Ideas in Development

Although supportive of unions, he does not avoid criticizing them for poor media and public relations, splitting the AFL-CIO at such a dire time, and the use of tactics that are utterly outdated.  But he also provides almost unassailable proof that the labor laws that are supposed to allow unions to democratically organize have become ineffectual due to the efforts of the business community and their supporters in Congress.

When unions were stronger in the United States, they helped raise wage rates and benefit standards in companies that wanted to avoid unionization.  Unionized firms pay better than non-unionized companies in the same industry.  Their economic clout translates into political and policy influence, thereby creating a more virtuous circle, where new workplace protections further empower collective bargaining efforts and strengthen “industrial democracy.”  In sum, they formerly constituted a countervailing power relative to big business.  But now they are a shadow of their former selves.

Is there any reason for hope?  Dine thinks so.  Did you know that poor women, working in terrible conditions for Delta Pride, a major player in the multi-billion dollar catfish industry successfully unionized in the 1990’s, while overcoming the hostility of the powers-that-be in the Mississippi Delta and fighting generations of racial and class prejudice?  This was a tough fight waged cleverly by the women at the plant and union organizers and media experts across a multi-state region.  Wages and benefits are significantly better.  And now the women can go to the restroom when they want and need to, not at the one time per day that it was formerly allowed.  Plus, they have experienced a gain in dignity, which is priceless.

Did you know Senator John Kerry’s Presidential nomination bid was saved from early elimination by firefighters?  Before they got involved, Kerry’s campaign was described as “a dead man walking.”  But his listless state was reenergized by firefighters’ charisma, the esteem in which they are held, and the very creative strategy and tactics of their unions.

Did you know that the American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO played a large role in bringing down the Iron Curtain?

Did you know that workplace injuries have increased during this two decade period of massive de-unionization?  That working family’s incomes have stagnated and not kept up with productivity increases?  That coal mining safety standards have fallen as the proportion of non-union firms have grown?

Did you know that unions are making progress in the service sector? In unionizing Latino immigrants and providing legal assistance?  In trying to “police” firms that exploit temp workers?

Other unions are engaged in confronting a more profit-driven, less patient-sensitive medical system.

Dine’s book tells these and other stories.

The author is more pessimistic than optimistic, but believes that a dual focus on organizing workplaces and politics is needed, along with labor law reform, coalition building and better communication strategies.  He proposes that the unions mount a door-to-door campaign to inform the American people of the state of the unions and their policy agendas, in an autonomous fashion that is totally disconnected from partisan electoral politics.  (He also advises them to not be so dependent on the Democrats.)  In this way, their message starts getting out in its purest form and is not shoved aside during the heat of specific political campaigns where unions might be assisting a get out the vote effort, et cetera.  This is very important, because the media tends to be anti-union.

I highly recommend this book.  My only quibble is that it does not address sufficiently the fact that trade unions today must realize that they are not just in the collective bargaining business.  This is too narrow and limited. 

They are, instead, in the “employee representation” business, which means they must be exploring new types of services (e.g., legal advice, collective benefits purchasing, unions of free-lancers, employee associations that do not engage in collective bargaining, health and safety committees, socially responsible investment consulting, continuing adult education and training, workplace literacy efforts, and so forth).   Joel Rogers and Richard Freeman call these options “Open Source Unions.”  

This is a big, but necessary leap that will require unions to be much more creative about revenue generation, along with meeting workers’ needs in today’s global information economy.