Labor activists: Unions must 'fire up' workers to survive
By Samara Kalk Derby
November 20, 2002
Labor unions are struggling and they could disappear unless union organizers fire up workers and get them interested in organizing, said labor activists during a panel discussion on the UW campus Tuesday night.
In the mid-1950s, during their height of power, labor unions attracted 35 percent of all nonsupervisory workers in America, said state AFL-CIO President David Newby.
Now, only 9 percent of nonsupervisory workers in the private sector belong to unions, as does 14 percent of the total nonsupervisory work force, Newby told a crowd of about 40 that turned out for the forum "Bush's War on Labor." The event was hosted by the Student Labor Action Coalition and the International Socialist Organization.
"The public sector is pretty highly organized," with about 37 percent of workers belonging to labor unions, Newby said after the discussion.
In the public sector, workers seldom find hard-core opposition from supervisors, which shows that when people have a free choice they are more likely to vote for a union, Newby said. But the private sector is known to launch "absolutely vicious" anti-union campaigns that make organizing much more difficult, he added.
In recent years union membership has remained pretty steady, but the number of workers has increased, which is why the percentages have gone down, Newby said.
The number of workers in labor unions has decreased every year for the past 35 years, except for the last two, which have seen a small bump because of increased organizing activity, he said.
Tony Schultz, a member of the Student Labor Action Coalition, talked about the message President George W. Bush sent when he intervened in labor negotiations between West Coast dockworkers and their waterfront employers.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is one of the strongest and best-organized unions in the country - and it is also one of the most politically active, Schultz said.
"They have a long history of militant unionism and have demonstrated their power in progressive acts like refusing to unload goods from apartheid South Africa," he said.
The Bush administration in October sought an injunction under the Taft- Hartley Act, ending a 10-day lockout of longshoremen by the Pacific Maritime Association that shut down more than two dozen West Coast ports and paralyzed trans-Pacific shipping.
Under the act, both sides are prohibited from calling any lockouts, strikes or work slowdowns during a 80-day "cooling off period." The injunction ends Dec. 27, which critics point out is just after the all-important holiday season.
It was major retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and the Gap that pressured the government to get involved, said Schultz, a senior majoring in education.
The Taft-Hartley Act is an archaic, one-sided law, Schultz said. "It is inconsistent with free and autonomous collective bargaining," he said.
When it passed over President Harry Truman's veto in 1947, Truman called it a "slave labor act," Schultz said.
Joe Allen, a teamster steward from Chicago's Local 705 who works for United Parcel Service, said that being a worker in the United States today means not having what American workers once took for granted: high wages, job security, benefits and a voice in the work place.
Workers are treated as disposable, he said.
Americans need to live in a society where human needs are put before corporate greed, but labor unions are doing little to promote their cause, Allen, 42, said.
"Vision is what's missing from the American labor movement," he said.
During a question and answer period Vivian Hollifield, 34, said she is encouraged that some unions are winning fights across the country and pointed to Whole Foods as an example. There, the first union election in the nation was won this year at the local outlet.
Hollifield holds a master's degree and her mother didn't go to college, but Hollifield believes she will be among the first of her generation to do worse than her parents.
"It irks me that the average living wage in this town is $10 to $12 no matter if you have a college degree, an advanced degree, or not," she said.
Published: 10:34 AM 11/20/02
http://www.madison.com/captimes/news/stories/37147.php
Forum: Bush’s War on Labor
Tuesday Nov. 19, 7:00PM, 1651 Humanities, UW-Madison
The Student Labor Action Coalition and the International Socialist Organization have organized a forum entitled: Bush’s War on Labor Speakers at the event will include: David Newby, President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, Joe Allen a Teamster Steward out of Local 705 Chicago, and Tony Schultz of the School of Education and member of the Student Labor Action Coalition.
The forums intent is to expose the Bush Administration’s onslaught on American working men and women. Students are encourage to learn the facts about: West Coast Dockworkers and Taft-Hartley, Fast Track, FTAA, and Neoliberalism, contracting out federal jobs to corporations, and denying collective bargaining rights to federal workers in the newly created Office of Homeland Security.
George Bush imposed the Anti-Union Taft Hartley Act for the first time since 1971. The act was used on behalf of the Westcoast Manufacturing Coalition made up of corporations that include, Wal-Mart, The Gap, Home Depot, Mattel, and Target to force the International Longshore Workers Union to work with out rights in a "cooling off period" through the Christmas season. The use of the Taft-Hartley Act is inconsistent with free and autonomous collective bargaining.
The newly created Office of Homeland Security was signed into law denying 30,000 federal employees the right to bargain as a union. Just because Republicans won a few seats in the last election doesn’t mean the right to have a union has gone away. The Bush Administration has recently announced plans to contract out at least 850,000 federal jobs to private companies. This guarantees lucrative contracts to for profit corporations making millions for their executives.