When was the last time you heard a union president denounce another union president—publicly? For labor’s upper echelon, the most scrupulously honored principle is protocol. (And you thought it was “solidarity.”)
But at the UNITE HERE convention in late June, the torrent of abuse heaped on Andy Stern’s head would have caused a less confident labor statesman to turn pale. “Darth Vader” and “pirate” were just two of the epithets—and these from presidents without a dog in the fight between UNITE HERE and Stern’s Service Employees (SEIU).
Even presidents who followed SEIU out of the AFL-CIO four years ago piled on: the heads of the Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), Teamsters, Carpenters, and Laborers were among 25 who signed a letter pledging to support UNITE HERE against SEIU’s raiding attempts (see "UNITE HERE Split Gets Even Messier").
Among the seven affiliates of the Change to Win federation, that leaves only the Farm Workers not publicly at odds with SEIU.
So is the unanimity around Stern-bashing a lurching step toward unifying (most of) the labor movement? Will UNITE HERE, now in talks about rejoining the fold, lead the other CtW unions back into the AFL-CIO?
WHY THE ANGER?
The parade of presidents made it clear that their anger at SEIU was motivated not by chummy deals with employers that have allowed SEIU to unionize workers with little say-so on the workers’ part, nor by the fact Stern gets these deals settling cheap. Not by the widespread embezzlement that had highly placed Stern protégés in hot water last year. Not by the January trusteeship of a California local that resisted Stern’s reorganization plans, United Healthcare Workers-West, nor by SEIU’s creation of megalocals run by appointees, in which rank and filers barely have a chance to be heard. Not even by Stern’s agreement to put a muzzle on nursing home union members, to keep them from reporting patient abuse.
No, these union leaders’ outrage was prompted by Stern’s flagrant violation of that other hallowed labor principle: jurisdiction. SEIU was not only attempting to take over hotel organizing drives begun by UNITE HERE but also claiming the right to organize hotel workers in the future. That’s turf, and them’s fighting words.
At the convention, the Operating Engineers’ Vincent Giblin praised UNITE HERE for never organizing the engineers at a hotel, even when the Operating Engineers couldn’t. AFSCME’s Gerald McEntee said, “For another union to come onto your turf…it breaks the unwritten code.” He led the crowd in a chant of “Bullshit! Bullshit!”
BACK TOGETHER AGAIN?
Since January, the heads of 12 large unions, from both federations and the National Education Association (NEA), have been meeting under the auspices of American Rights at Work chair David Bonior.
Their goal, “to create a unified labor movement,” was broad enough to hide a host of obstacles. Smaller unions distrust the process, and there’s lingering anger at CtW unions for leaving and sticking the remaining unions with mounting bills, including staff pensions. There’s criticism of the AFL-CIO for being driven by an unelected staff inner circle, and, even before the current brouhaha, there’s resentment and fear of what’s seen as Stern’s megalomania.
It was already widely acknowledged that Change to Win was a failure on its own ambitious terms: it had pledged to inject life into the movement and ramp up organizing like a second CIO, but CtW’s Department of Labor filings say it has lost almost half a million members since it was founded.
There had never been cohesion among CtW’s member unions, leading to such embarrassing spectacles as Stern announcing a health care reform partnership with Wal-Mart without informing the UFCW, the union trying to organize the company.
Despite CtW’s virtual collapse, most of its affiliates probably aren’t coming back to the AFL-CIO straight away.
The Laborers are rather comfortable outside the AFL-CIO, where they are less bound by jurisdictional rules. With federal stimulus money opening up less-skilled jobs in residential weatherization, the Laborers hope to be the union organizing those workers, and it’s easier not to have to deal directly with the AFL-CIO’s building trades.
The Carpenters left the AFL-CIO even before CtW was created and are likely in no hurry to rejoin. President Doug McCarron has followed a course similar to Stern’s: dramatic centralization of the union, partnerships to “add value” for employers, and bids to expand jurisdiction.
Teamsters President James Hoffa is still sore because the AFL-CIO’s soon-to-be president Rich Trumka backed Hoffa’s rival Ron Carey in the Teamsters presidential race 13 years ago.
The UFCW’s Joe Hansen has been a player in unity efforts, mediating between SEIU and UNITE HERE, hosting the January “group of 12” meetings, and leading cross-federation talks that led to a unified position on immigration reform this year. For now, he may keep the union where he feels he can do the most good as a referee.
For all the CtW unions, cost is a factor. AFL-CIO per-capita fees are higher than CtW’s.
SECOND BANANA
If CtW’s four-year track record has failed to impress, neither has the lumbering tenure of the Sweeney-Trumka New Voices team that took over the AFL-CIO in 1995. Though the AFL-CIO is not to blame for the corporate assault that’s left unions weakened, it can’t claim to have stirred leaders or members to live up to their potential, either.
At this time of direst need, Trumka’s running on his record as a 14-year second banana is like Ed McMahon claiming the “right” to replace Johnny Carson.
Trumka is on a “listening tour” but shows no signs of humility or stock-taking after a 14-year decline in membership and union power. More energetic labor leaders, the Communications Workers’ Larry Cohen and the Steelworkers’ Leo Gerard, show no interest in challenging him. Perhaps they feel they are more powerful bargaining with and organizing big corporations than they would be heading the AFL-CIO.
Trumka appears uninterested in one of Bonior’s ideas, a “federation of federations”—encompassing AFL-CIO, CtW, and NEA—preferring simply to take the prodigals back one by one. He seems to be hoping that momentum on labor’s legislative agenda will restore the AFL-CIO’s gravitational pull.
The Trumka of today’s AFL-CIO is a long way from the Trumka who led the Mine Workers’ audacious occupation of the Pittston Coal plant 20 years ago. You may have seen this common pattern in your local union: the more moderate guy gets the top job and the more militant guy takes second seat. By the time the president retires, it’s too late. In a movement, there should be no reward for patiently waiting your turn.
