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:: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 ::

Rediscovering Two Labor Intellectuals By Steve Early, ILCA Associate Member
From the December, 2004 issue of WorkingUSA

Led by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the four-union New Unity Partnership (NUP) is questioning whether the AFL-CIO, as currently structured, is capable of responding to the challenges facing American labor. Unlike the CIO's breakaway move, NUP's possible exit next year isn’t propelled by any 1930s-style mass upsurge of workers. Instead, NUP unions are threatening to leave if a dispute within labor's officialdom--over recruitment strategy and restructuring--is not resolved in their favor, either through election of new AFL-CIO leaders or further over-haul of the federation itself.

According to the NUP, American workers won't be able to go on the offensive again--like they did in the 30's--until their existing unions, numbering about sixty, are consolidated into 10 to 15 much larger entities, with less overlapping jurisdiction. Practicing what they preach (up to a point), two of the five original affiliates of the group--HERE and UNITE--recently merged themselves, although the sectoral synergy of this connection remains unclear.

Meanwhile, NUP's audacity has generated growing media buzz and campus applause. One typical bit of academic boosterism is Hard Work: Remaking The American Labor Movement, (University of California Press, 2004). In this book , sociology professors Kim Voss and Rick Fantasia praise SEIU, HERE, and UNITE for being"among the most dynamic unions in the labor movement." According to the authors, all three have made a successful break with "business unionism"--embracing "social movement unionism" instead, under the guidance of "new militants" in key staff or leadership positions.

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