National Public Radio (NPR), All Things Considered, March 3, 2005, Thursday

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National Public Radio (NPR)

SHOW: All Things Considered 9:00 AM EST NPR

March 3, 2005 Thursday

HEADLINE: Organized labor in a debate over its survival

ANCHORS: MELISSA BLOCK, ROBERT SIEGEL

REPORTERS: FRANK LANGFITT

BODY:
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
After decades of decline, organized labor is engaged in a fierce debate over its survival. In one camp stands Andy Stern, a brash, Ivy League-educated union leader; in the other, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, a soft-spoken 70-year-old who leads by consensus. Stern has threatened to leave the AFL-CIO if it doesn't fundamentally change. Sweeney, who is Stern's former mentor, is trying to hold the group together. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports.
FRANK LANGFITT reporting:
It's hard to overstate the plight of organized labor. Today only 8 percent of the private work force is unionized, the lowest level in a century. At an AFL-CIO meeting this week in Las Vegas, the sense of urgency was palpable. Terry O'Sullivan runs the Laborers International Union and is pushing for reform.
Mr. TERRY O'SULLIVAN (Laborers International Union): We're in the fight of our lives. And this summit this week is the beginning of an ongoing dialogue of change within the American labor movement, so we can grow and strengthen, provide the kind of voice for working people that the federation needs to have.
LANGFITT: That dialogue was sparked last year by Andy Stern. Sterns runs the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU. It's the largest and fastest-growing in the AFL-CIO. Stern's union has made its mark organizing the growing service sector, reaching out to janitors and home health care workers, many of whom are minorities. The AFL-CIO is the umbrella group for organized labor. Stern says it needs to focus more money on organizing workers. Among his proposals: merge the group's 60 unions around individual industries to gain more leverage over management.
Mr. ANDY STERN (Service Employees International Union): We have to start organizing wholesale, not retail. You know, people didn't organize Ford one plant at a time. They organized Ford. And if we're going to change the size and the shape of the American union movement and change workers' lives, we have to get away from this shop-by-shop, small organizing and really take on the largest employers in our country today, like Wal-Mart.
LANGFITT: But forced mergers are very controversial in a labor movement which emphasizes union democracy. Sweeney says he wants changes at the AFL-CIO, too, but he seems more focused on trying to elect labor-friendly candidates to political office. Despite an aggressive campaign last year, organized labor failed to defeat President Bush. Sweeney says he hopes his organization shifts enough to satisfy Stern and his members.
Mr. JOHN SWEENEY (President, AFL-CIO): My hope is that we're going to be able to move changes that Andy will feel are bold and meaningful changes. Naturally we're always hopeful that we don't lose an affiliate and especially a major affiliate like SEIU.
LANGFITT: The debate in organized labor hasn't drawn broad attention so far, but Ross Eisenbrey of the Economic Policy Institute, a labor think tank, says all workers have a stake in what happens. Unions have often set standards for the rest of the working world. If organized labor continues its slide, Eisenbrey says it will affect non-union workers as well.
Mr. ROSS EISENBREY (Economic Policy Institute): Their wages and benefits for the last 50 or 60 years have depended upon the labor movement. What unions have been able to win for their members has essentially spilled over into everyone else's life.
LANGFITT: There are many reasons behind organized labor's decline. Global competition has led companies to send millions of manufacturing jobs overseas. Less enforcement of labor laws has made it easier for businesses to break unions. But some observers say organized labor shares some of the blame. Richard Hurd is a professor of labor studies at Cornell University. He says the labor movement, which is still dominated by older, white men, needs to do more to change its image. He also says it has to reach out more to new workers, especially immigrants and those in high tech.
Professor RICHARD HURD (Cornell University): I think unions at some point have to confront the reality that the labor movement, as it exists and what it stands for and the culture that it exhibits to the broader world, has not proven to be attractive to the emerging work force.
LANGFITT: At the end of this week's meeting, Stern did not get the changes he wanted, but neither did he repeat his threat to leave. With the support of other powerful unions, he plans to press a collective reform agenda at the AFL-CIO's convention this summer, and that's also when Sweeney plans to seek a third term. Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Las Vegas.