Back to the Future? U.S. Labor in The New Gilded Age. Ruth Milkman City University of NY Graduate Center and the Murphy Labor Institute January 2013

Transcription

1 Back to the Future? U.S. Labor in The New Gilded Age Ruth Milkman City University of NY Graduate Center and the Murphy Labor Institute January 2013

2 In December 2012, Michigan passed a right to work law, joining 23 other U.S. states mostly in the South.

3 State Right to work laws, first permitted by the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, prohibit union shop clauses in labor-management contracts, which require all union-represented workers to pay union dues. Until recently such laws existed mainly in the U.S. South and West, but in January 2012 Indiana also passed a RTW law, followed by Michigan - the first states in the American Rust Belt to do so. Michigan s and Indiana s RTW laws follow model legislation crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization funded by the Koch brothers and other corporate interests, which also drafted the model legislation that led to attacks on public sector collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana in 2011.

4 That this took place in Michigan on the 75 th anniversary of the 1937 sit-down strike against General Motors the strike that gave birth to the United Automobile Workers, signals the end of an era.

5 My argument: the New Deal era of legally regulated collective bargaining has ended (albeit with a few surviving remnants). The period was an exceptional period, not the norm. U.S. labor relations in the 21 st century instead have reverted to those that existed in the first Gilded Age a century ago. Among other parallels (e.g. soaring inequality and precarity): Union density has fallen to pre-1930s levels. Strikes have become increasingly rare, and those that do occur are more often employer than labor-initiated events. The 1935 National Labor Relations Act, labor s magna carta, while still technically in force, is de facto a dead letter. Other types of labor regulation (minimum wage laws, those regulating hours and working conditions, etc.) have also been weakened.

6 These trends reflect broader late 20 th century processes of thirdwave marketization and deregulation (per Polanyi) That transformation has been far more consequential for the U.S. labor movement than globalization or new technology. It has undermined the modes of unionism that were most influential in the U.S. in the mid-20 th century, especially industrial unionism and the NLRB-centered system. The U.S. labor movement today is groping toward a new strategic repertoire - one that recapitulates many features of the pre-new Deal AFL (especially the new unionism of the 1910s) and of labor reform groups that existed a century ago. Organized labor is still a political insider in some contexts, despite falling density, but as that becomes more and more tenuous, unions are increasingly playing the outside game of confrontation and disruption, in alliance with other progressive forces.

7 Union Density in the United States, by Sector, Source: U.S. Current Population Survey data, available at

8 In 2011, U.S. private sector union density was 6.9%, the lowest level since 1900, when total density (then virtually all in the private sector) was 6.8%. In 1934 total density (again nearly all private sector) was 11.5% roughly the level of total union density today, which was 11.8% in 2011 (including public sector) In manufacturing, outsourcing has weakened the industrial unions beyond recognition, with massive declines in membership and huge givebacks Density has also declined in place-bound sectors, e.g. construction, retail, hopsitality. The public sector, with much higher, and until recently stable density, is now under attack. Historical data are from Freeman 1998

9 Wholesale/Retail Trade 6% Other 9% Construction 7% Education 29% Manufacturing 10% Health Care/Social Services 11% Public Administration 15% Transportation/uti lities 13% U.S. Union Membership By Industry Group ( CPS data)

10 Average Annual Major Work Stoppages in the USA, by Decade Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

11 The only other era when U.S. strike levels declined sharply was the 1920s and early 1930s (Kaufman 1982), a period of employer attacks on unions and sharp declines in union density which fell from 17.4% in 1921 to 11.0% in 1933.

12 The main pillar of union power in the past the strike has been virtually abandoned by U.S. unions The recent decline in strikes already is twice as long as the earlier one. In , almost a tenth (90%) of all U.S. work stoppages were lockouts, many of them prolonged. Recent strikes e.g. the five-year Detroit News strike that began in 1995 and the 2004 California supermarket strike are often employerprovoked. By taking a draconian stance in contract negotiations, unionized employers initiate a strike and use it to extract concessions or to eliminate the union. These strikes are really stealth lockouts. Hiring permanent replacements for strikers has become common practice in economic strikes. The result: few existing unions risk going on strike for any length of time; many work without a contract for long periods instead.

13 Declining density and strikes are two leading symptoms of the decay of the New Deal labor relations system. Others include: Intransigent management opposition blocks new private-sector union organizing; successful organizing often bypasses NLRB. Between 1950 and 1990 the number of workers fired during organizing campaigns grew nine-fold, alongside legal forms of union avoidance. Labor law reform is not politically feasible, even under Obama. Unions and collective bargaining have been demonized by the political Right, which constantly attacks their legitimacy Those attacks have affected public attitudes toward unions, which are increasingly negative, especially among Republicans.

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15 These developments are tied to the rise since the mid-1970s of market fundamentalism, featuring deregulation, privatization and the dismantling of the (minimalist) U.S. welfare system. Among the results: Massive growth in inequality, at levels not seen since before the Great Compression that began with the New Deal what Krugman and others call the new Gilded Age Growing economic insecurity and precarious employment Massive growth in the ranks of independent contractors (many of them misclassified) unprotected by NLRA or other basic laws. Erosion of basic labor standards (minimum wage, overtime pay, health and safety, etc.) declining enforcement and coverage

16 Minimum Wage Violations by Gender, Nativity and Legal Status (data from New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, 2008)

17 This perspective helps explain why some U.S. unions have fared better than others in recent years. Biggest decline has involved the old CIO unions once the vital center of the U.S. labor movement. Their post-1970s decline is not due to internal flaws or errors, but external structural shifts: Industrial unions were the ones most directly affected by globalization and outsourcing, decimating membership and giving employers greatly enhanced power. Because they formed alongside the NLRB-centered labor relations order, which was structured with them in mind, they have little experience with non-nlrb strategies.

18 The private-sector unions that have weathered the new era best are former AFL affiliates, which historically had a broader strategic repertoire. For these unions, the NLRB system was always a poor fit; many were originally occupational (rather than industrial) unions. The original Change to Win unions (except UFW): SEIU, UNITE HERE, Teamsters, Laborers, and Carpenters pioneered non-nlrb organizing, drawing on a longer historical tradition. These unions also were the leaders in organizing low-wage workers and immigrants in recent years. They are also more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity and gender despite their AFL roots than most other private-sector unions. They predominated among revitalized unions of the 1990s.

19 The 21 st Century Demography of U.S. Union Membership (2010 data)

20 But Change to Win did not live up to expectations. Some CTW unions have returned to the AFL-CIO fold. Others have been distracted by internal factionalism. Meanwhile, union density has continued its relentless fall, even in place-bound sectors with recent organizing victories. Hope for structural change and/or labor law reform under the Obama administration has not materialized. With new organizing on a significant scale blocked off, both CTW and the AFL-CIO are groping for new strategies. Both have: built alliances with worker centers and CBOs supported the immigrant rights movement experimented with new forms of worker political mobilization (Working America, Fight for a Fair Economy) supported the Occupy Wall Street movement

21 1. Worker centers about in the U.S. organize and advocate for workers in: precarious, casualized occupations like day labor and domestic work, where traditional unionism is impractical sectors where establishment size is small and that unions have abandoned, like restaurants, garment-making sectors where workers are nominally self-employed like taxi driving and street vending Some organize along ethnic lines (e.g. KIWA, Min Kwon, PWC, Chinese Staff). Others recruit middle strata/white collar workers (e.g. Freelancers Union huge organization of >150,000) Typically focus on wage theft and other legal violations.

22 As Fine (2007 BJIR) showed, the culture and structure of worker centers differ greatly from those of traditional unions, and initially worker centers and unions were mutually suspicious of each other. Over time, however, they have increasingly converged in their approaches to low-wage workers (mimetic isomorphism). Many worker centers which tend to be tiny NGOs with scarce resources as they try to grow and win gains beyond existing minimum standards, are becoming more open to union models Unions, increasingly humbled and appreciating the strategic and tactical creativity of the centers and their greater legitimacy (relative to unions) in the public eye, have adopted some of their approaches, e.g. staging public dramas calling attention to the plight of low-wage workers. E.g. car wash workers.

23 Car Wash workers, including many undocumented immigrants, have recently won unionization campaigns in L.A. and NYC

24 In the past few years, more and more direct alliances between unions and worker centers. AFL-CIO has official partnerships with The National Day Laborer Organizing Network Interfaith Worker Justice (which has several affiliates) National Domestic Workers Alliance National Alliance of Guestworkers Other worker center-like organizations have ties to or were incubated by individual unions examples include: Restaurant Opportunities Center Retail Action Project actions during Fashion Week Our Walmart Black Friday 2012 one-day strike

25 In Sept. 2011, the AFL-CIO issued a national charter to the Taxi Workers Alliance Organizing Committee in a direct parallel to the pre-cio era, when the AFL regularly chartered Federal Labor Unions. (Cobble 1997) The NY Taxi Workers Alliance has about 15,000 members and engages in demonstration strikes as well as informal but substantive negotiations with the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission. It has won a series of raises for drivers as well as protective regulations, and most recently a health care fund. Its members are independent contractors and thus not covered by NLRA, but it functions very much like a union. Similar alliances of taxi workers exist or are in formation around the U.S.

26 October 2011, Bhairavi Desai, Richard Trumka and others celebrating the TWA charter.

27 NYC s Domestic Workers United (and now the national Domestic Workers Alliance) illustrates the movement in the other direction. Beginning as a worker center with an anti-union animus, in 2010 DWU won the NY State Domestic Workers Bill of Rights with strong support from organized labor. DWU is now exploring collective bargaining models for its members. DWA s Caring Across Generations campaign links improvements in the pay and benefits of immigrant caregivers to the interests of the elderly and disabled, in alliance with the immigrant rights movement.

28 Worker centers are often staffed by highly educated young professionals, and are in many respects similar to the settlement houses and social reform organizations of the Progressive era (e.g. WTUL). The new unionism of the 1910s, which involved an earlier wave of working-class immigrants to the U.S., has many features in common with the immigrant unionizing efforts of the late 20 th and early 21 st century. Unlike well-paid public sector and industrial workers who have become widely stigmatized as unfairly benefitting from unionism in enjoying pay and benefits that most U.S. workers lack, worker centers and unions organizing low-wage immigrants have the moral high ground.

29 2. Organized labor now explicitly supports the immigrant rights movement, overcoming previous divisions over the issue and lobbying for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). The soon-to-be CTW unions developed effective organizing campaigns among low-wage immigrants in the 1980s and 1990s, which in turn led to the 2000 shift in the official AFL-CIO policy on immigration, abandoning exclusionary approaches. The massive 2006 immigrant rights marches cemented the commitment of both CTW and AFL-CIO to support CIR. The immigrant rights movement is itself (in part) a labor movement, seeking economic advancement for its constituents. The growth of Latino political clout has also been a product of the labor-immigrant rights alliance, benefitting both partners.

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33 3. New forms of organization for political mobilization Working America created by the AFL-CIO in 2003 seeks to mobilize working people, whether or not they are union members, in political campaigns for labor-friendly candidates. It claims to have about 3 million members, mostly white. Unclear future given 2010 Citizens United decision but has a strong track record and has done some pilot experiments encouraging worksite issues. Fight for a Fair Economy created by SEIU in 2010 canvassing in communities of color in 17 cities, also for political purposes but with some talk of community organizing efforts over broader issues as well.

34 Many unions as well as the AFL-CIO s leadership embraced the Occupy movement, which succeeded in bringing the issue of inequality into the national political conversation, something labor had long tried but failed to do. Although Occupy has fragmented, it has energized many rank and file unionists; and some of the new activists it created have now become involved in labor organizing. Labor s explicit support for Occupy is the best evidence to date of its increasing tilt from the inside to the outside game. Rich Trumka in Zuccotti Park

35 In NYC, Occupy helped unionize Hot and Crusty restaurant chain (immigrant workers); also supported the Teamsters strike at Sotheby s and probably helped secure its success Late 2012 fast food strikes in NYC also involved some former Occupiers (and FFE as well) and Occupy-like tactics

36 As labor moves increasingly toward the outside game, it increasingly resembles its counterpart of a century ago, with a broad strategic repertoire that includes boycotts, living wage campaigns, alliances with a wide range of communitybased organizations, social reformers, as well as intellectuals and even radicals (like OWS). If we abandon the idea that, in the absence of a wider social transformation opposing market fundamentalism, union density can be restored to mid-20 th century levels, a future for a different kind of labor movement, one more like that of a century ago, seems plausible.

37 American trade unionism is slowly being limited in influence by changes which destroy the basis on which it is erected I see no reason to believe that American trade unionism will become in the next decade a more potent social influence. -- Professor George Barnett, 1932 presidential address to the American Economic Association It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government --George Meany, AFL-CIO President, 1962 Predictions can be hazardous