- Details
-
Category: Labor Unions
-
Published: Thursday, 21 September 2006
-
Written by PT Editors
Anna Burger, chair of the Change to Win labor coalition, talks to PT about the dynamic in the labor movement one year after her coalition's departure from the AFL-CIO and the challenges facing 21st century unionization.
September 20, 2006
PT: It has been a year since the Change to Win Coalition split from the AFL-CIO. How has the political message changed?
Burger: We're talking a lot more about the American Dream how we can restore it—turn the jobs that are staying in this country back into good jobs again. We launched "Make Work Pay Week" in March, where we focused on mobilizing low-wage workers to make their jobs middle-class jobs again. In the 1950's a worker on the assembly line turning one bolt after another didn't have an inherently valuable job, but his job was valued because he had a strong union. By organizing health care workers, home care workers, truck drivers and transportation workers, the people who pick the crops and stock the shelves, we can restore them to the middle class again.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Labor Unions
-
Published: Thursday, 21 September 2006
-
Written by Frank Holland
Early predictions that last year's split in the union movement would spell its doom haven't panned out. As the two coalitions gear up for November's mid-term elections, it looks like just the opposite.
September 20, 2006
Like any messy divorce, last year's split in the AFL-CIO has spawned its share of finger-pointing, speculation and despair. But with this year's mid-term elections around the corner, the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win coalition are following their respective paths, and they're doing it in concert.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Labor Unions
-
Published: Thursday, 14 September 2006
-
Written by PT Editors
September 8, 2005
PT talks to Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union about his organization's split from the AFL-CIO, the problems facing organized labor today and his ideas on to solve them.
PT: Looking at all the underlying issues, why did this split ultimately happen?
Stern: First you have to understand the context. We are living through the most profound, transformative economic revolution in world history. We're switching from a localized industrial economy to an international service and information economy, and so far, the results for American workers have not been good. Our economy has changed and our employers have changed, yet our organization has remained the same. So, what we proposed was to reorganize the labor movement to make it more modern, flexible, innovative and growth oriented.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Labor Unions
-
Published: Thursday, 14 September 2006
-
Written by PT Editors
September 8, 2005
America's unions are confronting a world that has changed dramatically since their early days. How will organized labor respond to a market that is irreversibly global?
"If you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra's sage advice may be the best on offer as the AFL-CIO's two largest unions split from the federation following its golden anniversary celebration in late July. Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, had urged the AFL-CIO to spend more on unionizing workers, complaining that the federation is doing too little to reverse labor's decline.
Read more ...
