The Activist

By Chris Maisano

Throughout our nation’s history, the labor movement has been the most effective means by which working people have come together to protect their interests and improve the quality of their lives. One can point to the weekend, eight-hour day, occupational health and safety standards, health insurance, child labor laws, and a range of other achievements as proof of the power and necessity of unions in the lives of all workers.

This is why the recent announcement by the Department of Labor that the percentage of unionized workers in the U.S. dropped to 12 percent (and 7.4 percent in the private sector) in 2006 is so troubling. In the 1950s, about one-third of all American workers were in unions, but since then, this number has steadily declined. It’s no coincidence that the economic security of American workers has declined since that time as well.

While massive changes in the national and global economy have eroded the unions’ traditional base in manufacturing, one of the biggest reasons why unions have not been able to keep pace with these losses is because our nation’s labor laws make it too hard for workers to organize unions and does not do enough to punish employers who harass, intimidate, and fire workers during unionization campaigns. Under the current labor law, which has not been significantly altered since the 1930s and 1940s, workers who want to form unions must petition for a government-sponsored election. After the petition is accepted by the government, there is a period of up to 50 days in which each side organizes their supporters for the vote.

It sounds democratic on paper, but in reality, management often resorts to a range of tactics, many of them illegal, in order to fight off a unionization campaign. I witnessed this myself when I worked as an organizer with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), when I saw the nursing home workers I worked with harassed, intimidated, and sometimes fired for pro-union activities, even though such actions are illegal under U.S. law and violate basic principles of human and civil rights. Most times, the only punishment management receives (if they even receive a punishment at all) is a small fine, which is just seen as part of the cost of doing business.

According to polls, tens of millions of American workers say they would join a union if they could, but all too often, the prospect of employer resistance stands in the way. That’s why anyone interested in improving the fortunes of American workers needs to support a promising legislative initiative called the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which currently has the bipartisan support of 44 Senators and 215 Representatives in Congress. If passed, the act would make it easier for workers to form unions through a simple card-check procedure. If a majority of workers in a workplace sign cards saying they support the creation of a union, the union is formed. This would eliminate the lengthy campaign period that often crushes unionization drives. It would also allow for improved mediation of contract disputes after a union is formed and would stiffen penalties for employers who violate workers’ rights.

Democratic socialists and our allies in the U.S. need to make supporting the EFCA one of our main concerns, and the election of a new Democratic majority in last November’s elections has presented us with the opportunity to actually implement it. It is a perfect example of the type of “non-reformist reform” that a pragmatic radical politics is built upon because it carries the potential to redistribute relations of power within the economy while improving the everyday lives of working people. It also represents a crucial opportunity to revive and strengthen the labor movement, which is and has always been the backbone of socialist and progressive politics in the U.S. and around the world. Without vigorous and vibrant unions, we might as well pack up our tents and go home, because a viable left movement simply cannot exist without them.