A lot of people do retrospectives this time of the year, taking a look back at the high and low points of 2009. Here at LaborLeft do it the hard way. As is our tradition, here is our retrospective on the local labor movement for NEXT year.
And, you gotta admit, 2010 was a hell of a year!
No doubt, the most significant happening was the founding of the Madison Organizing Committee in January. The MOC was singularly responsible for the new unions at the Marriott, Crowne Plaza, Cintas and Hy-Vee and the half dozen or so organizing drives currently underway around town.
It was a good idea to establish the MOC as an ad hoc committee, independent from the Fed and existing internationals. Once we were out from under all the bureaucracy, jurisdictions, legal, financial and political constraints and dues requirements, we just went out and organized.
The setback at Woodman’s turned into a plus. When word got out that Phil and his “employee owners” had successfully busted the union, the customers who had been shopping there just because it was a union shop went elsewhere. The “For Sale—Will Build to Suit” sign in the empty parking lot at Woodman’s East sent a message to the managers at Hy-Vee: This is what happens when you mess with the union. A first contract was remarkably easy.
The transformation of the Union Labor News into an organizing tool obviously helped a lot. I think we distributed over 10,000 copies of the debut bilingual issue at the May Day rally. We saw a lot of people reading (in Spanish) the lead story about labor’s fight for principled immigration reform.
And, although it may have seemed a bit patronizing, we did enjoy the salsa band at Labor Day.
The shift in how we did politics might have the most significant lasting impact, however. The decision to launch independent campaigns around progressive issues really mixed things up. We hit the streets with an army of union members and, in short order, got the signatures necessary to get referenda on the statewide ballot that would require specific progressive tax reforms and paid sick leave.
We have to admit that it was fun watching the politicians scramble. Their first response was to stonewall and just ignore our issues. But that turned out to be difficult, since taxing wealth and requiring paid sick leave were about all voters wanted to talk about. Then they developed a two-line position, strongly for and against the propositions, depending on who they were talking to. Voters (and even some of the media) were smart enough to figure that one out.
In the end, the ballot initiatives forced the politicians to take a side: Will you stand with the working class or the employing class? By early fall it was clear that organized labor would be supporting a lot fewer candidates come November. The political action money we would have poured down the “lesser evil” rat hole was spent in last minute campaign to push the ballot initiatives well over the top.
So, that’s where we are, at the end of 2010. In good position to make 2011 one a hell of a year!
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Thursday, December 31, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Alien Labor News
I was on my way to visit some friends in a nearby parallel universe the other day and dropped in to Copp’s to pick up some taco chips. Copp’s is unionized over there, but that’s a story for another time.
As I walked in the door, there, between the Isthmus and Simpson Street News, was a bin loaded with the latest copy of the Union Labor News. Curious, I went down to the Labor Temple Bar (which is smokeless, btw, and has a fair assortments of micro brews on tap) to see what gives.
The story I got is that, over there, the Union Labor News had fallen on hard times awhile back. Oh, it was well written and nicely laid out, and it even ran stuff by a local left-wing blogger from time to time, so there were no grounds to criticize. But costs were up and subscription revenues were way down.
One barfly speculated that the ULN had exercised a little too much independence in recent years and had pissed off some Democratic Party stalwarts, who saw to it that their locals cancelled their subs. But I wasn’t around long enough to check out that story.
Whatever the cause of the financial crisis, the cure was to convert the ULN form a subscription-based newspaper to a free monthly. This actually wasn’t a very radical idea. A number of mass circulation daily newspapers around the county, including the Boston Globe and The Capital Times, had switched to a free, mass distribution format.
The ULN had an advantage. As a union paper, it was able to garner grants from a couple of huge rich internationals. And, with a new free circulation of over 100,000 a month, ad revenues were up. Union members volunteered to do the distribution to their local supermarkets, libraries, government buildings and at public events where working people gathered. There was even talk of going weekly.
And, as part of the switch, ULN changed its approach. In its previous incarnation, it was primarily a union newspaper, speaking to unionized workers. The new idea was that it would become a voice for the working class and an organizing tool. Each issue had a general working class interest article on Page 1, above the fold. Inside it still covered the local labor movement. And, each issue included a pitch on how people could start organizing a union where they worked—in English, Spanish and a Rigel-5 dialect.
Folks down at the Labor Temple Bar credited the change with a modest upsurge in union organizing in the area.
Well, the dilithium crystals were getting low so I had to make it for home. But, while there are always risks to employing ideas that worked in a parallel universe, it does kinda make you think.
Ok, a lot of people read this thing. I know because you're coming up to me all the time to tell me what you think about the latest posting. But not many of you are leaving a comment. I know you folks and you aren't short of opinions. And, it isn't hard to do.
1) Click on "Comments" at the bottom of the message.
2) Type your comment in the box.
3) Then hit "Anonymous" button. Don't ask why. It just works better that way. If you want to include your name, type it in the comment box.
4) Finally, hit the "Publish your Comment" button.
Got something to say? Sure you do.
As I walked in the door, there, between the Isthmus and Simpson Street News, was a bin loaded with the latest copy of the Union Labor News. Curious, I went down to the Labor Temple Bar (which is smokeless, btw, and has a fair assortments of micro brews on tap) to see what gives.
The story I got is that, over there, the Union Labor News had fallen on hard times awhile back. Oh, it was well written and nicely laid out, and it even ran stuff by a local left-wing blogger from time to time, so there were no grounds to criticize. But costs were up and subscription revenues were way down.
One barfly speculated that the ULN had exercised a little too much independence in recent years and had pissed off some Democratic Party stalwarts, who saw to it that their locals cancelled their subs. But I wasn’t around long enough to check out that story.
Whatever the cause of the financial crisis, the cure was to convert the ULN form a subscription-based newspaper to a free monthly. This actually wasn’t a very radical idea. A number of mass circulation daily newspapers around the county, including the Boston Globe and The Capital Times, had switched to a free, mass distribution format.
The ULN had an advantage. As a union paper, it was able to garner grants from a couple of huge rich internationals. And, with a new free circulation of over 100,000 a month, ad revenues were up. Union members volunteered to do the distribution to their local supermarkets, libraries, government buildings and at public events where working people gathered. There was even talk of going weekly.
And, as part of the switch, ULN changed its approach. In its previous incarnation, it was primarily a union newspaper, speaking to unionized workers. The new idea was that it would become a voice for the working class and an organizing tool. Each issue had a general working class interest article on Page 1, above the fold. Inside it still covered the local labor movement. And, each issue included a pitch on how people could start organizing a union where they worked—in English, Spanish and a Rigel-5 dialect.
Folks down at the Labor Temple Bar credited the change with a modest upsurge in union organizing in the area.
Well, the dilithium crystals were getting low so I had to make it for home. But, while there are always risks to employing ideas that worked in a parallel universe, it does kinda make you think.
Ok, a lot of people read this thing. I know because you're coming up to me all the time to tell me what you think about the latest posting. But not many of you are leaving a comment. I know you folks and you aren't short of opinions. And, it isn't hard to do.
1) Click on "Comments" at the bottom of the message.
2) Type your comment in the box.
3) Then hit "Anonymous" button. Don't ask why. It just works better that way. If you want to include your name, type it in the comment box.
4) Finally, hit the "Publish your Comment" button.
Got something to say? Sure you do.
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