The AFL-CIO leadership are deathly afraid of their own members and particularly the majority of the working class outside the Union movement. They have successfully managed to coral the movement that arose around the bills to eliminate collective bargaining rights and ensure that it remains firmly within the confines acceptable to the Democratic Party.
The AFL-CIO blog is very upbeat about the 700,000 Ohioans who have been signed up to repeal Ohio's equivalent of the Walker Bill in Wisconsin, S.B.5. "How's this for fast work" writes Mike Hall, a regular and very safe writer for the Labor hierarchy praising Ohioans for getting those signatures in "just two months". The tally, which is three times the required amount shows the support for the right of workers to negotiate with the boss which is an important right, but no less important is what we're negotiating with them about.
Labor officials at the highest levels and the AFL-CIO's army of full time staff have made it clear at rallies from Madison to San Francisco that the wages of their members are not an issue. They have said repeatedly that they are more than willing to hand over the concessions the boss wants, they just want this process to go through them. This is an insane position when you consider the welfare of all workers as it is impossible to build a generalized movement against the bosses' offensive, and an offensive of our own if we are not fighting for real concrete issues that effect the material well being of all working people---jobs, health care, wages, housing leisure time, etc.
It's not an insane strategy for the Labor hierarchy though who would lose their jobs along with their pretty comfortable lifestyles if they lost a seat at the table. The only two demands coming out of the strategists of Labor is to repeal laws against the right to bargain and dues checkoff, where the employers collect Union members fees for the Union officials and send the check to the Union treasury. The Democrats are also concerned about these demands because they get millions of dollars in cash and lots of Union help at election time and losing both will hurt this party's ability to raise cash.
"This fight isn’t about being a Democrat or a Republican. This has become an attack on the middle class. I am proud to be part of the unprecedented support from public and private sector workers who have been out collecting signatures to support worker rights and the repeal of S.B. 5." A firfighter tells reporters.
But what is all this "middle class" jobs stuff? Most Americans are struggling many of us working two or three jobs to survive. And it is impressive that 10,000 volunteers, many of them dedicated workers I am convinced of that, can collect so many signatures in two weeks. But what do we say to the non Union, the young workers, the low waged when they ask us what are we doing for them?
"We're only trying to keep collective bargaining which only effects us directly because you have no organization". Is that what we say?
As we collect these signatures we can't tell the low waged we are building a movement for more jobs and higher wages, not with a straight face anyway because we accept that we have to sacrifice and accept less. How can we say we are fighting for jobs when the Union leadership are offering wage cuts and reductions in force without a fight. No jobs for you mate, we're offering layoffs of our own members.
Sure, we can say that we want to elect Democrats in to office so our lives will get better but the vast majority of workers and youth would laugh their heads off at that one.
Many workers have bought the idea that public sector workers are part of the problem due to the ideological offensive from the employers and their media about our pensions and benefits and there being no money etc. This has had an effect mostly due to the deafening silence from the Labor hierarchy as they throw their support behind anti-Union politicians like Jerry Brown here in California. Because the Union movement has nothing to offer the 88% or so of the population outside it, the idea that public sector workers should do with less also gets an echo.
When we have a petition drive and thousands of volunteers as we have seen in Ohio, this is a formidable force. It should be campaigning against these ant-Union bills that are being introduced but what will attract the thousands of workers that are outside organized Labor (only 12% of the US workers are Unionized with a mere 7% or so in the private sector) will be a campaign around specific issues, wages, benefits, jobs, education, money for people's needs and not wars. A campaign around a $20 per hour minimum wage would attract millions of the low waged.
Then when we ask people to sign up we can ask them to join such a campaign, explain where the money is and that their propaganda is a lie and explain how we can win our demands-----mass action in the streets workplaces and schools and out of such a campaign running independent political candidates rooted in them.
The workers getting those signatures are undoubtedly well intentioned and dedicated. But the strategists atop organized Labor who develop and push this strategy are more than dishonest about their motivations; their actions are detrimental to workers as a whole and contribute to the decline of the trade Union movement. Where we are in Unions we owe it to the members to point this failure out and offer a fighting alternative.
Unfortunateley many leftists in the movement fail to do this, point out the flaws in the strategy openly. Their refusal to raise differences means the bureaucracy's concessionary strategy is the only one out there and the those lefts act as a left cover for them, intentionally or not. This happened rcently at a meeting on Wisconsin I attended at the CNA hall here in Oakland CA. Unfortunately we have no serious left current in the workers movement.
The Labor hierarchy's strategy arises out of their view of the world which is the same as the employers and their fear of a movement from below that will threaten that view and the relationship they have built with the bosses around Labor peace. We should consider what 10,000 volunteers could do with a fight to win strategy that was consciously aimed at the tremendous anger that exists beneath the surface of US society.
We're in a war like it or not. But they only call it a class war when we fight back. Well, it's time for us to fight back.
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