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CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL AFL-CIO ARTICLES ON UNION ORGANIZING Kate Bronfrenbrenner opens a discussion Changing to Organize in the special Labor Day "Let's Get Organized," issue of The Nation on the state of organizing in the labor movement. Unions know what has to be done; now they have to do it. "Labor Day 1995, for the first time in decades, the major media were filled with stories not about broken strikes and corrupt union leaders but about the promise and possibility of labor's revival. John Sweeney, Richard Trumka and Linda Chavez-Thompson had launched their campaign for leadership of the AFL-CIO pledging to organize on a massive scale, "to open up and reinvigorate the labor movement at every level." ...By 1999 the combination of organizing victories and employment expansion in unionized industries resulted in a net gain of 265,000 union members, the first such gain in more than twenty years. The great American decline in union organizing seemed to have finally bottomed out...But the good news was not to last. This past January, the government released union density figures for 2000 that once again told a story of decline..." Bill Fletcher and Richard Hurd in the Spring/Summer Issue of New Labor Forum argue that instead of a quantitative approach to organizing, there should be a qualitative interpretation. Poses three models: where locals treat organizing as a secondary function, where militant locals stress organizing over representation activities and (the preferred option) where locals balance both internal and external organizing. John Judis article "John Sweeney in Trouble: Labor's Love Lost" appeared in the June 25th issue of the New Republic. Judis reports that union density is lower now then when Lane Kirkland was president primarily due to systemic economic factors. Looks at a couple of failed national organizing drives, but puts most of blame on the failure to get national unions to commit to spending 30% or more on organizing. Richard B. Freeman & Joel Rogers make the case for a strategic reorientation in their article "A Proposal to American Labor" in the June 24, 2002 Nation magazine arguing, "'Open source unionism' could reinvigorate American labor in the age of the Internet." These ideas might be particularly applicable in Vermont.
Just Transition is a process to ameliorate the conflict between jobs and the environment. It brings organized labor, the traditional environmental community and the people of color environmental justice movement together to develop policies and relationships to avert clashes. Through a process of dialogue and common projects these groups are defining a policy of Just Transition that calls for financing a fair and equitable transition for workers and communities in environmentally sensitive industries as we necessarily move forwards towards more sustainable production. New Sweatshop Organization Coordinated by UNITE President Bruce Raynor, it consists of AFL-CIO unions, religious and civil rights groups and the United Students Against Sweatshops targeting retailers: Banana Republic, Eddie Bauer and Ann Taylor. BehindTheLabel.org. |
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