A number of postings have taken up the fact that US labor laws are anti-labor.
I think that, in normal times, people tend to obey an unjust law not so much because they are fooled into thinking the law is just or even out of fear of punishment but, rather, out of a sense that breaking it would be futile.
But, when people start breaking the unjust law in a big, dramatic way, and when they get away with it and win, others want to join in. It’s that spark that causes a movement to be born. Most everyone knew that Jim Crow was wrong and then Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. Most everyone knew that scabherding was wrong and then Teamsters Local 574 shut down Minneapolis.
A new labor movement will be born when someone, somewhere, pulls off a big, dramatic militant mass action and scores a clear victory. To paraphrase the t-shirt: If not now, when? If not in Madison, where? If not us, who?
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5 comments:
"If not now, when? If not in Madison, where? If not us, who?"
We have the perfect local struggle right here on South Park Street.
La Hacienda restaurant is one where locals like to dine, but this business is a perfect microcosm of a boss exploiting his employees to make himself rich. He has forced his employees to work off the clock so he does not have records to show his failure to pay overtime. The pay is only minimum wage, so it's not enough to live on.
It been reported elsewhere, so there's no need to repeat all the details of how he's been forced to pay tens of thousands by the feds.
Because the Workers Rights Center has done all it can with the regulatory agencies, the Board decided that concerted action is needed to get the message to the public and hurt him economically.
Ironically, owner David Herra could resolve this by doing the right thing and making his business into the smoke-free place for supporters of workers' rights to eat and drink and spend their money. Insead, he is paying his lawyer lots of money to fight this legally, rather that treat his employees farily and legally.
There are many restaurants in Madison that are doing this, so it is expecially important that this business be made an example for the city.
The next picket is August 14 5-6 pm at 515 S. Park Street.
If you can't come, there are other ways to help. To find out how, visit www.workerjustice.org
On the topic of organizing I highly
encourage people to read this book:
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4218
THE BLUE EAGLE AT WORK
Reclaiming Democratic Rights in the American Workplace
Charles J. Morris; Theodore J. St. Antoine (Foreword)
This is the only book I've read in years about unions that was anything like remotely upbeat. Most allegedly upbeat books are really: "if a gigantic impossible miracle occurred it would be a good thing", which is just really depressing if you don't think that miracle is at all likely to happen. This book is saying effectively you don't need a miracle if you're not insisting on exclusive representation, otherwise you probably do.
This is truly a one in a million book. Don't miss it! I wish we could get it in paperback and distribute a lot of copies. And the author is presumably not writing from an asylum. He has credibility.
It's probably a tad too precise for most average people to read cover to cover. You have to skim over the details, or be an eager student of legislation and the law. The guy is trying to prove that there is no obstruction to forming minority unions, that there is no legal principle stopping groups in a workplace from forming minority unions and demanding that the employer recognize them and bargain with them *for the members of that union*. This plan had died out so thoroughly since the 1930's that the author wisely laboriously researches for the reason everyone thinks there is a statutory or legal ruling against recognizing minority unions. And he says there isn't one! Presumably minority unions died out because it was easier to form majority unions for decades in the US. And then eventually it wasn't. It became extremely difficult. So now why not bring back the minority union bargaining concept?
It would be interesting, you'd have to grant that. There could be competition, a thing unions usually try to avoid. This could be a good thing! And yes, there could be terms that only applied to the members of the union, and there could be more than one union, with different terms. This would be exceptionally attractive when an employer does what the State legislature is trying to do right now: have far worse terms for the non-represented UW employees than represented.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=200705
"The budget would also bar the state, as of Sept. 1, from paying the first 5 percent of a state employee's earnings into the state pension fund. That provision would apply to UW-Madison faculty and staff and is designed to save more than $163 million."
"Black said the proposal amounts to a 5 percent pay cut for most state employees."
Well why not have the minority unions and there are at least 3 already: UFAS, TAUWP and WUU demand that their membership is represented and therefore exempt from this problem? In fact the associations (MASA,PROFS,ASPRO) could get in on the game too. These organizations bear a lot of resemblance to the classical "company union"s, amply discussed in the Blue Eagle book. The UW worker associations do the company union concept one better by insisting the are not unions at all but rather "lobbyists" for better terms for their constituents. I'd like to see these "company assocations" either come out of the closet as minority unions or butt out and stop fighting the real minority unions.
So go on you all, read the blue eagle. It's a fun book!
Yes, Carol, right here, right now, down on Park Street! At this point we're picketing and seriously hurting La H's business. I suspect they'll either go belly up or get their injunction. Harry DeBoer said of the old days, "We papered the walls with injunctions." If they get one, we have an opportunity to win in a big, dramatic way. Imagine 1,000 people in the parking lot on Saturday night. We can organize something like that. But, first "we" have to commit to doing it. And, maybe before that, we have to figure out just who the "we" are.
How come no one ever thinks of
UFAS, WUU, and TAUWP as organizing drives? (Ufas and Wuu are minority unions for UW Madison and Madison Extension). TAUWP covers all other UW campuses.) They are organizing, always. And there's a lot of turnover at least in UFAS because of the short life-expectancy of academic staff positions. One minute it's there, the next it's gone. UFAS has
been around since the 1930's. It has to organize just to exist. It's interesting that no one is particularly ever that interested in organizing UW faculty and/or academic staff. There has been very little publicity about in particular SB 452 (2006) or the collective bargaining language in SB40 (2007).
Sorry for overlooking UFAS. The fight to get legal status from the Legislature, plus the on-going struggle to sign up members, makes UFAS the third organizing drive going on in the community. (Well, maybe the second, now that the CleanPower drive has turned to "consolidating our leadership.")
But, just a thought, after posting a comment about the Blue Eagle on SEAC list.
The TAA organized, struck and negotiated contracts with the University before we had legal status. No legislation, no WERC election, no majority. Could this be a model for UFAS? For the labor movement as a whole?
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