Ever since the failure of the
New Unity Partnership (NUP) last year there's been speculation that the SEIU might leave the AFL-CIO if some the AFL-CIO didn't put forward a plan for change that was acceptable to the SEIU. Yesterday, the SEIU exec board authorized a
a break with the AFL-CIO, and it is now likely that a breach is imminent. I think there's this (unfortunate) attitude that if you're not in a union, none of this should matter to you, but nothing could be further from the truth. Labor was and is the heart of the democratic party, the problem is that there's a push for the party to abandon Labor, and become a party of social liberals. Democrats need Labor, and Labor needs Democrats. As Democrats defining what Labor is going to be is vital to the future of the party.
In January of this year I did a
diary about the fundamental issue behind the confrontation behind that SEIU and the AFL-CIO. At the heart of it there's a real tradeoff between democracy and density in the labor movement. Opponents of the now disbanded NUP argue that the proposal put forward by the SEIU sacrifices too much democracy in pursuit of density. It's unarguable that percentage of the US workforce represented by a union has been declining since the mid 50's, and the NUPsters would argue that until we start increasing the percentage of the workforce in a union concerns about the amount of control that union members at the local level need to be put on the back burner. Yet it is precisely this issue that has been the source of contention between the SEIU national and locals, as I said in January:
One of the most biting criticisms of the SEIU, is that while it has been successful in organizing lower income and minority workers into unions, it has been far less successful in empowering those workers, ie in allowing self determination with workers rising from the ranks to take positions of authority in the union. The penchant for placing college educated staff in positions of power, rather than striving for the organic development of leaders from the ranks (This would seem to be a requisite for union democracy, the worker's voice rising from the ranks, born of common sacrifice and suffering), is the source of discord within the SEIU, and it seems entirely fair to ask whether the SEIU as a recent creation has worked through the issues of the place of minority unions and rank and creating outlets for the rank and file to rise that older industrial unions fought with during the 70's and 80's.
In particular the issue of union trusteeship, where the will of the local is thwarted by the international, with Stern being criticized as undemocratic because, "Since 1996, when Stern
replaced Sweeney, 40 SEIU locals--or 14 % of its 275
affiliates--have been put under trusteeship to implant
new officers." Reutherism redux While trusteeship has an important function in tackling corruption, the emergence of union chiefs who think locals are their fiefs has existed since worker's first organized in the middle ages, the allegation (the extraordinary number of locals under trusteeship seems to validate concerns) is that Stern has used trusteeship as a way to consolidate his power and punish those who who don't toe the line on the SEIU organizing model. That Stern has parachuted in college educated staffers that have little (or no) rank and file experience as "cleaning crews" on dissident locals only increased the impression that Stern believes the power should with the educated "revolutionary vanguard", and that the peasants members should shut the fuck up and accept their place in the new "social movement" unionism. In this brave new world, union democracy and the empowerment of the rank and file, are to be subsumed in the plans of the "great leader", workers are to be pawns not leaders.
I was rough on Stern, but Latin America teaches us that union density without union democracy is not good for workers. The SEIU and Stern's greatest strength has been utilizing the politics or public opinion to force a vote. In the health industry where the public sector is such a large player, this has been very effective, bu the effectiveness of the SEIU model against Walmart is less clear. For the past twenty years the UFCW has been trying to organize Walmart, now the SEIU is trying to step in take Walmart on. Understandably there's resentment that after 20 years of struggle that are finally bearing fruit, the SEIU is swooping in to take credit, and grow the union now that the SEIU traditional sectors no longer present the opportunities for growth they once did.
Stern has had some great ideas, like his efforts to piece together a more effective global labor movemment. There's an epidemic of European companies that are socially responsible at home, but become union busters when not in earshot of questioning publics back home. Stern took on Sodexho a French catering company that has treated its workers like dirt by buying ads in papers back in France to publish the info about abuses they've been gathering. That was brilliant, that is something that the labor movement needs to be doing. Hell, where's Welshman at, this is something we should be helping with. Embarass these bastards. Alas this is another diary (to be written at an undisclosed date, by which I mean when I get to it)
Since it appears that the SEIU is preparing to bolt from the AFL-CIO, I thought that Kossacks need to be aware, and have a chance to discuss the merits or lack of merits with the SEIU's plans for change.
[editor's note, by ManfromMiddletown] Here's an article about the proposal to organize Walmart by the SEIU.
Just one week after the election, SEIU President Andrew Stern proposed a range of remedies for labor's ailments. They included rebating half the dues that unions pay to the AFL-CIO to bolster unions' organizing programs, directing the $25 million that the AFL-CIO annually derives from its credit card into a campaign to begin organizing Wal-Mart workers and, most controversial, a policy that would enable the AFL-CIO to compel its 40 smaller unions (often too small to wage significant organizing drives) to merge into its 20 larger ones. If the AFL-CIO fails to adopt these changes, Stern said, the SEIU -- the federation's largest union and its most successful organizer -- may pull out altogether.