Change To Win: Where Are the Changes For Labor?

author : Linda Averill topic : labor

by Linda Averill

In 2006, a CBS profile of Andy Stern called the president of Service Employees International Union “a new breed of union boss.” Another description might be same old breed, on steroids.

It’s been two years since Stern and officials of six other unions split the largest US labor federation, the AFL-CIO, and created Change to Win (CTW). The heads of SEIU, Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, UNITE-HERE, Laborers, Carpenters, and United Farm Workers vowed to chart a new course. They said they would organize new workers into labor’s fold and follow a more independent political path than the AFL-CIO, faithful champion of the Democrats. And they touted a strategy of merging smaller unions into large unions within an industry to strengthen labor’s power.

But two years after the split, has anything changed? Sort of. Stern has amply clarified the future he envisions: labor-employer “partnerships” in which the interests of business and workers supposedly converge.

But this is diametrically opposed to the direction that CTW’s ranks, overwhelmingly female, multiracial, immigrant and low-paid, are taking. The Justice for Janitors and Hotel Workers Rising campaigns are two examples of labor’s most exciting campaigns in recent years.

CTW members are sending strong signals that their verdict on Stern and his colleagues is not likely to be a good one. And as the battle is joined, union militants who know that the interests of workers and bosses are irreconcilably opposed have a rare opportunity to organize their sisters and brothers to win real change.

Change to Win has brought new workers into the union fold. But its methods aren’t like those of the old CIO, which unionized whole industries during the 1930s by relying on workers’ ability to stop production.

In healthcare, SEIU’s fastest growing sector, the union has organized by cutting deals with bosses and politicians at the expense of workers and patients. In California and Washington state, SEIU brokered deals with for-profit nursing homes that allowed for some unionizing drives—but signed away the right to strike and let the employers decide which facilities could be targeted.

SEIU also agreed to “template” contracts that give workers no voice or vote about their job conditions. In California, United Healthcare Workers-West joined with nursing home companies to oppose legislation that would strengthen patients’ rights—not a good way to build labor-community alliances!

But the sweetheart contracts in California, negotiated by top SEIU officials on the East Coast, sparked rebellion. Union activists circulated petitions and raised such a ruckus that national SEIU leaders were forced to terminate the deals early. This is a huge victory that is even more significant because SEIU meant for these contracts to be national models.

The lack of internal democracy that marks most unions makes it easier for officers to negotiate bad contracts and otherwise sell out because rank-and-file workers have few avenues of protest.

But SEIU members haven’t rolled over. Activists in the California mega-local are speaking out and engaging coworkers on the issue. And, in Boston, workers at the University of Massachusetts collected an impressive 1,200 signatures declaring “no confidence” in their appointed leadership. These battles over union democracy are a sign of more to come.

Meanwhile, 65,000 members of United Food and Commercial Workers in Southern California are preparing for possible war. UFCW may also strike in the Northwest. The outcome is likely to better measure CTW’s true grit than Andy Stern’s pronouncements.

In 2004, during a strike that lasted 141 days, the national chain grocery stores Ralphs, Vons, and Albertsons didn’t want “partnership.” They demanded a two-tier contract with lower pay and benefits for new hires. The grocers now want more takeaways, even though workers in some nonunion shops earn more than UFCW members.

In June, a 95 percent strike authorization vote demonstrated that the ranks are ready to fight. Consumers have shown that they are willing to do their part, readily honoring picket lines in 2004.

The Teamsters and all other unions in the grocery business, including AFL-CIO unions, need to honor picket lines. CTW and the AFL-CIO also need a coordinated national strategy to shut down all the grocery chains, so that stores in one region can’t use their profits to come to the aid of employers elsewhere.

The idea of such labor unity isn’t pie-in-the-sky. This summer in Portland, OR, unionists from other building trades honored the picket lines of striking carpenters, despite infighting among their various leaders. They understand that to reverse labor’s decline, unions must practice the principle: if we work together, we strike together!

Two of labor’s burning issues are immigrant rights and healthcare. This is especially true for CTW, which has many healthcare workers and immigrants in its ranks. But Stern and other CTW leaders are taking egregious positions on these issues, causing disunity at the top and rebellion below.

This year Stern has dragged SEIU into healthcare-reform coalitions with corporations including the unionbusting Wal-Mart and with employer groups such as the Business Roundtable. The vague slogan emanating from these coalitions is for “universal healthcare” that would replace employers’ responsibility for coverage with ... well, who knows what. But the for-profit nature of the healthcare industry would be left intact and, one way or another, workers would be left with more of a financial burden for healthcare than they can bear.

This is a huge gift from Stern, courtesy of the workers he represents, to corporate America.

UFCW president Joseph Hansen openly disavowed SEIU’s position. Rose Ann DeMoro, leader of the California Nurses Association, blasted SEIU’s role in giving Democrats cover to push healthcare legislation that leaves the insurance industry intact. “It makes them look like they are accomplishing something when in fact they are accomplishing nothing,” she said.

On immigration, leaders of SEIU and UNITE-HERE have played an equally treacherous role, giving their blessing to congressional legislation that would expand super-exploitative “guest worker” programs and further militarize the border.

What gives room for optimism about Change to Win is the massive gap between the perspective of its bought-and-sold leadership and its activist ranks.

Purple-clad SEIU members have consistently turned out to march for immigrant rights, as have red-clad unionists from UNITE-HERE. In California, SEIU members are educating their own union and reaching the broader labor movement with their No Worker Is Illegal campaign. In New York, more than 500 UFCW members turned out to protest Andy Stern when he met with Wal-Mart bosses to jointly announce the death of employer-funded healthcare.

Lousy contracts, top-down unions, outrageous positions on crucial issues of the day: all this motivates CTW members to fight to make their unions truly represent them. Workers not only need better, but deserve it!

The times cry out for more leaders like Rose Ann DeMoro who don’t pull their punches in exposing misleaders like Stern. They also cry out for more rank-and-file radicals who will organize caucuses, stand up for union democracy, and do all the other nuts-and-bolts groundwork that it takes to create honest change—and advance toward winning workers’ power.

This article was orginally published in Freedom Socialist newspaper, Vol. 28, No. 4, August-September 2007.