"Save Our Unions – Dispatches from a Movement in
Distress,” by Steve Early, 2013
Who would have thought we would be worried about ‘saving
unions?’ Once giant presences in
American society, unions have been sidelined to ostensible irrelevancy in the
‘new economy’ brought about by neo-liberalism. Their ‘friends’ in the Democratic Party treat
them as unpaid doormats. Unions
themselves have not grasped the extent of their plight, nor the ‘desperate’
means needed to save them. Steve Early
understands, at least to a point. This
book is his second on this issue, though here he lets himself speak instead of
basing it mostly on reviews of pro-labor books, as he did in the 2009’s “Embedded
With Organized Labor.” (also reviewed below.)
Early is a left activist and former staffer in the CWA, UMW
and others. He’s been a long-time supporter
of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (“TDU”), Labor Notes and various
rank-and-file caucus movements in the UAW, the UMW and other unions. His prior book was a somewhat sad tour of the
defeats endured by labor in the 1980s and beyond. In this, he concentrates on present events,
which actually are not quite so grim. He
presents definite evidence that the promises shown by the “Change To Win”
confederation or the election of Richard Trumka as head of the AFL-CIO have not
born fruit. Trumka led the Pittston Coal
strike and was in the insurgent UMW movement that removed the corrupt class-collaborationist
Tony Boyle, so the disappointment is especially keen. “Change to Win” foundered on the top-down
autocratic style of Andy Stern of the SEIU.
He notes that it was the struggle of TDU in the Teamsters
and the victory of Ron Carey which propelled John Sweeney to the head of the
AFL-CIO in the first contested presidential election in that formation's
history. Sweeney himself however, a
social-democrat in “Democratic Socialists of America” (“DSA”), did nothing to
halt the decay of the labor federation.
Early makes several points worth emphasizing. He understands that health care issues, which
are key issues in most individual labor and contract fights, cannot be limited
to individual bargaining by one union against one company anymore. It needs to be a social fight across the
whole country. Same goes for retirement
benefits. It has shown up even in the
issue of crippling labor laws or a “Department of Labor” that is really a
department to discipline labor. OSHA
boards are toothless, safety boards that deal with chemicals or environmental
hazards are weak and missing-in-action, and the NLRB process is almost
broken. The concept of
‘pseudo-regulation’ comes to mind. (Mentioned
in the book, “Foodopoly,” reviewed below.)
Early reviews the seemingly complex situation in California and Nevada
regarding SEIU and its jurisdictional fights with the California Nurses
Association (“CNA”) and the National Union of Health Workers (“NUHW”). The key here, according to Early, is that the
SEIU operates at Kaiser Permanente as a class-collaborationist force, agreeing
to sub-standard contracts and participating with Kaiser in ‘cooperation’
schemes at work. One of the most notable
is the attempt to make an individual’s health a guide to how much to charge them in contracts for health-care. I.E. Kaiser wants to monetize
ill-health, obesity, smoking and other conditions. SEIU puts into receivership any locals that
opposed their strategies, which created the conflict in the first place. As a CWA insider, Early tracks the struggles
by the land-line Verizon workers and their attempt to unionize the non-union
Verizon Wireless sector. In the process
he covers the large 45,000 member Verizon Land-line strike in 2011.
Early touches on various non-traditional forms of
unionizing, like geographic organizing, workers centers, minority unions and
rank-and-file caucuses. He focuses on the labor ‘gerontocracy’ at the top of
many national unions, where the ranks have very few young people, and the
leaders are in their 60s, 70s and even 80s.
Early highlights the roles of thousands of left-colonizers or labor
‘salts’ that went into the factories in the 1970s, based on socialist
principles, at the urging of their various socialist organizations. I was one of those people, and appreciate his
pointing this out. He is fuzzy on ‘who’
these organizations were, which hints he’s still afraid to mention socialism in
the labor movement.
Early ends with the struggle for a ‘single-payer’ health
system in Vermont, and the prominent role played by the Vermont Progressive
Party (“VPP”) in that struggle. The VPP is
an independent electoral/activist front to the left of the Vermont
Democrats. Vermont
might be the first state that, like Canada’s
Saskatchewan
in 1944, enacts single payer. However,
this attempt has been complicated by the passing of the neo-liberal ACA, which
undermines a single payer approach, and is preventing a quicker passage of single payer
in Vermont. The pressure of the VPP and most unions
in Vermont
has made even the Democratic governor a supporter of enacting single
payer. At least for now.
The development of Occupy, and its relation to the labor
movement; the strikes at Wal-Mart, its warehouses and in the fast-food
industry; the massive and successful Chicago Teachers strike, the movement for
a $15 minimum wage, and the looming Trans-Pacific Partnership play a small role
in this book. He gives short-shrift to Joe Burn’s book, “Reviving the Strike,” (reviewed below)
and instead quietly advocates various in-plant strategies when striking is too
difficult to succeed.
His last chapter is titled, “Dare to Struggle, Dare to
Win.” This phrase is a cliché from Mao
Tse Tung that, while somewhat true, avoids some hard issues that Early does not
tackle or expand on. Single payer is
making headway in Vermont
because an independent electoral formation backed by unions, the VPP, is
pushing it. This should make Early think
that perhaps we need an independent union-backed electoral party - nationwide! This in most countries is called a labor
party – two words Early stays away from.
The CNA, which he praises, was part of the Mazzocchi-inspired “Labor
Party” in the late 1990s, as were most progressive unions, regional bodies and
locals in the U.S.
His skittishness towards the term ‘socialism’ regarding
‘colonizers’ and even his compadres in Labor Notes also shows that the
alternative political movement labor needs – socialism - is still too ‘outre’
for this left staffer. Yet you cannot
fight neo-liberalism without a long term oppositional outlook, and without it,
labor will not advance. Keeping it a
secret does no one any good. This has
also been the lesson of history, in this country and elsewhere. We’ve elected
‘social democrats’ to the presidency of the AFL-CIO (Sweeney), elected
‘rank-and file’ caucus leaders and
strike leaders to the presidency (Trumka) and the unions are still not making
much headway. So what is next? The fact that some unions, including SEIU,
endorsed socialist candidates in Socialist Alternative in Seattle
and Minneapolis
might mean the facade is cracking.
And I bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog
February11, 2014
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