LaborTalk - September 20, 2006

Unions Add New Millions for Organizing,
But Will It Result in Winning Campaigns?

By Harry Kelber


Unions are pouring fresh millions of dollars into organizing in the hope that it will enable them to win campaigns against the nation's major corporations, where they have had little success.

Last September, at the founding convention of the Change to Win coalition, the delegates agreed to devote 75% of the per capita tax to organizing. The rumor was that the leaders of the seven unions that made up the coalition were prepared to spend as much as $750 million annually on organizing, including large sums at the federal, state and local levels. At the AFL-CIO's 2005 convention, the delegates approved the creation of a $22.5 million strategic organizing fund.

Virtually all major international unions have increased their spending for organizing by huge amounts. The United Auto Workers has approved a one-time transfer of $50 million from its strike fund to be used for organizing. Delegates at the AFSCME convention voted for a $3 per month per member dues increase that will generate $60 million annually, of which a substantial part will be used for organizing new members.

The American Federation of Teachers has increased its per capita dues by 75 cents per month for each of the next two years. The Communications Workers have set up a $24 million strategic industry fund to fight for good jobs and bargaining power in key industries and sectors. Similar increases in funds for organizing have been allocated by several construction unions, including Electricians, Painters and Iron Workers, while the Laborers plan to spend as much as $100 million a year to increase their market share, the largest organizing commitment of any union.

Of course, money for organizing is important, but its real value is if it is used wisely. Hardly any of the unions have disclosed how their organizing campaigns will be conducted or how different they will be from the many that had to be aborted or that ended in failure.

If past practice is followed, union members will be given no information about how these enormous funds, taken from their dues payments, will be spent. They will be kept in the dark about who is in charge and how decisions are made. They won't be given a progress report of the campaigns or a summary of the expenditures. There will be no publicity about projects that are ill conceived or end in defeat. Nor will there be an oversight group to ensure the integrity of every expenditure. With so much money available to a secret few, there is bound to be a temptation for personal enrichment.

Why Organizing Campaigns Have Failed in the Past

In seeking a winning strategy for organizing, unions have overlooked two factors that are largely responsible for their past failures. One reason is that top labor leaders have made no significant effort to convince millions of union members in both labor federations that organizing is essential for the survival of the labor movement. It should be noted that the zeal for increasing funds for organizing came from convention delegates, and that there has been no noticeable enthusiasm for it from the rank-and-file, without whose widespread involvement, all the fresh money budgeted for organizing wonąt achieve the goal of increasing union membership and power.

The second reason for labor's failure to organize should be obvious. Neither the AFL-CIO nor the CTW has a weekly TV or radio national network to reach out to the unorganized workers with labor's message, while adversaries fill the airwaves with anti-union arguments that go uncontested. If we can't talk to non-union workers, how are we going to organize them?

Why Can't Unions Post Progress Reports on the Internet?

Some union leaders may balk at providing any information to their members on the grounds that it would help the employers. There may be special situations that merit "classified" status, but that should not be used as a pretext to deny union members the right to know what is happening to their invested dues money.

Corporations hold annual meetings of their stockholders, during which they hand out a full report of their activities for the past year. They also answer questions that are submitted to their managers. They don't worry that unions may make use of their reports. Why can't we be as open as they are?

Over many decades, union members have not complained about the lack of information about what happens to their dues money. The labor press has not seen fit to make an issue of it. Isn't it time for a change?

Our weekly "LaborTalk" and "World of Labor" columns can be viewed at our Web site: www.laboreducator.org.

Harry Kelber's e-mail address is: hkelber@igc.org.