What kind of unions do we want?

July 21, 2009

IN RESPONSE to Devon Whitham's letter "Union war not about big egos": I agree that the conflict over UNITE HERE is not about egos, which is why I did not make that argument in my analysis.

On the contrary, I argued explicitly in the last article "Civil War in UNITE HERE" that one of the roots of this fight was the difference in strategies between the Wilhelm and Raynor fractions.

We need to take a stand. The raids against UNITE HERE by Raynor and the SEIU must be opposed. The actions of the former UNITE side are comparable to daylight robbery.

At the same time, I think we should be clear that the top-down strategies of most of the U.S. labor bureaucracy have hit a dead end.

Nothing illustrates this reality better than the sad state of Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Despite throwing millions of dollars into the Obama campaign for his promises of EFCA, plus a multimedia campaign for the legislation, the union bureaucracies made a conscious decision not to wage a political battle to win it. One of the first leaders to abandon a fighting strategy for EFCA was UNITE HERE's John Wilhelm.

There is definitely more room to breathe for union militants under Wilhelm's organizing model, but I think reform is much needed in UNITE HERE, if not most unions. Union leaders should not make six-figure salaries, business agents and union representatives should be voted in (and recalled, if necessary) by the membership, and mega-merged locals are not always a winning strategy.

Whitham is right that my pieces didn't address where there is hope in the labor movement. Everyone should read SocialistWorker.org's coverage of the struggles at Republic Doors & Windows, of the Communication Workers of America workers at AT&T, the Stella D'oro strike, and the campaign for reform in SEIU led by SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today.

I do not think there is a contradiction in criticizing the mainstream labor union movement when current events and history show us that it is the rank and file that will revitalize the struggle.
Ruby Wolf, from the Internet

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