Die Neue Zeit
6th March 2008, 06:28
From L.A., a reinvention of Big Labor (http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0410/p02s01-ussc.html?page=1)
Sorry for the rather old article, but I want to know some thoughts from this board's members regarding the changes in the workers' movement, and the decrease in bureaucracy:
These protesters see a different reality, one in which the labor movement's center of gravity is shifting from the older Rust Belt cities of the east to a newer, energetic, immigrant-rich Los Angeles. They see nothing short of a rebirth of union organizing, based on a West Coast model of coalition-building, decentralized leadership, and a speak-to-the-people approach to delivering their message.
...
Move over Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. Unionism characterized by heavy manufacturing is giving way to a new labor movement built by service-sector employees: janitors, grocery workers, security guards, hotel workers, and truckers who hauls goods to and from area seaports. Such workers have proven difficult to organize in the past, say national labor analysts, but activists in Los Angeles seem to be having more success than anyone anywhere else.
...
Not everyone is cheering the nascent rise of union organizing in L.A. – or even acknowledging that it will amount to much in the end. Some warn that aggressive labor organizing is creating an unsettling climate for businesses, and may even discourage new businesses from locating here.
Others suggest the new movement may have inherent limitations on expansion, because there are only so many industries that rely on an abundance of low-wage workers. The local economy, they note, is already becoming more fragmented, with smaller companies whose workers are harder to unionize.
"The big targets for unionization in L.A. are getting smaller," says economist Joel Kotkin, Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation who writes on economic, political, and social trends. "Outside the big public projects, you don't see a lot of union labor, and you are not going to organize day laborers [standing] outside Costco. Since many of the workers don't vote, aren't citizens, and make low wages, the unions are going to have somewhat less money and clout than the industrial unions of before."
Still, the labor organizing in L.A. may mark the development of a new model of activism – one that organizers in other parts of the US are studying.
What most characterizes the new look, says Clark University's Mr. Chaison, is the increased use of coalitions. Groups that formerly faced off as opponents, he says, are now seeing ways to come together to support causes of mutual interest.
That means civil rights and immigrant groups are joining with workers to fight discrimination. It means environmental groups are supporting low-wage earners such as truckers, who can't afford to fix pollution-spewing trucks. It means teachers unions are asking for support from advocates for the aging in standing up for public health, because it affects the progress of students and seniors.
...
Because of such grass-roots organizing, many of the gains that have been won so far have come by letting workers tell their own stories in a bid to win the public's sympathy, rather than letting union bosses fight it out with business representatives, observers say.
"All these fights have benefited hugely from the workers themselves being their own best spokesman," says Maria Elena Durazo, head of the L.A. Federation of Labor. "The public sees the person who cleans the office, makes up their beds, helps them at the checkout counter."
Perhaps this will be of great help to my discussion paper. :)
Sorry for the rather old article, but I want to know some thoughts from this board's members regarding the changes in the workers' movement, and the decrease in bureaucracy:
These protesters see a different reality, one in which the labor movement's center of gravity is shifting from the older Rust Belt cities of the east to a newer, energetic, immigrant-rich Los Angeles. They see nothing short of a rebirth of union organizing, based on a West Coast model of coalition-building, decentralized leadership, and a speak-to-the-people approach to delivering their message.
...
Move over Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. Unionism characterized by heavy manufacturing is giving way to a new labor movement built by service-sector employees: janitors, grocery workers, security guards, hotel workers, and truckers who hauls goods to and from area seaports. Such workers have proven difficult to organize in the past, say national labor analysts, but activists in Los Angeles seem to be having more success than anyone anywhere else.
...
Not everyone is cheering the nascent rise of union organizing in L.A. – or even acknowledging that it will amount to much in the end. Some warn that aggressive labor organizing is creating an unsettling climate for businesses, and may even discourage new businesses from locating here.
Others suggest the new movement may have inherent limitations on expansion, because there are only so many industries that rely on an abundance of low-wage workers. The local economy, they note, is already becoming more fragmented, with smaller companies whose workers are harder to unionize.
"The big targets for unionization in L.A. are getting smaller," says economist Joel Kotkin, Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation who writes on economic, political, and social trends. "Outside the big public projects, you don't see a lot of union labor, and you are not going to organize day laborers [standing] outside Costco. Since many of the workers don't vote, aren't citizens, and make low wages, the unions are going to have somewhat less money and clout than the industrial unions of before."
Still, the labor organizing in L.A. may mark the development of a new model of activism – one that organizers in other parts of the US are studying.
What most characterizes the new look, says Clark University's Mr. Chaison, is the increased use of coalitions. Groups that formerly faced off as opponents, he says, are now seeing ways to come together to support causes of mutual interest.
That means civil rights and immigrant groups are joining with workers to fight discrimination. It means environmental groups are supporting low-wage earners such as truckers, who can't afford to fix pollution-spewing trucks. It means teachers unions are asking for support from advocates for the aging in standing up for public health, because it affects the progress of students and seniors.
...
Because of such grass-roots organizing, many of the gains that have been won so far have come by letting workers tell their own stories in a bid to win the public's sympathy, rather than letting union bosses fight it out with business representatives, observers say.
"All these fights have benefited hugely from the workers themselves being their own best spokesman," says Maria Elena Durazo, head of the L.A. Federation of Labor. "The public sees the person who cleans the office, makes up their beds, helps them at the checkout counter."
Perhaps this will be of great help to my discussion paper. :)