The best and the worst of American unions.

AuthorWaldman, Steven

THE BEST & THE WORST OF AMERICAN UNIONS

The words of Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor, have often been cited to summarize everything that is wrong with unions: "What does labor want? More!' More wages even when profits are declining. More benefits even when generous compensation is pricing products out of competition. More work rules that stifle productivity. More political power to follow selfish agendas. Seldom has a man been misquoted so appropriately.

Gompers's actual statement, made in an 1893 speech to the International Labor Congress, revealed a somewhat broader, more enlightened vision of organized labor. "We want more school houses, and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more constant work and less crime,' Gompers said. He appealed for an eight-hour day, improved health and safety, more justice, less greed, and concluded with a somewhat dated but inspirational call for "more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.'

Labor has, in recent years, lived too much by the essence of the abridged quote rather than the loftier one, sometimes because callous management has left it little choice and sometimes because of selfishness. But things have begun to change. In some cases management has mellowed. Just as important, plant closings, concessionary wage agreements, and the rapid rise of union busting firms have forced unions to abandon--often reluctantly--the traditional rules of the labor movement.

The experimentation has taken many forms--a wages-for-power swap at an airline, a union-run supermarket in Philadelphia, a reduction of work rules at an auto plant in California, a union-built homeless shelter in Los Angeles. Unions have also adopted a variety of sophisticated new methods of putting financial pressure on companies beyond setting up pickets outside the closed plant gates.

As unions become more aggressive--strikes were up in 1986 for the first time in a decade--it is critical that their efforts be channeled well. The persistence of corrupt, selfish, shortsighted unions will doom the labor movement.

What is a "good' union? Fundamentally, it is one with a broad view of both what to demand and how to demand it. It is concerned with worker power and conditions and the quality of the product or service. It is effective, clean, non-discriminatory and applies its political muscle not just for itself but for the public good.

Because there are 60,000 union locals in America, some of the most horrendous coexisting in the same national union as some of the most angelic, to definitively select the best and worst is impossible. But drawing on interviews with academics, unionists, and labor reporters, it is possible to identify the unions exhibiting those qualities that the next labor movement should encourage and those it should purge.

The Best

Farm Labor Organizing Committee--Baldemar Valasquez has for the past nine years campaigned with messianic fervor for probably the worst treated workers in America, migrant farmers. But he has succeeded in this difficult area of organizing not just because he preached a compelling gospel, but because he followed the money.

Valasquez founded FLOC in 1967. After years of organizing, it had gained only a few limited agreements with growers in Northern Ohio, and Third World conditions persisted. Pay was often below minimum wage, workers were continuously exposed to pesticides, and most farms had inadequate or nonexistent toilet facilities. He concluded that growers were not budging because they were in no position to. If they raised wages, and therefore tomato prices, the dominant corporate food processors to whom they sold--primarily Campbell's and Libby's--would simply announce they were taking their business to one of the dozens of other growers in Ohio.

So in 1979 FLOC took the unusual step of bypassing the employers by launching a nationwide boycott of Campbell's. Although Campbell's denies the boycotts had any effect on sales, the effort did stain the company's Mmmm-mmm-good image, particularly when the National Council of Churches--an umbrella group representing many Protestant denominations-- and several Catholic bishops threatened to join the boycott.

To broaden its attack, FLOC brought in Ray Rogers, the labor consultant credited with pioneering the modern "corporate campaign' in which unions target the financial lifelines of intransigent companies. FLOC and the churches, joined by unions and progressive groups from around the country, picketed Philadelphia National Bank, one of Campbell's major creditors. One month after FLOC focused on Philadelphia National, sympathetic depositors threatened to pull $500,000 out of the bank. TV and newspaper accounts referred to Campbell's role in maintaining the deplorable conditions. The stain on the company's corporate image grew darker. "You had these little nuns get up at stockholders' meetings saying I have one share and you're a dirty so and so,' says John Dunlop, secretary of labor in the Ford administration, who was involved in the FLOC battle.

Dunlop chaired a commission that was instrumental in pressuring Campbell's to negotiate. Established originally at Campbell's request to set up anti-proverty programs, not collective bargaining agreements, it soon began acting as a private National Labor Relations Board. (The federal NLRB doesn't have jurisdiction over farm workers, a testimony to the power of agribusiness.) The commission included Douglas Fraser, former president of the United Auto Workers, a prominent Catholic leader, an Agriculture Department official under two Republican administrations, and the president of one of the Midwest's largest agribusinesses. The group was too respectable to be ignored.

The turning point came in the fall of 1985 when Campbell's officials, after prodding from the churches and the commission, took an unprecedented step. They agreed to negotiate with the migrant workers--people who didn't work for them. The migrant workers, growers, and Campbell's announced a three-way pact in February 1986 in which the growers agreed to give limited medical insurance, a paid holiday, and an increase in wages from an average of $3.95 an hour to $4.50 for workers on mechanized farms. (The wages for the lower-paid handpickers are still being negotiated.) That was possible only because Campbell's agreed to purchase a fixed portion of growers' crops, a guarantee that allowed them to increase wages without fear the giant processor would take its business elsewhere. The precedent set, the H.J. Heinz company settled with FLOC in April. And 23 of the largest cucumber growers in Ohio and Michigan have also signed agreements. Over the past 15 years, FLOC has also persuaded about 80 percent of growers to install toilet facilities.

The lesson for other unions? "If you follow the money,' says Valasquez, "you'll get to the people with real financial power.'

Los Angeles County Labor Federation--The labor "bosses' of Los Angeles seem to have city hall in their pockets. The Federation's executive secretary is a close advisor of the mayor and president of the Park and Recreation Commission. Another top Federation official is chairman of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency; the vice chair of the Federation is on the City Planning Commission. But what earns the federation praise is that it has shown that union political clout can be as noble as it is effective.

In January 1985 the Federation organized a volunteer effort to construct a 138-bed temporary homeless shelter, arranging for contractors to donate some materials, and purchasing the rest itself. Most important, about 300 union workers spent a week constructing the shelter on a vacant city lot. "I told them, if you think you're going to put it up in a week you're crazy,' Andy Raubeson, president of the SRO Housing Corporation, told union leaders.

Not only was the shelter ready for occupancy in ten days, but the well-connected union leaders were able to cut through reams of paperwork in 72 hours, even receiving an exemption from the distinctly L.A. ordinance requiring the shelter to have a parking lot. In addition to aiding the homeless, the Federation has helped restore a fire-damaged hospice for battered women and worked with the Los Angeles archdiocese on other community projects.

The Federation's efforts are particularly impressive given the traditional reluctance of construction-related unions to participate in or even allow poverty programs that require volunterr or low wage labor. The New York building trades unions, by comparison, recently stalled an effort to build permanent housing for the homeless...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT