War in the House of Labor
By Susan Rosenthal
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 21 April 2008
The American medical system ruins people's lives for profit. Fortunately, union
organizing drives in the medical industry are enjoying a higher-than-average
rate of success. Unfortunately, two major health workers' unions, the California
Nurses Association (CNA) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU),
are at war - a term used by both sides. CNA accuses SEIU of making deals with
management that hurt workers, and SEIU accuses CNA of sabotaging its union drives.
This is a real battle. The CNA web site posts a sign on its home page, "Had
it with SEIU? Work for a REAL union." To protest the CNA, hundreds of SEIU
members physically stormed the Labor Notes conference in Detroit on April 12.
Cynics view this war as reason to dismiss all unions. That's a huge mistake.
Workers need unions to counter the relentless greed of business. Employers,
politicians and the mainstream media consistently attack unions because even
the worst ones block bosses from having complete control of the workplace.
Statistics show unionized workers are more likely to have medical coverage,
pension benefits and protection from sexual harassment and wrongful dismissal.
Areas with more unions enjoy higher wages, longer life spans, lower infant death
rates, better education and less poverty.
The Issues
American unions were so powerful in the 1930s that employers needed Washington's
help to crush them. Today, after decades of union busting, fewer than eight
percent of private-sector workers are in unions, the lowest rate in over a century.
Moreover, the remaining unions have been transformed from fighting organizations
controlled by workers to bureaucratic organizations dominated by middle-class
professionals. For most Americans, the result has been a steady decline in working
and living standards.
The battle between SEIU and CNA arose in the context of renewed efforts to
defend workers' rights and centers on three disputes over how to organize:
Should medical facilities be organized wall-to-wall (SEIU includes all health
workers) or by trade (nurses in one union and support staff in another)? Wall-to-wall
or industrial unions have more power to fight management than craft-based unions.
However, in practice, workers organize as best they can in the particular circumstances
they face.
Another concern is whether management should be involved in the process of
union certification. Labor-management collaboration is generally opposed because
it favors management. However, every union contract is a form of labor-management
collaboration. SEIU and CNA differ in where to draw the line between acceptable
and unacceptable degrees of collaboration.
The third issue is the extent to which unions should be controlled from the
top down or the bottom up. A rank-and-file rebellion inside SEIU, United Health
Workers-West (UHW) is pushing for more democracy through one-member-one-vote.
CNA is using this split to press its case that SEIU is a business union that
doesn't represent workers' interests. However, UHW also condemns CNA for its
top-down sabotage of SEIU union drives.
Instead of debating these three issues in a way that would benefit all workers,
the leaders of SEIU and CNA are conducting a divisive turf war that is hurting
them both.
Taking Sides
In any conflict, there is pressure to take sides. Supporters of CNA insist
it is a more progressive and democratic union than SEIU. The leaders of CNA
talk left and have taken a public role in fighting for national Medicare. However,
in Ohio and on other occasions, CNA leaders have gone over the heads of SEIU
rank-and-file workers to dictate what should happen in a particular workplace.
That's not democratic.
Those who favor SEIU point to its proud history of organizing immigrant workers
(Janitors for Justice) and supporting social reforms. However, top leaders in
SEIU have also functioned undemocratically. The split inside SEIU was provoked
when the head office moved to silence debate within the union.
Recent labor coverage has favored CNA, especially after busloads of SEIU members
stormed the recent Labor Notes conference. A good example is Steve Early's article
in Counterpunch. Early
begins by calling SEIU protesters a "rowdy, punch-throwing, rent-a-mob."
I was inside (and later outside) the Labor Notes banquet hall when SEIU members
tried to break through the doors. Such tactics must be condemned. However, this
was no "rent-a-mob." Most were ordinary union members, including families
with small children, most looking poor and many of them Black. I am certain
they boarded those buses to defend their union. If they knew they were going
to be in a fight, they would have left the kids at home. One SEIU member died
of a heart attack, and another union militant suffered a head wound.
This tragedy was created by the leaders of both unions, who are pitting their
members against one another.
I attended several meetings at Labor Notes, where activists from SEIU and CNA
expressed their grievances against each other's unions. I concluded both sides
have legitimate concerns. At the end of his article, Early acknowledges the
same by favorably quoting a member of UHW,
"Many participants, who can fairly be described as members of the labor
left and generally suspicious of top union leaders, were actually very sympathetic
to the SEIU's grievance against CNA surrounding the events in Ohio."
Sadly, Early concludes by returning to his condemnation of SEIU as the moral
loser of the latest round in a continuing battle. This is not helpful. Those
who cheer for either side only fuel a war that is hurting both sides. So, what's
the solution?
Rank-and-File Unity
In any union, leaders should be supported ONLY so far as they represent the
interests of the rank-and-file. By this measure, the leaders of SEIU and CNA
both fail because, if this war is not stopped, one or both unions will be ruined.
As it is, bitterness and resentment have already crippled organizing efforts
at several sites, to the benefit of management. To advance the interests of
workers in both unions, we must distinguish union bureaucrats from rank-and-file
workers.
Modern labor unions are cross-class organizations, being both working-class
organizations of self-defense and part of the management system of capitalism.
Most union members are working-class (the rank and file), while most union officials
are salaried professionals, who negotiate with employers to set the terms of
exploitation. Turf wars for union recognition arise from this class conflict.
Because most unions are run like businesses, from the top down, more members
means more money and more power for union bureaucrats. They want this power
to gain more leverage at the negotiating table. That's why leaders of different
unions compete to represent a workplace or group of workers instead of pooling
resources and cooperating. Interunion rivalry is usually justified by claims
one union is better at representing workers than the other. However, divisions
between unions only weaken the ability of all workers to stand up to management.
Over the past few decades, rank-and-file workers in different industries have
pushed for more militant and democratic unions controlled by members, from the
bottom up. Such worker self-organization is opposed by bureaucrats because their
power to negotiate with management rests on their ability to control the ranks.
Struggles for rank-and-file control of unions offer a different kind of power,
one that rests on the ability of workers to stop production. Because all workers
have similar concerns, worker-controlled organizations have the potential to
unite workers across divisions of union, workplace and industry, and do what
bureaucrats have never been able to achieve: build a labor movement strong enough
to reverse decades of defeats and concessions.
During the Labor Notes conference, as accusations flew between CNA and SEIU,
Patricia Campbell of the Independent Workers Union of Ireland (IWE) stated,
"You must stop fighting among each other and unite. You need to kick out
the bureaucrats in both your unions. That's the only way you can advance your
struggle for patients' and workers' rights."
She is right. In each workplace, rank-and-file workers must decide how they
organize: whether in wall-to-wall groupings or by trade, and the extent to which
they collaborate with management and with other unions. Free and full debate
must be encouraged, with votes binding on all. Such self-organization is critical
to build workers' confidence and create unions powerful enough to win real gains.
Of course, people make mistakes in any process. That is no reason to deny them
the right to decide what happens at work and in their lives.
Right or wrong, and regardless of their intentions, no union official has the
right to IMPOSE policy on rank-and-file workers without their consent. This
is just as true for CNA as it is for SEIU. To move forward, workers in SEIU
and CNA must build on-the-ground unity, based on common class concerns.
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Susan Rosenthal is the author of "POWER and Powerlessness"
(2006), and "Class, Health and Health Care" (2008). She belongs to
the National Writers Union and is a founding member of International Health
Workers for People Over Profit. She can be reached through her web site www.powerandpowerlessness.com
or by email powerandpowerlessness@rogers.com.
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