with spin and with the so-called “culture wars,” which are a distraction from the class warfare that is being waged and won by corporations. And the newly empowered media cartels have demonstrated they will bend to the will of the Republican leadership. 

    Globalization and the commodification of labor now mean a return to the opposing interests of corporations and labor. Multi-national corporations have no loyalty to the American people; only labor unions and organizations allied with unions can represent their interests. 

    Yet labor unions do not speak with one voice in Iowa today(1-17-04). AFSCME backs one candidate, all others back Gephart. And the AFL-CIO does not reach out to knowledge workers, southerners, or intellectuals. I, for one, would volunteer to help organize the south for free, even though I am self employed.

    All over the country, there is work to be done in nursing homes, Wal Marts, and hospitals. Nurses, especially, should be organized. And the exploitation of Wal Mart workers must be challenged, beginning in California.

    Labor must make alliances with the progressive movement, young anti-globalists, veterans’ groups, and with the new progressive think tanks.  There must be global strategies to cope with the rising tide of globalization, which will not go away. Knowledge workers must be protected, and the creation of skilled blue collar jobs must be encouraged through national policy incentives. Grocery workers and other such workers must be organized. 

    I was heartened to see that Steelworkers demonstrated in Miami together with young anti-globalists and retirees.

    Labor missed the opportunity to cope with and prepare for globalization in the early 1970’s when it began. Is the AFL-CIO to hidebound to adapt to the post-modern age? I hope not.

  Posted by Robert Menuet on Jan 17, 2004 at 5:48 PM

  I appreciate the specificity of some of Mr. McEntee’s agenda (real penalties for violators of labor laws, first contract arbitration, something that forces employers to stop interfering in union organizing drives), but submit that it is too White House - focused, waiting for the next White Knight to win back the presidency and implement the progressive agenda. We’ve got lots of cities, counties and states that are labor-friendly. What can we do in these jurisdictions? What is the model legislation that a progressive municipality should implement? The presidential race is fun and dramatic and glamorous, but since most of us vote in states that are foregone conclusions, campaigns that focus on the presidency doesn’t leave us much to actually do. What can we do with our potentially progressive state and local governments?

  Posted by Dan Johnson-Weinberger on Jan 18, 2004 at 6:31 PM

  While it may be easier to draw new people into the organized labor and other grassroots political movements by focusing on bread/butter/popular issues like healthcare, jobs, civil liberties, labor rights, education, environment etc., the labor movement should also focus on several other less popular issues of vital importance for workers in a democracy: 1) public financing of campaigns, 2) increased civic education in our schools, 3) media reform, including deconglomerization, free airtime to candidates, a revival of the FCC’s “fairness doctrine”, etc.  and finally 4) proportional representation (this is the hardest, as it would of course require a rewriting of our constitution). 

  As we try to elect progressive candidates in all 3 or 4 levels of government, it is essential that we push for these 4 reforms so that whatever we accomplish on the bread/butter/popular issues is permament, so that it has a better chance of lasting in the future.  These 4 reforms are necessary for a healthy democracy where the majority of American’s interests are truly represented.

  The first three are pretty self explanatory in why they’re important, especially for readers of this magazine.  I’ll elaborate a little more about proportional representation, which hardly ever gets addressed except in political science courses.  This would entail abolishing the current single member per district system of representation we now use.  Instead, there would be many members in larger districts, so that the distribution of member seats is based on the proportion of votes that that each party won (e.g. if there are 10 seats and party A won 30% of votes, party B 20%, party C 40%, party D 10%, then party A would have 3 seats, party B 2 seats, and you get the idea).

  Posted by Phil on Jan 19, 2004 at 5:41 AM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 9 posts.

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