Why No Action from 60 Million Workers
Who Say They’d Like to Join a Union?

The American Rights at Work, a Washington-based research and advocacy organization, is among the latest pro-labor group to publicize a poll that gives the comforting news that more than 60 million Americans would like to join a union if they could.

But where are those 60 million workers? Why are they silent? Why won’t they lift a hand to fight for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make their hope a reality? Why aren’t our organizers trying to reach them? They may exist in fancy, but do they exist in fact?

Mary Beth Maxwell, ARAW’s executive director, considers the present period as “a time of incredible momentum for breakthroughs in worker rights.” It would be difficult to find a labor leader or activist who would agree with her assessment.

ARAW states that there was far less attention paid to labor organizing issues five years ago until it was founded and started its operations. The group has a reputation for exaggerating its own importance, and its loudly claimed accomplishments for labor are actually quite sparse.

Former Rep. David. Bonier (D-Mich) is back with the ARAW as its chairman, after managing the presidential campaign of former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.)

EFCA Campaign Must Not Be Limited to Union Members

In conducting its campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act, organized labor is relying almost exclusively on workers who don’t need the legislation, because they are already members of unions. At present, there are some 17 million workers who have taken advantage of the 1935 National Labor Relations Act to become union members.

But why haven’t we tried to enlist unorganized workers in the fight for EFCA? Are all 60 million of them so terrified of their employers that they dare not talk to a union organizer, even when it concerns their rights as workers? That is hard to believe, although employers use many ways to intimidate them.

With all the money we have spent on organizing and the tons of literature we have published, why haven’t we been able to persuade even a fraction of those 60 million to stand up for their rights?

Surely, it must have occurred to our union leaders and labor activists that something may be wrong with our self-image and appeal to unorganized workers. The traditional way of recruiting workers may no longer be effective, and we have to find new ways of rebuilding the labor movement. But will our current leaders respond to the need for change?

A potential of 60 million new members! That’s nearly four times the present union membership! Isn’t that a prize worth striving for?

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