Buffalo News (New York), June 4, 2006, Sunday

Copyright 2006 The Buffalo News
Buffalo News (New York)

June 4, 2006 Sunday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. B8


HEADLINE: Unions wary of the future as they hemorrhage members;
Private unions see greater decline than in the public sector
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060604/2027809.asp


BYLINE: By Sandra Tan - NEWS STAFF REPORTER

BODY:
Unions are shrinking here in Western New York.
Once the stronghold of labor activism, more and more area unions are hemorrhaging members and worrying about the future.
While more than a quarter of the area's employed workers still carry union cards, organized labor has lost members at three times the rate of the employment decline in this region since 2000.
"I can't think of a more difficult time of crisis," said Lou Jean Fleron, director of Economic Development Initiatives for the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, based in Buffalo.
The Buffalo-Niagara region has lost an estimated 22,500 union members from 2000 to 2005, according to a Florida State University database that breaks out annual survey statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That represents a 15 percent decline during a time when New York State is actually seeing a slight increase in membership. And while the Buffalo-Niagara region has always boasted a greater percentage of union members than the state overall, that gap is shrinking.
Both public and private unions are facing more difficult times with the sluggish economy, the dramatic escalation of health-care costs and pensions, government cutbacks and outside competition.
But while public unions have made bigger headlines and come under greater scrutiny in the past few years, it's the private unions that have lost the most by far.
According to Labor Statistic estimates, private unions in the Buffalo-Niagara region have lost 16,700 members since 2000, more than 21/2 times the estimated number of public union membership losses.
"As with just about every union, we're on the defensive, trying to protect what we've had in the past in economic circumstances that are beyond our control in the global market," said Kevin Donovan, Western New York and western Pennsylvania area director for the United Auto Workers.
> UAW loses 4,000
The regional UAW has lost about 4,000 members since 2000, Donovan said, slashing union ranks by more than a quarter to 10,000 remaining members.
The story of the UAW's decline is similar to that of every other manufacturing union in Western New York, he said.
The industrial field continues to suffer, while nonunionized fields such as financial services and the legal profession enjoy regional employment growth.
Domestic manufacturers face high overhead costs beyond their control, Donovan said.
"Because they can't control those, they look to employees to get that quick hit whenever a contract expires, or even before the contract expires."
Protecting local jobs often means working hand-in-hand with employers to help their companies survive, even when that requires concessions.
"Nobody's really been happy with the contracts that have been coming out," Donovan said.
While management may have a bargaining advantage these days, he added, in the end, nobody is winning.
"I think both sides are losing out to what's happening to us globally," he said.
The struggles at Delphi Corp. in Lockport are an outgrowth of this, tied to the ongoing financial losses of General Motors.
"Companies are using bankruptcy as a collective bargaining tool," Donovan said. "If they can't get us to the table by sitting down and saying, 'OK we need help,' they go to the bankruptcy courts to gut our agreements and start from scratch."
Compared with private unions, many recognize that public unions have the advantage. They carry the political backing of elected leaders and benefit from community pressure when public services get cut.
> The Taylor Law edge
In addition, police and fire unions have an advantage in the state's Taylor Law, which allows them to end difficult negotiations and get results through a process of binding arbitration.
For these reasons and others, many local public union employees have tended to fare better than their private counterparts. Critics have denounced the richer wages, benefits and perks accorded to taxpayer-supported positions.
But in recent years, the city and county budget crises and the imposition of control board authority have led to across-the-board layoffs, and wage and hiring freezes that are challenging the public union domain like never before.
"The public pays our salaries," said Buffalo Human Resources Commissioner Leonard A. Matarese. "And when the public is having a difficult time making their own livings, supporting their families and living the lifestyle they want to live in . . . people are more concerned with what public-sector employees are earning."
Public union membership numbers are plummeting. City police and firefighters alone have seen a combined loss of nearly 400 union members over the past five years.
"We haven't had a pay raise since 2001, and I don't think anyone in the private sector cares about that because there are struggles all over Western New York," said Daniel Cunningham, vice president of the Buffalo Professional Firefighters Local 282.
With the closing of various fire companies, the city firefighters union has lost about 190 members since 2000 nearly 20 percent of its membership.
All of the city's unionized employees are working under expired contracts, except for the police union, which agreed to move from two-officer patrol cars to one-officer cars in exchange for wage increases.
Though the transition to one-officer cars has saved the city huge sums by enabling fewer patrol officers to cover more shifts, the negotiated wage increases for officers were frozen by the Buffalo control board.
"This is Nazi Germany in the 1930s," said Buffalo Police Benevolent Association President Robert Meegan of the control board's unilateral authority. "How can we possibly sit down with the city now and negotiate anything?"
Meegan said the PBA is down about 200 members from five years ago. The original goal of the city was to reduce that number by roughly another 100 officers, eventually bringing the force down to 675. City officials, however, say it might be possible to retain more officers through better handling of injured-on-duty cases.
The Civil Service Employees Association Local 815, Erie County government's largest union, has lost 683 active county government members since 2002 with the bulk of loses occurring over the last two years through layoffs and retirements. The CSEA's remaining 3,850 members face the expiration of their contract at the end of the year and don't expect to come to terms on a new one soon.
"It's going to be difficult, and I think it's going to last a long, long time," said CSEA President Joan Bender.
> Some faring better
Not all unions are experiencing such volatile losses. Some are holding their own, and some are even gaining.
Dan Boody, former president of the AFL-CIO Western New York Area Labor Federation and the Buffalo Building and Construction Trades Council, said that as far as the construction trade goes, membership has held steady.
Michelle Marto, spokeswoman for 1199 Service Employees International Union, which represents health care workers in several states, said the Western New York region continues to sign up new members at a steady rate.
Between the region's nursing shortage and the SEIU's aggressive organizing campaigns, the union has signed up 1,225 new members in Erie, Niagara and Chautauqua counties since 2003, she said.
"You can't outsource a doctor and a patient," Marto said of the SEIU's unique position and influence. "If you get sick here, we'll probably take care of you here."
Some say they're still optimistic that organized labor as a whole can recover over time.
"I just don't want to believe that we're all going to settle for a lower standard of living," said Fleron of Cornell University. "That's the opposite of the American Dream."
e-mail: stan@buffnews.com

GRAPHIC: Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News United Auto Workers members pass each other as shifts change at the American Axle & Manufacturing plant in the Town of Tonawanda. The UAW lost 4,000 members here since 2000.