The Tribune (Port St. Lucie/Fort Pierce, FL), December 6, 2004, Monday

Copyright 2004 Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
The Tribune (Port St. Lucie/Fort Pierce, FL)

December 6, 2004, Monday

SECTION: DOMESTIC NEWS

HEADLINE: Labor leaders speak of need to reverse decline, restore relevance

BYLINE: By Philip Dine

BODY:
NEW YORK _ For most of the past century, the American labor movement was at the forefront of the country's economic, political and social battles _ helping elect presidents, lifting millions of workers into the middle class and pushing for safer workplaces.
In recent years, as their influence steadily dwindled, union leaders have fended off criticism, maintaining that they were still a vital force and were doing as well as could be expected given factors beyond their control, such as the shipping of union jobs overseas.
The period of denial is officially over.
Late last week, union leaders and activists gathered in New York to acknowledge what has gone wrong _ and to figure out how to make the labor movement relevant again. The failure to organize enough new workers to maintain labor's size and strength was a key topic.
AFL-CIO organizing director Stewart Acuff said organizing new groups of workers had been made more difficult by labor laws, aggressive employer actions, pro-business appointments to labor relations boards and by the failure of union leaders to make it a priority.
The dwindling numbers have, in turn, damaged labor's ability to take on employers in the type of successful collective bargaining that long helped boost wages and benefits, said Larry Cohen, executive vice president of the Communications Workers of America.
"We have seen collective bargaining rights virtually destroyed on our watch," he said. "We have to go back to these roots."
They were among 565 of the nation's top labor leaders, analysts and local union officials who gathered Thursday and Friday for an open _ and unusually frank _ debate on what ails their movement and how to fix it.
"The fact that this debate has moved from the executive board of the AFL-CIO to the public is just really significant. I've never seen it in my lifetime, this type of open debate," said Mark Dudzic, national organizer for the Labor Party and former union official.
The City University of New York hosted the event, sponsored by the Queens College Labor Resource Center and the New Labor Forum, a periodical. The high attendance reflected the significance of labor's troubles, with the exclamation point being last month's re-election of President Bush, considered by many in labor as the most anti-union president ever.
"The topic is hot for two reasons," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University. "It's hot because labor is in a crisis, and it's hot because labor is really thinking about fundamental changes that could revitalize it."
From a high of 35 percent of the work force in 1955, labor today represents 13 percent _ and only 8 percent of workers in the private sector.
Last year, labor organized 400,000 new members, but 600,000 union jobs were lost because of company closings or relocations.
But while labor is clear on the problems, there was a good deal of dispute over the solutions. Among the proposals:
Merging unions. The goal is to present corporations with more powerful adversaries, lessen internal competition among unions and cut administrative costs to free resources for other purposes.
Improving what unions do to promote more skillful negotiating and more effective organizing campaigns.
Changing labor laws. Current laws have been interpreted in ways that make it easier for businesses to combat union organizing.
Making unions more democratic and increasing rank-and-file involvement. This might make unions more attractive to unorganized workers.
Forging more alliances between labor and other groups. Bringing labor together with environmentalists, blacks and immigrants on a permanent basis, not just during elections, would increase the strength of each.
Weaning unions from the Democratic Party. Some contend that unions have been taken for granted, giving them little leverage and preventing them from articulating their own agenda.
Taking a page from the Republican Party playbook by stressing values. Among them: decent wages, the right to health care and improvement of education.
One labor leader who has been a vocal advocate of the need to change is Bruce Raynor, president of the newly merged textile and hotel workers union. He said there was no choice but to acknowledge _ and fix _ what is happening.
"This is not simply our problem," Raynor said, arguing that stagnant union pay depresses wages in general. "We need to be seen as a spokesperson for working America, to be seen as the voice of the American working class," he said.
"I think we've failed in that."
Organized labor waged its most intense effort yet on behalf of Democratic nominee John Kerry. As a result, said AFL-CIO political director Karen Ackerman, Kerry won 65 percent of the vote among union households _ but this was drowned out by superior Republican turnout efforts.
Losing elections translates into an inability to enact labor-law legislation facilitating the right to organize, and the resulting dip in numbers complicates bargaining.
Gregory Junemann is president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents some of Boeing's employees. He said weakened union bargaining power had led to a decline in health care benefits. About 56 percent of employers now provide them, "and it's declining every week," he said.
"As soon as that gets below 50 percent, we have a major problem on our hands, because if I'm dealing with Boeing or Lockheed Martin, they're going to say, 'Why am I the only one in town providing health care benefits? Maybe it's time to discontinue it.'"
That, in turn, would further reduce the value of union membership.
Unions still have strong regional pockets, including St. Louis, where unionization rates have held steady at 22 percent. Veteran local labor leaders Bob Kelley and Bob Soutier attribute that to active manufacturing and construction industries, a diverse economy and the area's status as a transportation hub.
The atmosphere at the conference buoyed many, because labor has sometimes been accused of stifling dissent so it can present a strong and unified front, which has had the unintended consequence of preventing progress.
"There ought to be honest discussion. It ought to be deep, and it ought to go broad _ and nobody ought to be penalized for participating," said Gerald Hudson, international executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, at 1.7 million the AFL-CIO's biggest union.
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(c) 2004, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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