Afscme Local 444, retired
I walked a Union picket line a few weeks ago and was surprised at the number of full time staffers there. A full time staffer should technically work for and be under the direction of the membership. This does not happen of course as in most Unions, the interests of the members and those of the entrenched bureaucracies are in opposition to one another.
The staffers are more often than not hired in from outside of the Union they will be working for. The reason for this is that a militant shop steward or any other member who genuinely wants to fight for their co-workers will have a base among the rank and file, a base that enables them to challenge the program, tactics and methods of the top leadership if they disagree with them. Without being firmly entrenched in the ranks, and by this I mean having built or helped to build, or part of an independent opposition grouping, it is impossible to defend oneself from the bureaucracy when it goes on the offensive against you, an inevitability if you oppose its policies.
I noticed on this picket line that the staffers were very much in control. Grown men and women who had worked in the industry for years subordinated themselves to these staffers who are often much younger than them and in some cases college graduates. I have noticed this throughout my experience in the Labor movement, particularly in the higher bodies. The staffers are there to ensure nothing gets out of hand, that the inherent class anger that workers have for the boss is kept subdued. I am not questioning the motives and dedication of many of the young people that choose to enter the Union movement's organizing efforts. Battling cops in the 1934 Minneapolis Gen Strike
I saw an extreme case of this during the hotel worker's strike in San Francisco a few years ago. What began as a strike ended up in a local out and the workers were out a number of weeks. When I arrived at the picket line in front of a major SF hotel, I noticed that the workers were marching inside an area that was designated by tape on the sidewalk. The tape ended at the front entrance of the hotel and the workers were not to cross it, the picket captain made sure of that. Myself and another supporter began to picket outside the door in order to give the scabs a bit of a hard time, make it difficult for them.
Within a few minutes two suits came out and told us we couldn't picket there. I made a point of telling them that it was a public sidewalk and it was my constitutional right to picket there. Then I noticed some cops across the street and told the security suits to call the cop over. They did and the cop affirmed my right to picket on a public sidewalk but that the Union had an agreement with the city and the hotel not to "impede" the people going in to the business. So basically the workers were picketing a brick wall.
I made a polite point that I was not part of that agreement and that was that. It was sad because many of the workers were relatively new immigrants form Asia and they thought that it was illegal to picket there. I remember one of the staffers at that time was someone I knew from the Direct Action to Stop the War when we successfully shut down the San Francisco financial district when the bombing of Iraq began. She was shutting down potential workers' power now as an employee of the Union.
I met a long time friend at the Oscar Grant rally in Oakland yesterday and we got to talking a bit. She's always been a solid rank and file fighter who could have through her many skills and attributes, advanced up the ladder in the Union bureaucracy. It's almost better than management as the whip of the market is felt less as a paid Union official, you can have a job for life much easier as long as you keep your mouth shut and follow orders.
At one point she had considered taking a full time position with a Union she was in. She had two interviews. I remember us talking about it and I strongly opposed it. We don't see each other too much any more but I asked her about that yesterday and she told me that she was asked if she was able to do something she was told even if she disagreed with it. "In order to get a lot of people, to get the rank and file to do something they might not want, we have to stick together" she was told. We discussed that a bit as I had had similar experiences when I was a minority on my local's executive board, or negotiating team. It was OK to vote my minority position but when we go to the membership, "We must be united" I was told. "But we're not united on this" I would argue. "I have a different position." And what you are doing is denying the membership the right to hear both sides, the right to make a choice.
The Union bureaucracy does the same, the difference being, I couldn't be fired by ignoring this advice like a full time staffer can.
"What did you say to that question?" I asked my friend knowing that she is still on the job and a rank and file steward.
I told them, "You know, I can't work for you" she replied. It's good she was rejected by them, she preempted their rejection and rejected them.
There are many solid rank and filers like this. What is missing in the Union movement is a rank and file national shop steward's movement that only allowed rank and file non paid, elected stewards to be members. There is more militancy in this group, active where the "rubber meets the road". But it needs to be organized and with a program and strategy that can ward off attempts by the bosses and the Union leadership to undermine it. A successful national shop stewards movement would have a very positive effect on the present leadership, pushing some to the left while at the same time throwing up new leaders that can combat the continued offensive of capital.
Given the present state of affairs you won't win the Trade Union leader of the year award that some AFL-CIO bodies award but you'll have respect among the troops who normally despise the top Union officials, and it will begin to transform and increase the ranks of organized Labor.
No comments:
Post a Comment