Labor in America

The big news in my world this week was the AFL-CIO split. Earlier this week the Teamsters and the Service Employees International announced they were pulling out of the federation. It also appears likely that United Food and Commercial Workers and Unite Here will also be leaving the federation of labor.

They have started a new coalition: The Change to Win Coalition. Among the unions already mentioned, The United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC) and the United Farm Workers of America have also joined the coalition. The priorities of this new coalition are as follows:

• Make it our first priority to help millions more workers form unions so we can build a strong movement for rewarding work in America.
• Unite the strength of everyone who works in the same industry so we can negotiate with today's huge global corporations for everyone's benefit.
• Reflect the diversity and commitment to change of today's workforce.
• Build a growing, independent voice for working people in politics based on economic issues, not party.
• Modernize the strategies, structure, and priorities of the AFL-CIO to make these changes possible.

There is no doubt this is a huge move for labor. Whether it is good or bad, only time will tell. Many have questioned why the unions mentioned did not try to implement their changes within the framework of the AFL-CIO. Others have noted the lack of democracy for the rank and file members as the leaders of these unions made these decisions with no input from their members. And as union membership in this country continues to decline, many question the wisdom of breaking up the AFL-CIO.

Meanwhile the average American desperately needs a growing and viable labor movement. I don't see that anywhere except the IWW. This is not merely suggesting a different group to join. The IWW represent a completely different way of thinking. Business unions are done in this country. Stick a fork in them. Some suggestions from the IWW:

1. Organize the unorganized into self-managed industrial unions. Unions built from the grass-roots by worker organizers. Unions run by the membership to address their own needs and aspirations on the job. Unions that are independent of government and political parties. Unions that welcome all wage workers and unemployed, regardless of nationality, race, gender, political or religious creed, sexual orientation, etc, on the basis of strict equality. Unions in which all officers are directly elected by those they serve and are immediately recallable by the membership. Unions in which remuneration for officers is tied to the average wage of the workers involved; where term limits for officers are strictly observed; and, where the officer returns to the job when their term in office is over. We call this Solidarity Unionism.
   
2. Re-organize the miss-organized of the business unions via establishment of shop-committees that can take direct action on the job in pursuit of workers’ needs outside of the restrictions of legal collective bargaining agreements. We reject dues check-off because joining a union should be a conscious commitment to solidarity not a “condition of employment”. We reject no-strike deals because we need to be able to act to defend and extend our rights at every opportunity. We reject “management’s rights” because they are inimical to our own.
   
3. Establish horizontal links between and among unions and shop committees to foster solidarity on a local, regional, national and international level. Build workers’ centers in every community to reach out to all sectors of the working class and unemployed, including their kids.
   
4. Solidarity Unionism recognizes no restriction on what we should strive for. Health and safety at work, the environmental and social impact of what we produce, shorter and flexible hours of labor, universal health care - everything is fair game! Ultimately, we reject the employing class’s so-called ‘proprietary rights’. We want to gain control of the means of life!

We need a new labor movement. The rich white guys who run the business unions in this country are going to continue to run labor into the ground. They will continue to centralize power, add bureaucracy, and stifle the creative and radical revolutionary spirit of a true labor movement. Workers of the world UNITE!

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