Four Unions Boycott AFL-CIO Convention

[Dinger]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/24/unions.ap/index.html

Divide and conquer, what bullshit!

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. This really doesn't surprise me

It is sad, but not unexpected.

I myself was a longtime union member until 6 years ago. I watched my union lose bargaining power and members over a long period of time.

I also don't know what the answer is. Wish I did though.

[JDPriestly]

2. I can understand why the exiting union leaders

are unhappy. The AFL-CIO is unwilling to face the reality of today's working world.

I attended the labor caucus of the California Democratic Convention this year. It was totally focused on existing unions, just a bunch of happy union members congratulating themselves. A friend of mine was seeking someone to help him form a union at his workplace. I gathered cards from various union reps I met at the caucus and contacted some of them after the convention. None of them could or would help. Few of them even bothered to call me back. I was very disappointed to realize that they are bureaucrats, interested in keeping their profile positions, but not really interested in increasing union membership or building the union movement as a whole.

The union movement needs to expand its mission to represent the interests of all working people, not just those of union members. Millions of people work in dead end across the country -- fast food restaurants, shops, department stores, hotels, hair dressing salons, other service jobs. Many work at lower level clerical jobs. Then there are all the IT workers. Others work in small companies or in small units in companies in which some employees are unionized and others aren't. The unions do nothing to reach out to these workers who are not typical of their traditional membership. They do nothing to promote the interests of non-union workers or to let non-union workers know what unions do or could do for them.

Union membership has dwindled because union leaders have failed. I applaud those who have the courage to send a message to the AFL-CIO. They are not leaving the labor movement. The AFL-CIO left labor behind long ago.

[kevsand]

3. While much of what you say is true,

it is not the entire story. The leadership is fat and lazy because the rank and file doesn't get involved. And for every anecdotal story of people who want to organize being ignored, there are thousands of stories of workers who don't want to be bothered to be part of anything, including their own country.

Yes, there needs to be a renewed urgency to organizing. Sweeney has failed us there. But there must also be an equal emphasis on creating the political environment that allows organizing to take place at all. Stern just doesn't get that.

The people who are leaving are not visionaries; they are interested in their own personal power every bit as much as the people they are leaving. In the end, this is just a power struggle between a handful of vastly overinflated egos, and not at all a revolution. Stern is not even remotely interested in a labor movement that draws its strength from the ground up, because he is not interested in democratic methods of decision making.

This split will not make anything better. It may, in fact, sound the final death knell for organized labor in the U.S. Once that happens, who then will speak for working people?

[LiberalFighter]

4. Unless the local leadership strongly encourage their members...

to get involve nothing will happen. It doesn't help when local leadership do the absolute minimum required.

Unless the members understand the importance and need to get involve nothing will happen.

[JDPriestly]

5. But a lot of people, like me, who care about working people

are not union members and never will be. The union movement does not reach out to us. Unions do not even include us in the labor movement in some auxiliary fashion. It is as if unions think it is us against the rest of the world.

Unions need to start speaking for all working people, not just union members. That goes for so many issues like job security, employment at will (which union members don't have to worry about, but everyone else does). Employers should only be able to fire people with good cause, not just at will. Employers should be required to treat their employees with respect and dignity. As it is now, at least in California, employees have no recourse if their employer fires them on a whim and then lies about their performance, no recourse if an employer harasses them to the point of a nervous breakdown -- not unless there is some discrimination involved. This is wrong.

Much is wrong in the working world. OSHA enforcement is a wet noodle. Workers' Compensation protects employers from lawsuits, shifting the risk of accidents back on to workers -- like it was during the early years of the industrial revolution. Unions need to attack these and the many other similar problems workers face, not just for their members but for all working people. That is how they will make the movement grow.

[LiberalFighter]

6. Unions do and have been speaking for all working people

Job security is not an issue that labor unions concentrate just for their members. It is considered an important issue regardless of union status also because of the impact that it has on union members regarding taxes and how it impacts members in their community.

Labor unions fight employment at will laws and right to work legislation in every state that there is a presence. Labor unions don't have the financial resources that other organizations have to focus their energy to destroy labor unions. Anti-labor organizations consist of lawyers in the business of decertifying unions and keeping them from organizing, business organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce that provide anti-union resources and material for their members, organizations such as the National Right to Work providing legal services, and then having to work within the law while everyone else ignores it. There is a business out there just for the purpose of decertifying labor unions or prevent them from organizing. They don't follow the law and they get away with it because they know how to make it work.

It is because of unions that non-union employees have enjoyed more rights then they had before. As to how unions have done that you will need to do the research.

Yes it is difficult. Difficult when labor unions have their hands tied as well as the everyday working people. Labor unions have their hands full just protecting their own members and wondering what is in their future.

As for the auxiliary issue... I would suggest contacting a local union or a local AFL-CIO Central Labor Council about affiliating by that method. Also, read the law regarding organizing and how to protect yourself with your rights.