© 1995 Mike McCallister
The question is quite real: Is there any life left in the labor movement in the US?
More than a century has passed since the modern trade union movement was created in the battle for the eight-hour day. Sixty years have passed since the Congress of Industrial Organizations organized the steel mills and massive auto factories and brought a generation of working folk into the union movement. Just 20 years ago, politicians were still blaming "Big Labor" for all and sundry economic woes.
In the wake of the deindustrialization of the US, the case for giving up the ghost on labor is strong. Unionization levels in this country are practically the same as they were at the height of the Great Depression. Despite a full-court press and Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, a united labor movement couldn’t defeat the North American Free Trade Agreement. Tommy Thompson has made a career of bashing the welfare mothers who don’t have jobs, and union workers (especially teachers) who have jobs.
Over May Day weekend, though, a couple thousand unionists in the Motor City tried to make the case that there was life in the comatose body of labor yet. Sponsored by the monthly newsletter Labor Notes, the eighth biennial conference was a gathering of the activist/radical wing of what’s left of the proletariat at the close of the 20th century.
The three-day conference in the Detroit Renaissance Center featured dozens of workshops designed to inspire, inform and provoke discussion among the assorted trends inside the labor left.
Labor Notes, the magazine, was founded in 1979 as a way to network by radicals associated with Teamsters for a Democratic Union, the New Directions opposition caucus in the United Auto Workers, and others building reform caucuses. Over the years, the conferences have attracted a broad range of reform-types. Where reform-types hang out, you can expect the political left to turn out to haggle over all the old issues.
Bob Wages of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers, was the only international president at this year’s gathering. Teamster vice-president Diana Kilmury was a leading figure at the conference.
Delegations and individuals from at least 12 countries were present, and a large delegation of German workers presented workshops on their successful fight for a shorter work week and conditions in the new Europe.
Wisconsin unionists were very active at the conference. Newly elected international vice-president of the United Electrical Workers Bob Clark from Allen-Bradley told a plenary session of the deindustrialization of Milwaukee. "For some, Milwaukee is the ‘gathering place of the waters,’ but it’s becoming a sewer sinkhole," Clark said. "Our economy simply doesn’t work!"
Clark appeared at several workshops, including one on "Independent Political and Economic Power: The Milwaukee Example." He and Julie Eisenberg discussed the history of Progressive Milwaukee and the New Progressive Party. Stan Yasaitis, president of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 82 at UW-Milwaukee, and Dan Campbell, a former organizer for Teamster Local 344, served on a panel on "Pitfalls of Local Union Office." Bill Dempsey of PM’s Campaign for a Sustainable Milwaukee also spoke on workshops on fighting corporate welfare and community-labor coalitions.
Nearly 50 Madison activists also came to the conference. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 538 at Oscar Mayer chartered a bus carrying students, state workers, and its own members. UW-Madison graduate students of the Teaching Assistants Association and Student-Labor Action Committee, and leaders of the South Central Federation of Labor also attended.
In the ‘30s, the spark for the CIO was lit in local battles (complete with guns) for union recognition in Minneapolis, Toledo, and San Francisco. Throughout the Reagan-Bush era, labor radicals looked for similar struggles to break out and spark a renewal of class warfare, to no avail. Over the last two years, however, the class struggle in the heart of Illinois has raised the hopes and spirits of many in the labor left.
On June 27, 1993, around eight hundred union workers at the A. E. Staley corn-sweetener plant in Decatur were locked out by management after a lengthy contract dispute with the British conglomerate Tate & Lyle. At about the same time, the United Auto Workers struck the earth-moving giant Caterpillar until the company threatened to permanently replace them. After a work-to-rule campaign (where workers stay in the plant and follow the contract to the letter, thus limiting production) resulted in the firing of a number of union leaders, the UAW is again walking the picket line. Finally, last fall, the United Rubber Workers struck Bridgestone/Firestone plants in Decatur, Oklahoma City and Des Moines.
With the advice and support of longtime UAW dissident Jerry Tucker and a corporate campaign designed by labor consultant Ray Rogers, the battle in the "War Zone" has become the latest fulcrum of labor activity. A dozen "Road Warriors" from the three unions, including the local presidents, participated in the Labor Notes meetings. Several spoke at the opening keynote plenary, and supporters gave workshops on how to build support for the strikers and lockout victims.
With a Democrat in the White House, and the Gingrich-reptile poised to strike, you probably wouldn’t think a labor party would be high on the agenda, even at a leftist gathering. Nonetheless, with the backing of three international unions, Labor Party Advocates has scheduled a founding convention for early next summer, probably in Chicago.
One railroad union leader described the differences between the last two congresses as "the difference between shit and diarrhea." Jed Dodd of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees outlined the "horrors" the Republican-dominated Congress might bring:
"This new Congress just might not pass a striker replacement bill. They might break a legitimate railroad strike and force workers to accept drastic cuts in real wages. They might get really taken over by the corporate interests and pass NAFTA and GATT. Finally, they might not pass a meaningful health care plan for all Americans." The list describes the accomplishments of the last, Democratic-controlled Congress.
"It’s a horrible picture," Dodd concluded, "but it’s a Democratic Party picture."
LPA was founded in 1992 by OCAW leader Tony Mazzocchi. OCAW provides much of the funding of the national organization, and the UE was an early endorser. After last year’s strike against the Burlington Northern was broken by Congress, the BMWE became the third international to endorse LPA.
Some criticize the idea of basing a new party on just the labor movement, especially considering the downward trend of unionization. An OCAW training manual distributed at the conference argues that with 16 million union members nationwide, the unions form a solid demographic and financial base for a new party.
The New Party was also active in discussing its alternative to the Democrats. Progressive Milwaukee and the NPP are affiliates, and their approach to the Democrats (Democratic State Rep. Johnnie Morris-Tatum was elected with PM support) is attractive to many.
Between the Contract on America, budget cutbacks on the state and city levels, and the general anti-government backlash fostered by the Republican Ascendancy, government workers are taking a huge hit. Not coincidentally, public-sector workers are fast becoming the largest section of unionized workers in the country.
Thus it was no surprise when 100 people showed up at the public worker's interest group meeting to go over what they’ve learned in fighting back against the onslaught.
Public workers from New York, Massachusetts and California outlined their campaigns and demonstrations against budget cuts, stressing the need to "Get beyond just another budget cut protest. If we don’t put our vision of humanity out, we’re going to start eating each other alive," one New York City activist said.
But all was not peaceful. An attorney for the New York Legal Aid department, which was privatized last year, said she came to the conference to call the other city unions to account. "You left us out to dry," she said, noting the support of one small Communications Workers local.
The session broke down when the chair repeatedly refused to recognize Steve Edwards, a Chicago social worker, on the grounds that he was part of the "Labor Militant" group. Several participants signed a letter of protest to the Labor Notes staff.
Jane Slaughter, former auto worker and departing staff director at Labor Notes, noted that the last AFL-CIO convention had taken place in the very room the conference held its plenary sessions. That convention had unanimously re-elected Lane Kirkland president. This year, Kirkland seems to be on the way out. At AFSCME’s recent legislative conference, international president Gerald McEntee declared that "if President Lane Kirkland does not resign (at the October convention), we’ll resign him."
The newsletter published the results of its "Rank and File Election" for AFL-CIO president in time for the conference. United Mine Workers president Richard Trumka won in a landslide. Kirkland got five votes, and the early favorite to succeed Kirkland, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Tom Donohue, got just one.