In the cause of union democracy.

• Author: Goldberg, Michael J.

1. INTRODUCTION

   It is an honor to be a part of this symposium, but I have to admit that I am a little embarrassed by its title. I have certainly never thought of myself as a "public intellectual." And to whatever limited extent I may fit the definition the organizers had in mind, so do many others of much greater distinction. Even in my own little corner of labor and employment law-union democracy law-I share the public intellectual podium, figuratively at least, with Alan Hyde of Rutgers Law School, (2) and with my law school classmate, Chicago labor lawyer and writer, Tom Geoghegan, among others. (3)

   Nevertheless, I appreciate the opportunity to write about the cause to which I have devoted a good part of my career both inside and outside the halls of academia: the struggle to make the labor movement more democratic and more responsive to its members. After a brief explanation of how I became involved in the union democracy movement, this article will highlight some of the reasons why I believe union democracy is such an important cause. It will then explain why the role of public intellectuals is particularly important for the cause of union democracy, and will conclude with a description of some of the ways my work in the area of union democracy has enhanced my teaching and scholarship.

2. MY PATH TO UNION DEMOCRACY

   After a brief stint as a welfare-rights organizer following college, I went to law school intent on having a career as some kind of public interest lawyer. During law school, I wrote a piece on employment discrimination (4) and spent a summer at the ACLU. After a judicial clerkship, I became a graduate fellow at Georgetown's Institute for Public Representation, practicing public interest administrative law. While at Georgetown, I worked with two important union democracy lawyers, Arthur Fox of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, who was working with Teamster reformers on truck safety as well as union democracy matters, (5) and Joe Rauh, one of the leading civil rights and labor lawyers of his generation. (6) Rauh, who had previously represented the Miners for Democracy in their successful election campaign in the United Mine Workers, was then representing reformer Ed Sadlowski in his ultimately unsuccessful run for the presidency of the United Steelworkers.

   My next stop was a staff attorney position at the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office (LELO) in Seattle. LELO was a unique public interest firm with a board comprised largely of African-American activists in the Seattle building trades, (7) Filipino-American reformers in a Seattle longshoremen's local that represented workers in the then-segregated Alaska salmon canning industry, (8) and Latino members of the Washington affiliate of the United Farm Workers union. (9) While at LELO, I represented a "shop committee" of United Parcel Service employees that later became the backbone of Seattle's chapter of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). (10) That work led to a position with TDU, (11) where I served in its Washington, D.C. office as general counsel until I entered academia. Since then, in addition to my teaching and scholarly work--much of it focusing on the law regulating internal union affairs (12)--I have remained active in the union democracy movement, serving on the board of the Association for Union Democracy (AUD), (13) writing the occasional amicus brief, (14) litigating the occasional case, (15) and otherwise trying to advance the cause of union democracy in the real world. (16)

3. WHY UNION DEMOCRACY MATTERS

   Most of my reasons for promoting union democracy are pragmatic. While I have no quarrel with those who value democracy as an end in itself, I am more inclined to see union democracy as an essential means toward achieving a particular end: a stronger labor movement that is not only more successful at the bread-and-butter functions of organizing and collective bargaining, but is also more effective representing working people in the broader political arena. A stronger and more democratic labor movement is an essential ingredient in a revitalized movement for progressive change and social justice, which I believe is so important to this country's future. As New York University professor and social commentator Todd Gitlin has asked, "[W]hat higher priority can there be for intellectuals? A revival of union strength ought to be the single greatest priority for the progressive liberal left." (17) My desire for that result helps me resist the occasional depressing thought that I am toiling in a remote corner of a backwater field in a world where labor unions are in danger of becoming irrelevant. (18)

   Most of labor's power, both on the shop floor and in society at large, depends on its ability to mobilize its members to, in the words of the newsletter Labor Notes, "put the movement back in the labor movement." Although a top-down organizational model may occasionally work, if the "organizing model of unionism" or "social movement unionism" is to succeed, members must have both the opportunity to participate in union decisions and a sense that it is, in fact, their union, not just an "insurance agency" that collects their dues. (19) As one commentator argued, "What is at stake in the fight for participatory democracy is the future of the labor movement. When unions deprive the rank and file of choice, when leaders favor mobilization but not participation, they succeed only in driving a deeper nail in labor's coffin." (20)

   Although the labor movement has not had many victories in recent decades, growing evidence suggests that more democratic unions are increasingly effective at their core collective bargaining functions. For example, the successful 1997 Teamsters UPS strike used a highly mobilized and united rank and file to prevail, despite decades of UPS efforts to drive a wedge between its full-time and part-time employees. (21) It is not a coincidence that this victory occurred during the high-water mark of democracy in the Teamsters Union, just before the fall from grace of Ron Carey, the reform candidate elected as Teamsters President in 1991 in the first direct rank-and-file election for the union's top officers. (22) An increasing number of studies suggest that democratic unions tend to fare better than autocratic ones in both organizing campaigns and at the bargaining table. (23) If nothing else, democratized unions create enormous incentives for complacent or incompetent union leaders to improve their performance. (24)

   Another reason for promoting union democracy is that democratic unions are less susceptible to problems of corruption, labor racketeering, and infiltration by organized crime. (25) The last twenty years have seen significant progress in the efforts to clean up historically corrupt unions like the Teamsters, the Hotel & Restaurant Employees, and the Laborers. (26) Where corruption remains a problem or creeps back in, however, it not only has an immediate impact on the members of the affected unions, but it also tarnishes labor as a whole, as evidenced by the fact that anti-union employers can be expected to bring it up in response to almost every union-organizing campaign. (27)

   When the focus shifts from organizing and collective bargaining to labor's role as a political voice for its members, union democracy becomes even more essential. Together with its allies in the civil rights and women's movements, the labor movement is the most important and best-organized segment of the polity that has consistently struggled for a more equitable distribution of wealth and power in society. (28) With the expanding impact of campaign contributions from special interests, the political role of organized labor, including its capacity to contribute funds and mobilize voters, assumes increased importance as a countervailing force against corporate influence on the political process. Aside from unions, it is difficult to think of any other organizations in America that represent, or even seek to represent, the interests of working people as working people in the political arena. (29) Indeed, at a symbolic level, "the worker" has virtually disappeared from the social and political imagination, replaced instead by the more amorphous figure of "the consumer," whose interests are often seen as conflicting with those of the worker. (30) The irony, of course, is that consumers are for the most part comprised primarily of workers or their dependents.

   Given the important and unique role of unions in representing the interests of working people in the political process, it is critical that the positions they advocate be reached through a democratic process. The Teamsters' endorsement of Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election provides an instructive example of how the absence of union democracy can distort labor's political voice. The union endorsed Reagan following a poll of its membership by then Teamsters President Jackie Presser, which allegedly revealed support for Reagan over Democratic candidate Walter Mondale by a ten-point margin. As the head of the union's public relations department later admitted in a memoir appropriately titled Devil's Pact, the actual results of the poll favored Mondale by more than a two-to-one margin before Presser's staff discarded thousands of Mondale votes and stuffed the ballot boxes with phony Reagan votes. (31) The more unions adhere to democratic principles, the more likely it becomes that their political activities will accurately represent the views and interests of their membership. (32)

   Beyond the realm of electoral politics and legislative lobbying, unions assume an additional political role. In this age of "bowling alone," to use Robert Putnam's phrase, (33) unions are...