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JUN 2003 FEATURES: Winning is Possible: Successful Union Organizing in the United States — Clear Lessons, Too Few Examples Biotech Food Flacks: Canadian Consumer Group Goes to Bat for Biotech INTERVIEWS: Countering Privatization: Defending the Public Sector in an Era of Privatization Run Amok Workers at Risk: The Dangers on the Job When the Regulators Don’t Try Very Hard DEPARTMENTS: Editorial The Front |
Labor v. Bush
Winning is Possible: Successful Union Organizing in the United States — Clear Lessons, Too Few Examplesby Kate Bronfenbrenner and Robert Hickey The U.S. manufacturing sector, and the U.S. labor movement, are in a state of crisis. Not only did overall employment in manufacturing industries fall by 1.8 million jobs between January 1997 and December 2001, but a disproportionate share of those employment losses were concentrated among union workers. In just five years, the labor movement lost nearly 10 percent of its manufacturing sector membership, and there is no end in sight. Never before have unions in manufacturing faced such large, powerful and globally connected corporations opposed to organizing. Not since the 1920s have unions faced such unfettered government support for corporate interests and disregard, if not outright antipathy, for the rights and interests of workers and unions. This crisis goes beyond any individual industry or union. Instead it is one that impacts the entire labor movement. Membership gains by service and public sector unions have been nullified by membership losses in manufacturing. These losses translate into the continuing decline in union density, and the decrease in both political power and bargaining power that union density provides, for all unions, not just those in the manufacturing sector. MORE>> Countering Privatization: Defending the U.S. Public Sector in an Era of Privatization Run AmokAn Interview with Bobby Harnage Bobby L. Harnage, Sr. has served as president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union for government workers in the United States with 600,000 federal and D.C. government employees, since 1997. Previously, he served as AFGE national secretary-treasurer, and national vice president for a district comprising most of the U.S. South. After a discharge from the Air Force in 1963, he worked as a civilian sheet metal helper at Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, where he first served as a union steward and became involved in AFGE. MORE>> Workers at Risk: The Dangers on the Job When the Regulators Don’t Try Very HardAn Interview with Margaret Seminario Margaret Seminario is the Director of the Occupational Safety & Health for the AFL-CIO, where she has been since 1977. MORE>>
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