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:: Monday, March 07, 2005 ::

Labor Debates Its Future by DAVID MOBERG, The Nation
'The fundamental question,' Cohen argues, 'is a voice at work--not only a voice, but effective participation in the way decisions are made at work.' If that's the goal, then internal union democracy is necessary but not sufficient. It's necessary because workers do want a union in which they ultimately make decisions and can check abuses of power, not simply a force working on their behalf. And a union in which members do not have a voice is not likely to provide the voice at work that an increasingly well-educated workforce wants. But democracy alone is not an organizing strategy. Unions need effective structures, organizers who can mobilize members, adequate resources, solidarity, strategy and leadership. Those are neither identical to democracy nor guaranteed by democracy. Ultimately, workers are not well served by either weak democratic or strong autocratic institutions.

The need for strategic, focused growth for power is undeniable. Stern rightly urges unions to build institutions that can match the power of global corporations and raise the standards for workers across an industry. But it is equally important to create a broad working-class movement for economic democracy driven by existing union members and newly recruited workers. Whatever compromise structural reforms they finally adopt, labor leaders must overcome their institutional rivalries to recognize that they have at least as much shared interest in the success of organizing as they do in political victory. The cheery side of labor's plight is that even though there are many obstacles to organizing, there's no shortage of opportunities. The next few months will test how labor plans to rise to that challenge.

posted 12:54 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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