Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 16:45:47 +1000 From: sjwright-AT-vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au (Steve Wright) Subject: AUT: Fwd: Why the UPS Win Matters Would anyone who has been following this dispute like to comment on the piece below? Steve _________ >Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 22:07:34 +0000 >From: Patrick Bond <pbond-AT-wn.apc.org> >Subject: Fwd: Why the UPS Win Matters >Sender: owner-debate-AT-sunsite.wits.ac.za >To: debate-AT-sunsite.wits.ac.za >Reply-to: pbond-AT-wn.apc.org >X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail/Windows (v1.22) >Priority: normal >Precedence: bulk > >------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- >Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 11:32:42 -0700 (PDT) >Reply-to: pen-l-AT-anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu >From: Nathan Newman <newman-AT-garnet.berkeley.edu> >To: Multiple recipients of list <pen-l-AT-anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu> >Subject: [PEN-L:11888] Why the UPS Win Matters > > > =======================================> Why the Victory at UPS Matters > =======================================> -- Nathan Newman > >With last night's labor contract deal between UPS and the Teamsters agreed >to, it appears that the Teamsters have scored a massive win against >corporate America. Along with keeping control of their pension fund and >winning increases for retirees, the Teamsters have won what appears to be >a nearly 40% increase in wages for the average part-time worker and the >creation of over 10,000 new full-time positions. In a time when many >unions have had to fight to the death for modest gains or to just hold >onto what they already have, this unprecendented gain for UPS workers is >an inspiring win for UPS workers. > >But it is more than that. It was won with massive public support and the >full backing of the AFL-CIO and, in its meaning for the future of labor >and the progressive movement, it will likely be remembered as a crucial >turning point for an upswing in activism and success. > >Why is the win at UPS so important? > >Start with the settlement itself. In a time when pensions are >disappearing or companies are turning pensions into corporate piggybanks, >the Teamsters have reaffirmed the principle of strong, worker-controlled >pensions that are portable between jobs within an industry. In a time >when part-time work is a tool for disempowering workers, the Teamsters >have struck the first successful collective assault against corporation's >abusive use of part-time work. In a time when average wages have fallen >for twenty years, the Teamsters have won an unprecedented increase in >wages. > >In all of this, they have signalled that lowered wages and benefits are >not an "inevitable" aspect of the global economy but a result, at least >partly, of corporate power and that such corporate power can be resisted >and even defeated through collective action backed by a unified labor and >community alliance. In a world where the message has been that the only >way to avoid being screwed was to cut your own deal, scam your own >individual training, fight for your own raise as others fell behind, the >UPS deal is now there as a shining example that a whole workforce can rise >together and see improvement in working conditions achieved through their >own collective strength. > >Let's be clear. Everyone loves a winner and labor in now a winner through >this action. The credibility of labor struggle as a method to fighting >corporate power has been relegitimized. The fact that this struggle >served lower-income and part-time workers has also relegitimized labor as >a champion not just of elite manufacturing workers, pilots and baseball >players (a recent media image) but of ordinary workers who everyone can >easily identify with. The faces of the strikers were often mothers >deciding whether they could afford Fruit Loops on their strike pay and >everyone will be cheering that that mother or other struggling families >will now have a pay increase and a shot at converting two or three >part-time jobs into a solid full-time job at UPS. > >It is an image of labor that can be taken to workplaces and communities >across the country by organizers saying, you could be that mother or that >father improving your lot if you will only stand up with your fellow >workers and form a union. You can win and you can gain. That is a >message we have needed, especially after years of failed strikes in >Deacateur, Detroit and earlier Hormel and PATCO. The UPS win is the new >meaning of a revitalzed labor movement that will fight together for >victory, With 55% of the population siding with the UPS strikers, it >signals a new opportunity for labor to marshall public support and >sympathy not just as the underdogs but as effective champions to challenge >corporate power. > >Which is where the strike win gets its other significance, which is in the >internal meaning for Labor. > >Start with Carey as leader of the Teamsters. As a rank-and-file leader, >Carey had fought for decades against a corrupt Teamster leadership that >signed go-along contracts that created the two-tier wage and part-time >labor system at UPS in the first place. It was only the struggle for >rank-and-file democracy within the Teamsters (led by left activists in >Teamsters for a Democratic Union) that eventually catapulted Carey into >leadership when the opportunity came in 1991. Against the odds and >against internal corruption and the mob, Ron Carey and his TDU allies >wrested back control of the largest private sector union in the country. > >With the federal government overseers draining money from the union as a >terrific rate, Carey had to expend other resources cleaning up corrupt >locals and dealing with the vestigal resistance of old-line locals living >off the fat of members dues. Carey sold off the private jets and slashed >his own salary but out of the struggle to reform the union, the Teamsters >had emerged seemingly hobbled with an empty bank account. With the >election for Teamster President held last year, Carey faced the son of the >legendary Jimmy Hoffa who attacked Carey for weaknesses in the union >created by Hoffa Junior's own allies, but the attack was almost enough to >win a majority. That would have been a tragedy of incredible proportions >as the old-line hacks and corrupt deals would have reasserted themselves >across the union. Carey emerged the winner but he also emerged tarred as >allies and consultants desperately cut corners with a few large, >embarassing illegal campaign contributions to the Carey effort undermining >the legitimacy of his win. The contributions were returned but the damage >to Carey's standing as an honest reformer had been done. > >So this is the situation Carey faced in this strike: an empty strike fund, >his own leadership under a cloud, and facing one of the largest employers >in the country backed by flush bank accounts and a $1 billion in profits >the year before. Before the strike started, there were a number of pundit >analyses that the Teamsters were doomed if they went on strike since their >internal collapse or financial exhaustion of their strike fund would >quickly kill them off. > >But Carey defied the odds or, rather, the rank-and-file did as they voted >overwhelmingly to strike and when they did, a microscopic number would >cross the picket lines. With the stakes so high, Carey's opponents could >not afford to be seen as soft or helping management, so support for the >strike was loud and vociferous from all quarters of the union. But the >key was rank-and-file resolve, a decision after two decades of corporate >attacks to just say "no." And the result was yesterday's victory and a >victory for militant reform elements not just in the Teamsters but across >the union movement. > >Carey has proven that honest leadership committed to militant united union >action can win for workers what old-line "business unionists" could not-- >a decent contract and a shot at the American Dream for average workers. >And by winning this strike, Carey himself has assured that his own >leadership position will remain solid and he can further clean up the >union and expand organizing. > >But Carey could not have won alone. A crucial part of the the win against >UPS was the annoucement by AFL-CIO leader John Sweeney that, since the >Teamsters strike fund was empty, other AFL-CIO unions would loan the >Teamsters whatever funds were needed for however long it took. Sweeney's >declaration that "The UPS strike is our strike. Their struggle is our >struggle" was a message to UPS management that they were not fighting >180,000 UPS workers but the combined will of millions of AFL-CIO unionists >who would use every tool necessary to support the UPS strikers. > >This UPS strike was really the first big challenge of Sweeney's Presidency >of the AFL-CIO. After narrowly being elected to head the AFL-CIO in 1995 >by union leaders at the 1995 AFL-CIO convention, he had focused initially >on reorienting the finances of the labor federation towards organizing and >had launched the federation's 1996 electoral campaign, one that sought to >raise the issues of low pay and falling standards of living for workers. >Partly due to that campaign, an increase in the minimum wage and the >Kennedy-Kassebaum health care bill were passed. > >But on the labor front, Sweeney had generated a lot of noise and fanfare >but, while a new energy surged through the ranks of labor, the concrete >results had not been large. A major strike at Boeing had been won and the >UAW had made some inroads with the auto companies, but this seemed to have >little direct connection to Sweeney. The new AFL-CIO leadership made >token mobilizations around inherited struggles in Decateur and the Detroit >Newspaper strike, but seemed unable or unwilling to meet the expectations >of rank-and-file activists to create a united response in support of such >key labor struggles. > >In that sense, the UPS strike was the first big challenge that Sweeney >would face where he could blame no one else, where the responsibility for >full labor support was with him from day one. > >And in his support of the UPS strike, in his bringing together of labor >heads to back the Teamsters with the full resources of the labor movement, >Sweeney showed what a radical change had been made from the previous >legacy of Lane Kirland who had left unions to fend for themselves, had sat >back and watched PATCO crushed and strike after strike that followed >defeated in their isolation. Instead, we had the message that a united >labor movement would support strikes by any of their members. > >For doubting unions that needed resolve (or pressure) to shift internal >union budgets away from do-nothing labor bureaucrats to Sweeney's >priorities of organizing, organizing and organizing, this strike has >strengthened both Sweeney's prestige and the prestige of the ideas and >ideals that forced the historic election of Sweeney and his leadership >team in 1995. > >And the link between Sweeney and Carey go further. When Sweeney was >elected in 1995, Carey's Teamsters were the deciding votes. Without >question, if Carey had not been elected head of the Teamsters in 1991, >Sweeney would not have been elected head of the AFL-CIO in 1995. And >without both elections, the victory at UPS would have been impossible >since the rank-and-file wouldn't have even been given the chance to fight >together for this victory. This is important not so much because Carey >and Sweeney as individuals mattered but because they represented the >aspirations and struggles of rank-and-file unionists and activists who >had struggled for decades to revitalize the labor movement. And these >individual leaders became the vehicles for bring that change. > >If the UPS strike is the turning point for labor, it is a thin, fragile >line that led from defeat to revival - a thread that easily could have >been broken and the destruction of the modern labor movement a real >possibility. > >That possibility still exists, of course. The UPS strike was just one >victory and unions today represent just over 10% of private sector >employees, down from nearly 35% of employees in the 1950s. That low >level of representation rivals the depths reached in the early part of the >Depression before the CIO began its massive organizing drive. > >If the UPS strike is to represent a turning point, it will have to be >followed by massive organizing wins, from the Strawberry workers of >California to the Apple pickers of Washington State to the textile workers >of the South to hospital workers in the Northeast. > >The lesson of the UPS strike, however, is that none of those strikes are >isolated, that each struggle is our struggle, that militancy and >determination can overcome corporate power if workers are united, if they >mobilize community support, and if they link the interests of unionized >workers to the aspirations of the 90% of workers who are not in a union >but might like to be if they see union gains as gains for all working >people. > >Much internal reform is still needed in both the AFL-CIO and the >Teamsters, but the victory at UPS shows how far we have come. > > -------------- > > --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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