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**SEPTEMBER 4, 2023**

On the Prospect website* Jim Grossfeld writes on the strengthening
links <[link removed]> between
unions and the LGBT movement

* David Dayen describes the Biden administration's indirect efforts
<[link removed]>
to ensure that unions have a place in electric vehicles

* Harold Meyerson argues that this Labor Day is more favorable for the
union movement
<[link removed]> than
any in decades

* Tisya Mavuram reports on the union drive
<[link removed]>
at Wells Fargo

Kuttner on TAP

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**** Unions and Worker Voice

The other great contribution of the labor movement

This Labor Day is a moment to celebrate the resurgence of trade
unionism. The labor movement is more popular today than it has been in
generations and is doing more to earn that popularity. But one aspect of
trade unionism gets insufficient appreciation: unions as instruments of
worker voice and workplace democracy.

In a non-union workplace, most workers below the level of executive and
supervisor simply have no voice. If they make suggestions or requests
that rub management the wrong way, they are putting their jobs and
livelihoods on the line, since they can be fired at will.

There is also zero democracy in a non-union workplace. It's a totally
authoritarian, top-down operation.

Compare this with unions at their best. UPS, in its latest contract,
finally agreed to air-condition delivery trucks
<[link removed]>.
That was a demand from sweltering rank-and-file drivers, pressed by a
powerful union, the Teamsters, and backed up by the credible threat of a
strike-worker voice linked to worker power.

I've written about the hotel workers
<[link removed]> represented by
UNITE HERE. Their shop stewards are elected by the rank and file. One of
the most successful and admirable demands from hotel workers, which has
been written into union contracts, is opportunities for "back of the
house" employees, heavily Black, Hispanic, and immigrant, working in
kitchen, janitorial, and room-cleaning jobs, to ascend to better-paid
"front of the house" jobs such as desk clerk and waiter, which had
typically been mostly white.

Thanks to UNITE HERE, unionized hotel workers have predictable
schedules, so that they can plan the rest of their lives. But non-union
retail and fast-food workers find their schedules are set at the whim of
the boss, who can demand that an employee serve as a "clopener
<[link removed]>,"
closing a store at midnight and then coming to open it at 6 a.m.

One of the epitomes of unions representing worker voice is the
Association of Flight Attendants. The AFA, whose predecessors date to
1945, is a prime case of women's consciousness-raising and women's
voice. The AFA fought and defeated one humiliating job condition after
another, from weight, height, and age limits to the requirement that
stewardesses be unmarried. Every union officer is a working flight
attendant.

Unions also represent internal democracy in a second, complementary
sense. Their leadership is democratically elected. The UAW and the
Teamsters are militant unions today because rank-and-file workers
organized to elect reform leadership-Shawn Fain at the UAW and Sean
O'Brien at the Teamsters. Attend a union convention and you will see
more genuine racial and ethnic diversity than in any other American
institution.

And unions represent democratic voice in yet another sense. The same
skills that make for effective union organizing-knocking on doors,
engaging in sympathetic active listening about people's frustrations
and needs-are key to effective political campaigns. During COVID, when
too much political campaigning was done via text, phone, and social
media, UNITE HERE workers went door-to-door in many states
<[link removed]>, most notably the
swing states of Nevada and Pennsylvania, and made a real difference.

So by all means, let's celebrate unions for what they contribute to
wages, hours, and working conditions. But at a time when democracy is
under assault, let's also remember unions as a key element of a
democratic society.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
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Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter <[link removed]>

[link removed]

A Labor Day Like No Other
<[link removed]>
With public support for unions at near-record highs and new federal
rules that actually enable organizing, unions need to mount massive
campaigns. BY HAROLD MEYERSON

Union and Queer <[link removed]>
The growing solidarity between labor and the LGBTQ+ community BY JIM
GROSSFELD

Organizing Wells Fargo
<[link removed]>
The campaign to unionize workers and rectify banking practices at
America's most notorious bank now reaches across the nation. BY TISYA
MAVURAM

Biden's Indirect Play for a Just Transition to EVs
<[link removed]>Department
of Energy programs condition funding for retooling factories on
good-paying union jobs in manufacturing communities. BY DAVID DAYEN

 

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