A.R.Amistad
5th March 2010, 14:56
The left really needs to jump on White Collar Worker organizing. Its something I've been stressing for a while so that we dont ONLY focus on the blue collar and service industry.
White-Collar Workers Flocking to Unions; Professionals Now Approaching Half of AFL-CIO Union Membership (October 7, 2003)
By Cynthia Green
A record 66,000 new white-collar workers joined unions in 2002, and their fast-growing ranks in organized labor are projected to swell to more than 11 million strong by 2010, according to a fresh AFL-CIO report.
Now numbering more than six million, unionized professional, technical and administrative support workers comprise nearly half of the AFL-CIO's membership of 13 million, the federation's Department for Professional Employees outlined in its recent study, "Rising Tide: Professionals: The New Face of America's Unions."
New white-collar union recruits accounted for almost 30% of the overall rise in AFL-CIO membership in 2002, their growth outpacing all other occupational groups within the federation, including the building and construction, hospitality and service sectors, according to the report.
"The movement is no longer just an economic safe haven for the blue collar and service workers that once dominated the institution. It is, more and more, the destination of choice for professional workers seeking fairness, equity and a voice on the job," says the study.
Noting that professionals have sought union protections for more than a century, the study found that the accelerated numbers of recent years appear to be driven by the dominance of multinational corporations and health maintenance organizations as employers, where workers have fewer possibilities "to exercise independent judgment," as well as by the Bush administration's relentless assault on workers.
Union representation can give these employees a voice both at work and in government, the study says.
White collar workers, such as nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers, attorneys, musicians, journalists and even forest rangers, now account for 60% of the overall U.S. workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The 25 unions affiliated with the DPE last year conducted a whopping 222 successful campaigns in 39 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, including in 15 of the nation's 22 right-to-work states, the report says. The average new bargaining unit size was 293 employees.
Professional organizing victories were most numerous in education, with a total of 94 successful drives, including the high-profile win for New York University's adjunct professors. Another 42 gains were booked in health care industries, covering such specialists as paramedics, technicians, dental hygienists and medical interns and residents. Private-sector initiatives also scored 39 new units, led by telecommunications and including such diverse occupations as United Airlines engineers, financial analysts, Latino recording artists and actors at Ellis Island. Government professionals formed 41 new units in 2002, with folks like librarians, forest rangers and paralegals all banding together for fair representation.
The report lists the biggest professional organizing triumphs last year as including 5,200 public health workers in Puerto Rico (SEIU), 4,000 Cingular telecommunications technicians (CWA), 4,000 clerical and other workers employed by the state of Kentucky (UAW), 3,000 adjunct NYU professors (UAW), 2,700 graduate teaching assistants at the University of Illinois (AFT) and another 1,100 each in Puerto Rico and at the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus (AFSCME), and some 1,100 health care workers at Kaiser Permanente in Atlanta (UFCW).
Altogether, the professional specialties' organizing growth rate last year was a remarkable 19.2%. If that continues, the 2002 new union membership level of 6,462,000 could expand to nearly 11,500,000 in 2010, according to the DPE.
The AFL-CIO recognizes how important white-collar workers will be to the future of the labor movement, the report notes. Just this year, the federation launched the Wellstone Award, named after the late Minnesota senator and tireless champion of labor, to acknowledge public advocacy in support of workers by an elected official. The inaugural award went to former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, who, along with Senator Patrick Leahy, pressed hard for union representation for some 1,300 nurses in the state's largest hospital system.
Cynthia Green is a freelance writer.
© 2003 Labor Research Association
White-Collar Workers Flocking to Unions; Professionals Now Approaching Half of AFL-CIO Union Membership (October 7, 2003)
By Cynthia Green
A record 66,000 new white-collar workers joined unions in 2002, and their fast-growing ranks in organized labor are projected to swell to more than 11 million strong by 2010, according to a fresh AFL-CIO report.
Now numbering more than six million, unionized professional, technical and administrative support workers comprise nearly half of the AFL-CIO's membership of 13 million, the federation's Department for Professional Employees outlined in its recent study, "Rising Tide: Professionals: The New Face of America's Unions."
New white-collar union recruits accounted for almost 30% of the overall rise in AFL-CIO membership in 2002, their growth outpacing all other occupational groups within the federation, including the building and construction, hospitality and service sectors, according to the report.
"The movement is no longer just an economic safe haven for the blue collar and service workers that once dominated the institution. It is, more and more, the destination of choice for professional workers seeking fairness, equity and a voice on the job," says the study.
Noting that professionals have sought union protections for more than a century, the study found that the accelerated numbers of recent years appear to be driven by the dominance of multinational corporations and health maintenance organizations as employers, where workers have fewer possibilities "to exercise independent judgment," as well as by the Bush administration's relentless assault on workers.
Union representation can give these employees a voice both at work and in government, the study says.
White collar workers, such as nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers, attorneys, musicians, journalists and even forest rangers, now account for 60% of the overall U.S. workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The 25 unions affiliated with the DPE last year conducted a whopping 222 successful campaigns in 39 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, including in 15 of the nation's 22 right-to-work states, the report says. The average new bargaining unit size was 293 employees.
Professional organizing victories were most numerous in education, with a total of 94 successful drives, including the high-profile win for New York University's adjunct professors. Another 42 gains were booked in health care industries, covering such specialists as paramedics, technicians, dental hygienists and medical interns and residents. Private-sector initiatives also scored 39 new units, led by telecommunications and including such diverse occupations as United Airlines engineers, financial analysts, Latino recording artists and actors at Ellis Island. Government professionals formed 41 new units in 2002, with folks like librarians, forest rangers and paralegals all banding together for fair representation.
The report lists the biggest professional organizing triumphs last year as including 5,200 public health workers in Puerto Rico (SEIU), 4,000 Cingular telecommunications technicians (CWA), 4,000 clerical and other workers employed by the state of Kentucky (UAW), 3,000 adjunct NYU professors (UAW), 2,700 graduate teaching assistants at the University of Illinois (AFT) and another 1,100 each in Puerto Rico and at the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus (AFSCME), and some 1,100 health care workers at Kaiser Permanente in Atlanta (UFCW).
Altogether, the professional specialties' organizing growth rate last year was a remarkable 19.2%. If that continues, the 2002 new union membership level of 6,462,000 could expand to nearly 11,500,000 in 2010, according to the DPE.
The AFL-CIO recognizes how important white-collar workers will be to the future of the labor movement, the report notes. Just this year, the federation launched the Wellstone Award, named after the late Minnesota senator and tireless champion of labor, to acknowledge public advocacy in support of workers by an elected official. The inaugural award went to former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, who, along with Senator Patrick Leahy, pressed hard for union representation for some 1,300 nurses in the state's largest hospital system.
Cynthia Green is a freelance writer.
© 2003 Labor Research Association