[In light of the youth-driven surge of union drives at Starbucks,
Amazon, Apple and elsewhere, the AFL-CIO – the main US’s labor
federation – is facing growing pressure to undertake a bolder effort
to help today’s burst of unionizing expand far faster]
[[link removed]]

AFL-CIO UNVEILS PLAN TO GROW BUT SOME UNION LEADERS UNDERWHELMED  
[[link removed]]


 

Steven Greenhouse
June 15, 2022
The Guardian
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ In light of the youth-driven surge of union drives at Starbucks,
Amazon, Apple and elsewhere, the AFL-CIO – the main US’s labor
federation – is facing growing pressure to undertake a bolder effort
to help today’s burst of unionizing expand far faster _

Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO President, speaks in Washington DC in July 2021.,
Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Rex/Shutterstock // The Guardian

 

At the AFL-CIO’s convention in Philadelphia, Liz Shuler, the
federation’s president, unveiled a new effort, announcing: “In the
next 10 years we will organize and grow our movement by more than 1
million working people. How’s that for a goal!”

Shuler received a standing ovation, but several union presidents later
said they were underwhelmed by the goal, which would mean growth of
100,000 union members annually or less than 1% a year for the
nation’s unions.

“I applaud putting out a goal,” said D Taylor, president of Unite
Here, the hotel workers’ union. “But I think that number is too
low. We have to aim much higher.” In the year before the pandemic,
Taylor said, his union organized 22,000 workers, increasing its
membership by 8% that year.

Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union,
said: “I like the new emphasis on organizing. I like the slogan
‘organize and rise’. But I think we should be far bolder.
Remember, the CIO [the Congress of Industrial Organizations] organized
2 or 3 million workers in six months or a year in some of its great
periods [in the 1930s]. We shouldn’t be doing this in an incremental
way, especially when people are so inspired. We should do this in a
bold way.”

The convention’s slogan was “Building the movement to meet the
moment”. The AFL-CIO has often been faulted for doing too little to
spur organizing; the percentage of US workers in unions has slid from
35% in the 1950s to 20% in the 1980s to 10% today.

In a briefing with journalists, Shuler defended her 1 million goal,
saying it was “a goal that everybody rallies around”. She added:
“It’s a target, it’s a threshold, that we could get every union
in the federation to buy into, which is a feat in and of itself.”
Shuler – who was elected on Sunday to a four-year term as AFL-CIO
president after succeeding Richard Trumka after he died last August
– said this was the first time the federation was setting
“measurable” organizing goals that each union was expected to
meet.

Speaking at the convention, the labor secretary, Marty Walsh, a former
building trades union leader, praised Shuler’s 1 million goal, but
he also called for more action. Noting today’s huge excitement about
unionizing, Walsh said: “It’s your time right now, for the labor
movement to get off our ass and do our job … You can’t sit on your
ass and think it’s going to come to you. You need to go out and get
it.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers,
lauded Shuler’s plan, saying it was smart to put forward a firm
numerical goal “as opposed to simply an aspiration”. “Sometimes
it’s important to put a number out there that makes it real,”
Weingarten said. “Is it too low? Of course it’s too low. Do we
want to organize millions and millions? Of course. Are we going to
change 60 years of anti-union behavior in this country in three and a
half nanoseconds? No.”

Shuler said the federation was helping some of today’s most exciting
organizing drives, including the effort to unionize the Amazon
[[link removed]] warehouse in
Bessemer, Alabama, where the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store
Union is trailing after the preliminary vote count, but could still
prevail when challenged ballots are tallied. Shuler said outside
unions provided 100 organizers to help the Bessemer effort.

Dimondstein criticized the convention’s roster of speakers for not
including worker-organizers from the Starbucks organizing drive
[[link removed]] or
the Amazon Labor Union, which unionized an 8,300-employee Amazon
warehouse in New York in a landmark victory. 
[[link removed]]Neither
the Starbucks union, Workers United, nor the Amazon Labor Union is in
the AFL-CIO.

Sara Nelson
[[link removed]],
president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said that
historically the labor movement has grown only when young workers took
the lead. “We’re not in a place where the AFL-CIO is going to take
the lead on the strategy for the next generation,” she said. “That
means we’re not doing enough.”

Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees, said he wasn’t so concerned about numerical
goals as about “developing and strategizing an organizing program
that is treated as a priority”. While there have been ad hoc efforts
to help various drives, like the Amazon Labor Union’s, Saunders
said, “when you go up against these multibillion organizations,
you’re going to need a structure [perhaps a multi-union, cooperative
effort] that’s going to help you handle it”.

Saunders added that if workers “win a campaign, corporations can
file lawsuits and delay on negotiating a contract. You need a
structure that can help battle that.”

Some labor leaders complained that Schuler’s 1 million plan was
lowest common denominator unionism. But Shuler sees that plan as
lifting the floor: unions that do lots of organizing can continue to
do so, while this plan should get unions that do little organizing to
commit to doing more.

Shuler announced the creation of the Center for Transformational
Organizing, a group of strategists, organizers and researcher who will
focus on how to unionize new-economy companies. “We have a visionary
way forward,” Shuler said.

_[STEVEN GREENHOUSE is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and
the workplace.]_

_Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s fearless
journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago, turning to us in
moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. More than 1.5
million supporters, from 180 countries, now power us financially –
keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent._

_Unlike many others, the Guardian has no shareholders and no
billionaire owner. Just the determination and passion to deliver
high-impact global reporting, always free from commercial or political
influence. Reporting like this is vital for democracy, for fairness
and to demand better from the powerful._

_And we provide all this for free, for everyone to read. We do this
because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people
can keep track of the global events shaping our world, understand
their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take
meaningful action. Millions can benefit from open access to quality,
truthful news, regardless of their ability to pay for it._

_If there were ever a time to join us, it is now. Every contribution,
however big or small, powers our journalism and sustains our future.
​​Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – it only takes a
minute [[link removed]]. Thank you._

* AFL-CIO
[[link removed]]
* Labor Organizing
[[link removed]]
* Trade Unions
[[link removed]]
* trade union strategy
[[link removed]]
* future of the labor movement
[[link removed]]
* AFL-CIO Convention
[[link removed]]
* liz shuler
[[link removed]]
* Amazon Workers
[[link removed]]
* Starbucks workers
[[link removed]]
* tech workers
[[link removed]]
* Amazon Labor Union
[[link removed]]
* Workers United
[[link removed]]
* young workers
[[link removed]]
* labor militancy
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]