Sun, 6 Sep 1998 09:19:29 -0400 (EDT) Sun, 6 Sep 1998 09:11:17 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 09:11:17 -0400 (EDT) To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu, 71112.2453@compuserve.com From: Art Shostak Subject: Labor day material puette@uhunix1.its.Hawaii.Edu Brothers and Sisters: I attach below two new Labor Day essays of mine that got printed in the area papers (Philadelphia Daily News; Camden Courier-Post) this weekend. Thought you might find them interesting. I prepare these every Labor Day, and urge you to do likewise. Fraternally, Art Shostak (CWA 189) _______________________________________________________________________________ Labor Day '98: How Fare Our Unions? Since 1887, when America's labor unions persuaded Congress to honor them, Americans have paused over the Labor Day weekend to ask how have our unions been doing since the last holiday? Conventional "wisdom" suggests not well at all. Fanned by the nonsense of Rush Limbaugh and his anti-labor cronies, it highlights a new post-war low in the percent of union members in the private sector (now below 10 percent). It gleefully notes the fall from Grace in 1998 of ex-Teamster president Ron Carey, once thought the only hope of soon freeing the nation's largest union from Hoffa's corrupt legacy. It makes much of the seeming failure of a major organizing campaign among strawberry field workers. And it cheers the refusal to vote "union yes!" by school teachers who, in July, instructed their mammoth professional organization, the National Education Association (NEA), not to merge with the far more feisty AFL-CIO union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). As is so often true, however, conventional "wisdom" leaves out much and thereby misleads. Since the last Labor day the labor movement has organized 400,000 new members, the largest such gain in decades. It now represents 37 percent of all public sector employees, another record. A June win among nearly 20,000 passenger service workers at United Airlines was the biggest in airline history, and the biggest in the private sector in the last 20 years. Especially sweet was a 5,000-worker win at Continental Airlines, as 14 years earlier then-CEO Frank Lorenzo busted the line's unions (it will be recalled that six years after Reagan destroyed the air controllers union in 1981 the controller replacements themselves unionized!). Labor's clout was evident this year is a string of successful strikes, GM learned at a cost of over a billion dollars not to test the job-protecting resolve of the Auto Workers Union, a lesson also taught the management of the transit system in Philadelphia by a proud local of the Transit Workers Union. California nurses struck, and won the right to re-design health care to assure far better patient care. And most recently, striking CWA telephone workers got Bell Atlantic to agree to the best contract earned in decades. If any further evidence was needed of Labor's appeal and its ability to meet the challenge it was provided by the resounding defeat in June of California's Proposition 226, the so-called Payroll Protection Act. Part of a nationally-coordinated effort by anti-labor forces, the Act would have required unions to annually collect written permission from every member before any part of their dues could be used for political action. Favored by 72 to 21 percent at the outset, it was defeated by 54 to 46 percent after Labor rallied the troops as seldom before (24,000 volunteers visited over 18,000 work sites, walked more than 5,000 precincts, and made 650,000 phone calls). While the campaign cost over $20-million in scarce Labor funds, it succeeded in energizing California unionists as never before, and their vote (71 to 29 percent) proved the decisive factor. Much to the consternation of would-be pall-bearers for Labor the year brought fresh evidence of newfound respect from savvy power-holders. AFL-CIO president John Sweeney was invited in September to speak to over 2,000 major politicians and business leaders from 150 countries at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, an honor never before extended to a labor leader. Sweeney told the global Movers and Shakers Labor had no interest in protectionism, but would help rescue capitalism from its own worse possibilities. He insisted that working men and women get a "fair division of the spoils," and warned his elite audience "if Labor has no role, democracy has no future." Far from the limelight, other advances continue to boost Labor's chances. A $20-million overhaul of the AFL-CIO headquarters is ahead of schedule and below budget. On completion this Fall it will provide the Movement with a state-of-the-art telecommunications center far superior to anything operated by anti-union forces, and far better at reaching 13-million members than anything ever before available. Similarly, steady gains are being made arranging for the merger in 2001 of the Auto Union, the Steel Union, and the Machinists Union: On completion, the new Metal Trades Union will be the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful in history. Taking the setbacks and the advances together, it would seem that the year from last Labor Day to this one offers Labor Day marchers (and their many allies outside the ranks) much to take hope from. Given all that the unions are up against - short-sighted employers, hostile politicians, sleazy anti-union consultants, dangerous Mafia schemers, and inadequate labor laws - the wonder is not their problems, but their persistant gains. ________________________________________________________________________________ Labor Day Reflections/ New Jersey Style > > What would Peter J. McGuire have to say to us on this Labor Day? A >plain-spoken carpenter, McGuire is the New Jersey union leader given credit >for persuading Congress in 1887 to create the national Labor Day holiday, >one of the very few such American holidays not dedicated to a person's >memory or a war's end, but to an entire bloc of achieving Americans . > While he wanted the early part of the day given over to proud >parades, McGuire was just as insistent that the rest of the day be devoted >to study and reflection. For along with co-leaders like Samuel Gompers, >president of the one-year old American Federation of Labor (AFL), he fully >understood the need for workingmen and women to find their own answers to >the many questions posed by the never-ending struggle between Labor and >Capital. > Were McGuire with us he would undoubtedly rail against the fact >that income inequality between 1989 and1996 grew faster in New Jersey and >New York state than in the country as a whole - a formula for hardship, >class antagonisms, and the defeat of hope by youngsters born into Have-Not >households. > During those years the real earnings for male workers in the >two-state region who were at the very top of the ladder (earning more than >90% of all workers) grew by 5%, while for all such workers in America it >grew by barely 1%. Those New Jersey and New York men at the very bottom of >the earnings ladder (earning less than 90% of all workers) suffered a drop >of 15%, though all such men in America had a drop of 8%. > The rich were getting richer; the poor, poorer, and the states of >New Jersey and New York >were leading 48 others in this trouble-wracked way. McGuire would >undoubtedly urge more and more unionization of the workforce in both states >as an overdue response, for he would highlight the fact that the union wage >advantage is 34% over the earnings of non-union workers (44% for >African-Americans and 53% for Latinos). > What else might McGuire focus on? Knowing how many women in New >Jersey are bread-winners he might point out that the average 29-year-old >woman with a college degree will lose $990,000 over her career because of >the continuing pay gap between men and women. Even though equal pay has >been the law of the land for over 35 years, women still earn only 74 cents >for every dollar men earn. McGuire would urge New Jersey women to find out >how much the pay gap robs them by going to an AFL-CIO web site at >www.aflcio.org/women/equalpay.htm. > A popular and dedicated leader, Peter J. McGuire would have much >else to note, especially the greater-than-ever 1998 New Jersey union >celebrations of the holiday he got Congress to create, a day he wanted set >aside for reflection about the need to do it all better. In his honor, and >on behalf of the well-being of us all, let's get on with it! > > Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Psych/Soc/Anthro; Director, Center for Employment Futures, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax 610-668-2727. email: SHOSTAKA@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ "This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson