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A Retrospective On The Patco Strategy, Richard W. Hurd
A Retrospective On The Patco Strategy, Richard W. Hurd
Richard W Hurd
[Excerpt] The destruction of PATCO has been written off by most labor leaders as the inevitable result of an ill-conceived challenge to an anti-union U.S. President. Although there is widespread sympathy for the rank and file members who lost their jobs in an attempt to exercise collective bargaining rights in the best tradition of the U.S. labor movement, there is at the same time much disdain for the actions of the national officers of PATCO, most notably President Bob Poli. Although the criticisms of the officers are at least partially valid, it is important to recognize that the strategic miscalculations …
Building Labor’S Power In California: Raising Standards And Expanding Capacity Among Central Labor Councils, The State Labor Federation, And Union Affiliates, Jeffrey Grabelsky
Building Labor’S Power In California: Raising Standards And Expanding Capacity Among Central Labor Councils, The State Labor Federation, And Union Affiliates, Jeffrey Grabelsky
Jeffrey Grabelsky
[Excerpt] For several years, the California Labor Federation has been engaged in a strategic planning process that began with a critical evaluation of a political setback in 2004 – losing an important statewide ballot initiative – and soon evolved into a systematic effort to elevate the performance of all the labor movement’s constituent parts. Spearheaded by a statewide Strategic Planning Committee, union leaders throughout the state have struggled to overcome organizational weaknesses, to develop a common and coherent program, to articulate standards and benchmarks to guide and track progress, to establish systems of accountability uncommon in the contemporary labor movement, …
Public Sector Unions: Will They Thrive Or Struggle To Survive?, Richard W. Hurd, Sharon Pinnock
Public Sector Unions: Will They Thrive Or Struggle To Survive?, Richard W. Hurd, Sharon Pinnock
Richard W Hurd
[Excerpt] There is emerging consensus among public sector union leaders at the national level1 that the threats they face today are eerily similar to those ignored by private sector unions 20 years ago. Privatization, reinventing government, a changing public sector work force, anti-government forces on Capitol Hill and in statehouses, union myopia, and member apathy all are taken with the utmost seriousness. The situation calls for a sophisticated strategic response. Because they are operating from a position of relative strength, public sector unions must be at the forefront of any effort to re-establish union influence in our society. With this …
Beyond Labor's Brawl: Strategic Conundrums Await, Richard W. Hurd
Beyond Labor's Brawl: Strategic Conundrums Await, Richard W. Hurd
Richard W Hurd
[Excerpt] The stark reality of the continuing decline of U.S. unions has precipitated an intense feud among labor's leaders, with thoughtful progressives lined up on opposite sides of the schism. It seems increasingly likely that the movement as we know it will disintegrate. What remains uncertain is whether this period of crisis and confusion can provide space for the type of radical innovation that is necessary to propel issues of voice, justice, and equality to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. Readers of Social Policy know well the contentious issues — top-down restructuring versus bottom-up mobilization for change, a coordinated …
Government Oversight, Union Democracy, And Labor Racketeering: Lessons From The Teamsters Experience, Michael H. Belzer, Richard W. Hurd
Government Oversight, Union Democracy, And Labor Racketeering: Lessons From The Teamsters Experience, Michael H. Belzer, Richard W. Hurd
Richard W Hurd
[Excerpt] In this paper we examine the federal courts' effort to clean up the Teamsters using legislation originally enacted to fight organized crime. Specifically, we look at the role of electoral democracy in this initiative and trace the experience through the 1991, 1996, and 1998 elections for Teamsters president. Once the story is told, we analyze the experience in the context of union democracy and also consider the relationship between democracy and labor movement transformation.
U.S. Labor 2006: Strategic Developments Across The Divide, Richard Hurd
U.S. Labor 2006: Strategic Developments Across The Divide, Richard Hurd
Richard W Hurd
The AFL-CIO and Change to Win have learned to co-exist without debilitating acrimony. The AFL-CIO has established Industry Coordinating Committees to facilitate cooperative bargaining and organizing ventures. On the political front, the AFL-CIO took the lead in labor’s 2006 electoral operations and conducted an extensive, efficient, and unified campaign. Change to Win unions worked together to build strategies for a growth agenda. The success of UNITE-HERE’s Hotel Workers Rising Campaign indicates the potential of this approach. Difficult challenges remain, but the strategic developments show signs of life and offer hope that labor may find a path to the future.
Professional Employees And Union Democracy: From Control To Chaos, Richard W. Hurd
Professional Employees And Union Democracy: From Control To Chaos, Richard W. Hurd
Richard W Hurd
[Excerpt] Much of the research on union democracy and almost all of the press coverage focuses on abuses of power at the top of the organization. I look at a case at the opposite end of the democracy spectrum. After an insurgent challenge to an established executive director toppled him from power, the chaos of democracy was unleashed in this small union of professional workers. The turmoil experienced by this organization for most of the past decade demonstrates that the democracy dilemma in unions cannot be successfully resolved by effective use of the democratic process alone and raises tentative questions …
Bringing Unions Back In: Labour And Left Governments In Latin America, Maria Lorena Cook, Joseph C. Bazler
Bringing Unions Back In: Labour And Left Governments In Latin America, Maria Lorena Cook, Joseph C. Bazler
Maria Lorena Cook
In the 2000s an unprecedented wave of left-party victories in presidential elections swept across Latin America. Although scholars have studied variation among left regimes and how these regimes differ from neoliberal-era predecessors, few have addressed the role of labour unions and labour policy under the Left. We argue that ‘bringing unions back in’ to the analysis of left governments’ performance sharpens distinctions with neoliberal governments and unsettles existing typologies. We review the labour policies of left governments in four countries—Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina—to show how a labour lens enriches our understanding of left governments in the region.
Organizing In The Nafta Environment: How Companies Use “Free Trade” To Stop Unions, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Organizing In The Nafta Environment: How Companies Use “Free Trade” To Stop Unions, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] These findings point to both an enormous challenge and a great opportunity for American unions. Clearly, under NAFTA and other free trade agreements more and more employers will feel emboldened to threaten to close the plant during organizing campaigns, and workers and unions will find organizing increasingly difficult. At the same time, unions have an opportunity to overcome these barriers to organizing if they commit enough resources to run large-scale, aggressive campaigns which mobilize the rank-and-file workers to build a union in their workplace, regardless of the intensity of the employer’s campaign.
Obits For Labor Unions Are Premature, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Obits For Labor Unions Are Premature, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] The press recently declared the end of the labor movement. It reported on a major new study by Harvard economist Richard Freeman and Joel Rogers of the University of Wisconsin, suggesting that American workers would prefer cooperative relationships with management to traditional labor unions. Coupled with union membership at less than 16 percent of the work force and a new wave of far-from-pro-labor Republicans marching into Washington, many see this as definitive proof of labor's obsolescence. A more careful analysis, however, reveals that this is far from the truth.
Invisible No More: The Role Of Training And Education In Increasing Union Activism Of Chinese Home Care Workers In Local 1199seiu United Healthcare Workers East (Uhe), Ken Margolies
Ken Margolies
[Excerpt] In 2002 only a small number of Chinese home care workers represented by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East (UHE) were involved in their union. Language, unfamiliarity with unions in the United States, and, in some cases, undocumented immigration status inhibited participation in the life of the union by the growing number of Chinese home care workers. Despite these obstacles in 2007 perhaps the most active segment of the 60,000 home care workers in 1199SEIU now comes from the approximately 10,000 Chinese home care workers. Today, Chinese home care workers are consistently overrepresented at union (not just home care) rallies …
What Do Unions Do? Comment, David B. Lipsky
What Do Unions Do? Comment, David B. Lipsky
David B Lipsky
[Excerpt] In What Do Unions Do?, F & M gather together an impressive amount of evidence showing that unions are on net beneficial for society. This book will not end the debate over whether unions are good or bad for society, but it represents a milestone that will surely influence the course of the debate in the future.