:: rawblogXport ::

:: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 ::

Union Chief Voices Frustration David S. Broder, Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post
Stern also said he was not interested in trying to succeed Sweeney as the head of the AFL-CIO but left the door open to leading a breakaway effort.

He said he was convinced from his experience in the civil rights movement that 'pressure is needed' to bring about real change. 'It was not enough to have Martin Luther King Jr.,' Stern said. 'You needed Stokely Carmichael' to raise the threat of disruption unless demands were met. Carmichael was the flamboyant civil rights leader know for coining the term 'Black Power.'

Stern is perhaps the most outspoken member of the New Unity Partnership, an alliance of SEIU, the Laborers' International Union of North America, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, UNITE and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. All but the Carpenters are AFL-CIO members. The partnership has repeatedly warned that declining union membership threatens the viability of organized labor, especially in the private sector, which has seen a steady decline in union workers.

During SEIU's convention in San Francisco June 21, Stern caused a stir throughout organized labor by declaring that: 'Our employers have changed, our industries have changed and the world has certainly changed, but the labor movement's structure and culture have sadly stayed the same.'

Union activists must 'either transform the AFL-CIO or build something stronger that can really change workers' lives,' he said.

posted 6:26 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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