Subject: [SocialistWorker.org] What went wrong in Michigan?
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Analysis: Lee Sustar
======== WHAT WENT WRONG IN MICHIGAN? ========================================
Lee Sustar argues that labor's failed strategy opened the way for the passage
of anti-union "right-to-work" legislation in one of labor's most important
strongholds.
December 19, 2012
IF LOSING Indiana to "right-to-work" forces was a disaster for organized
labor, the defeat for unions in Michigan was a catastrophe. Yet labor leaders
themselves must bear most of the blame for this terrible loss.
Certainly, lavishly funded union-busters and labor-hating Republican
politicians were formidable foes in pushing "right-to-work" measures. That's
shorthand for legislation that makes it illegal for union membership to be
mandatory, even though unions must continue to provide services for workers
who "opt out" of paying their fair share of dues.
Nevertheless, the road to a "right-to-work" victory in Michigan was paved by
decades of labor's failed strategy of partnership with employers and
uncritical political support for the Democrats.
For three-quarters of a century, unions have been promising to organize the
South, where "right-to-work" laws are prevalent. Now, the opposite is
happening--anti-union political forces are steamrollering into the North,
bringing the Southern laws with them.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"RIGHT-TO-work" became the law in Indiana earlier this year--a state where,
in the 1960s, some 40 percent of workers were union members. But in recent
decades, Indiana has become a favored site of investment for nonunion
employers like Subaru, Honda and Toyota. Earlier this year, the heavy
equipment maker Caterpillar closed a unionized locomotive plant in
Canada--and moved production to a new nonunion operation in Indiana.
Yet the "right-to-work" success in Michigan is even more shocking. At the
beginning of 2012, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union was celebrating the
75th anniversary of the sit-down strike in Flint, Mich.--the key battle in
the great labor upsurge of the 1930s. These days, however, the UAW, as a
result of massive job losses, is a shadow of its former self, with 355,000
members, compared to 1.5 million in 1979.
Labor's decline, along with the Michigan Republicans' takeover of the
governor's office and the state legislature in the 2010 elections cleared the
way for a "right-to-work" sneak attack--Gov. Rick Snyder pushed the measure
through with no notice during a lame-duck session.
Union members in Michigan and surrounding states responded with spirited
protests, culminating on December 11 with a turnout of more than 10,000
demonstrators. Rank-and-file union members were prepared to take direct
action to block the legislation [1].
But they were held back by labor leaders, who instead pointed them toward the
2014 elections. According to the mainstream website Politico [2], unions "are
eyeing a large-scale counteroffensive against the conservative state leaders
who have slashed away at union power since the 2010 midterm elections,"
aiming to replace them with Democrats.
The electoral focus was reinforced by President Barack Obama, who spoke to
workers at a Michigan factory shortly before the legislature voted on
"right-to-work":
>We should do everything we can to keep creating good middle-class jobs that
>help folks rebuild security for their families. And by the way, what we
>shouldn't do--I've just got to say this--what we shouldn't be doing is
>trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages and working
>conditions...The so-called "right-to-work" laws--they don't have to do with
>economics, they have everything to do with politics. What they're really
>talking about is giving you the right to work for less money.
>
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN FACT, Obama knows a lot about giving Michigan workers the "right to work
for less money." Under terms of the federal government's 2009 bailout of the
auto industry, UAW members saw tens of thousands of jobs
disappear--autoworkers still on the job took huge concessions.
At GM [3], the government bailout was contingent on the union agreeing to a
wage freeze, an end to bonuses and the elimination of work rules that limited
speedups and helped ensure job security. The givebacks were worth between
$1.2 billion and $1.3 billion per year. The union even gave up the right to
strike when its contract expired in 2011.
These concessions followed a 2007 contract that cut pay for most new hires to
$14 an hour--about half that for high-seniority workers. The result of all
this is a reduction of hourly labor costs to the level of nonunion Toyota
workers in the U.S [4].
The UAW, once the pacesetter for U.S. unions, has now given employers the
green light to push down wages and benefits--and not only in manufacturing.
Public-sector unions in Michigan were soon in the crosshairs, too.
Snyder--along with his Republican counterparts Scott Walker in Wisconsin and
John Kasich in Ohio--used the economic crisis as the pretext to gut
public-sector unions. Snyder's legislative allies beefed up Michigan's
emergency financial manager law, which empowers the governor to impose an
unelected boss to control local budgets. The early targets were the
cash-strapped Detroit Public Schools and bankrupt cities like Pontiac.
Then came Detroit's turn. Mayor Dave Bing--a Democrat, like virtually all the
city's politicians--used the threat of an emergency financial manager to
extract deep concessions from municipal unions. In April, Bing negotiated a
deal with Snyder to avoid the appointment of an emergency financial manager.
Instead, they got the Detroit City Council to surrender much of its power to
a Financial Advisory Board. [5]
Now, fresh from his success with "right-to-work," Snyder has ordered a review
of Detroit's finances [6] that could result in the appointment of an
emergency manager anyway.
Obama's and Bing's central role in driving anti-union policies in Michigan
should underscore the fact that the attack on organized labor is thoroughly
bipartisan.
The Democrats are unlikely to attempt frontal assaults on unions through
"right-to-work" legislation or gutting public-sector bargaining rights, as
Scott Walker did in Wisconsin. That's because the Democrats need unions to
relate to their voting base and to provide troops and money at election time.
Yet if the Democrats seem reasonable, it's only because Republican
scorched-earth policies have now become standard. Thus, Illinois Gov. Pat
Quinn is attempting to renege on paying state workers promised raises. Quinn
is also out to cut state workers' pension benefits, following the example of
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In California, Gov. Jerry Brown is also out to
extract concessions from unions.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NO WONDER Snyder and the employer-backed anti-union groups thought that
Michigan labor would be easy pickings for "right-to-work" legislation. Having
presided over concession after concession in order to preserve
labor-management partnership, the unions had surrendered much of their
potential economic and social power. Politically, the unions mostly tailed
the Democrats, who also want to reverse labor's historic gains.
Michigan unions did try to take independent political action by pushing for a
ballot initiative that would have amended the state constitution to prohibit
the passage of legislation restricting public-sector bargaining rights. Their
model was labor's victory in a 2011 ballot initiative in Ohio, when voters
overturned a Wisconsin-style attack on public-sector bargaining rights.
But where the Ohio fight was a straightforward battle over union rights, the
Michigan debate was easier for employers to distort. The unions, they
claimed, were trying to install special protections into the state
constitution. The p.r. campaign worked: Despite the fact that labor spent $25
million on the effort, the union-backed measure was handily defeated [7].
So how should labor combat "right-to-work"? Fortunately, we have the example
of a successful effort in 1978 by Missouri unions to head off "right-to-work"
being imposed by a ballot measure. Jerry Tucker, the dissident UAW leader who
passed away earlier this year, helped lead the effort on behalf of his union.
Years later, he described the effort in an article written for /Labor Notes/
[8]. Building a broad labor-community alliance was key, Tucker explained:
>The National Farmers Organization and leaders of the American Agricultural
>Movement participated in rallies and motorcades against RTW throughout rural
>Missouri.
>
>Civil rights organizations stepped up, and national leaders such as Coretta
>Scott King visited Missouri. They emphasized that RTW hurts the
>underprivileged and minorities first and worst. Dozens of ministers took the
>message into the Black wards of Kansas City and St. Louis.
>
>Women's groups such as NOW held rallies. Senior citizens were a bedrock,
>handling the brunt of canvassing on Election Day. Students, however, seemed
>to misunderstand the issue and were not successfully recruited.
>
>A majority of the state's major officeholders from both parties spoke out
>against RTW, and many appeared at campaign functions. Urban Republicans, in
>particular, felt the deepening social heat.
>
>Religious opposition to RTW was vital. It gave weight to the moral
>case--"Democratic decision-making in the workplace is just, and collective
>bargaining is good for society." It allowed labor to reach tens of thousands
>of Missourians through their churches.
>
>Religious opposition drew much attention in the press, helping to create a
>"good guys" image for unions and the reverse for the right-to-workers. The
>RTW campaign, with business as its principal backer, began to look sinister.
>
But the most important factor in stopping the anti-union measure, Tucker
wrote, was the activism of rank-and-file union members:
>Rank-and-file unionists were the mainstay of the campaign. In fact, some
>couldn't seem to do enough, and at the outset thought their leaders weren't
>doing enough.
>
>While the labor committee was still ramping up, members were acting on their
>own. They set up meetings, visited the merchants with whom they did
>business, painted signs on their cars, and worked the polls.
>
>Many traveled from urban areas back to their childhood homes in rural
>Missouri to urge folks there to vote "no." On weekends, caravans of urban
>and suburban workers traveled to meet farmers and small-town shopkeepers to
>make their case against RTW.
>
>Motorcyclists cruised the highways in bunches, with banners opposing RTW.
>Truckers used CB radios to maintain a steady stream of anti-RTW
>conversations on the Interstates.
>
>In November, the "no" vote took 60 percent. The 1.6 million ballots cast set
>an off-year election record, with 60 percent of registered voters going to
>the polls. Right-to-work galvanized the big vote; Missourians cast 100,000
>more ballots on the amendment than they did in statewide candidates' races.
>
>New member organizing spiked upward for several years afterward.
>
Today's labor officials lack the strategic vision and organizational skills
of Jerry Tucker, one of the outstanding labor leaders of recent decades. Even
so, union members and supporters who want to fight "right-to-work" and
anti-union forces can learn from the experience.
It's clear that the employers want to permanently cripple organized
labor--and that politicians of both major parties are helping to advance that
goal. Facing up to that fact is the first step in developing a new winning
strategy for labor today.
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[1] http://socialistworker.org/2012/12/12/war-on-labor-in-michigan
[2] http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=85B36BD8-B49E-4EE2-AAF9-EC05EE159A45
[3] http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-05-29-gm-uaw_N.htm
[4] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-15/king-inherits-uaw-pushing-for-payback-after-cuts-of-up-to-30-000-a-worker.html
[5] http://www.freep.com/article/20120405/NEWS01/204050561/Detroit-s-new-deal
[6] http://www.freep.com/article/20121218/NEWS01/121218079/Snyder-names-6-man-team-review-Detroit-s-books-next-step-toward-emergency-financial-manager
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/business/in-michigan-a-setback-for-unions.html?pagewanted=all
[8] http://labornotes.org/2011/03/how-we-beat-%E2%80%98right-work%E2%80%99
