David Newby hopes to lead labor's comeback, Union, yes!

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.php?article=24961




In 1991, Chicago labor lawyer Tom Geoghegan wrote a popular and powerful book, Which Side Are You On?, with the despairing subtitle, "Trying to be for labor when it's flat on its back."

Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President David Newby has felt that despair over the past three decades of plant closings, wage cuts and union-busting. But he's convinced the labor movement has the potential to rebound.

"In recent years, we've been on the defensive, and we're determined to turn that around," says Newby, a compact, square-jawed man who is a young-looking 66. "All of a sudden, the possibilities are all open. It is exciting.

"We've got the chance to make fundamental structural changes to the benefit of working people," says Newby, who has headed up the 210,000-member labor federation since 1994. "We have to seize this moment. An opportunity like this doesn't come along very often."

Why is Newby so hopeful?

For one thing, the election of Barack Obama marks the first time in four decades that the presidency has been held by a strongly pro-labor Democrat. Newby, who was active in the Southern civil rights movement, is heartened by labor's enthusiastic support for Obama, which he sees as a victory over lingering racism in its ranks.

FULL story at link.