Why Change-to-Win Coalition Can’t Build A ‘Bigger and Stronger’ Labor Movement Does Labor Have a Future? (November 28, 2005) By Harry Kelber (third in a series of six articles)
Stern is contemptuous of members who insist on union democracy, which he regards as an impediment to his leadership style and policies. At the same time, he is a big admirer of Doug McCarron, president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, who has stamped out any vestige of democracy and members’ rights, and runs the union as if it is his personal property. McCarron can also brag that President Bush attended two of his Labor Day picnics and that he gets to ride on Air Force One.
Here is what Stern had to say about McCarron at the Carpenters’ convention last August: “Let me tell you what a privilege, what an honor it is for me to be here. The most precise, the most simple definition of leadership is about going first. And by that definition, this union and Doug McCarron have been our leaders… “So I come today to say on behalf of the 1.8 million members of our union that we owe you, we owe Doug, a debt of gratitude. You taught us all actually that the name of our new coalition is right.”