A New American Labor Movement

William E. Scheuerman

Description

The American labor movement isn't dead. It's just moving from the bargaining table to the streets. In A New American Labor Movement, William Scheuerman analyzes how the decline of unions and the emergence of these new direct-action movements are reshaping the American labor movement. Tens of thousands of exploited workers—from farm laborers and gig drivers to freelance artists and restaurant workers—have taken to the streets in a collective attempt to attain a living wage and decent working conditions, with or without the help of unions. This new worker militancy, expressed through mass demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins, political action, and similar activities, has already achieved much success and offers models for workers to exercise their power in the twenty-first century. Finally, Scheuerman notes, many of the strategies of the new direct-action groups share features with the sectoral bargaining model that dominates the European labor movement, suggesting that sectoral bargaining may become the foundation of a new American labor movement.
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Why Unions Matter

2. The Long Slide

3. Farmworkers Fight Back

4. Worker Centers in Focus

5. Freelancers Union: Backward to the Future?

6. Taking to the Streets

7. All Roads Lead to . . . Sectoral Bargaining?

Notes
Index

Sujets

• Labour
• États-Unis
• History of the Americas
• Trade union
• Industrial relations
• 21st century
• Movimiento sindical
• United States of America
• USA
• Trade Unions

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438485508
• Langue: English

Extrait

A NEW AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT
A NEW AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT
The Decline of Collective Bargaining and the Rise of Direct Action
WILLIAM E. SCHEUERMAN
Cover images: Photographer unknown. (11437) “End of Strike, Cadillac Motor Company, Detroit, Michigan, 1937.” January 17, 1937. Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University, Detroit MI. http://reuther.wayne.edu/node/5639
Bob Simpson (BobboSphere), “Fight for $15 in Chicago: May 15, 2014,”
Licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Scheuerman, William E., 1943– author.
Title: A new American labor movement : the decline of collective bargaining and the rise of direct action / William E. Scheuerman.
Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021024223 | ISBN 9781438485492 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438485508 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Labor movement—United States—History—21 century. | Direct action—United States—History—21st century.
Classification: LCC HD6510 .S34 2021 | DDC 331.88/0973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021024223
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my grandchildren— Lizzy, Zoe, Lily, Erik, Charlotte, and Genevieve— the youth of today who will help create a better tomorrow for all of us
Arise ye workers from your slumber, Arise ye prisoners of want.
( The Internationale )
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 Why Unions Matter
Chapter 2 The Long Slide
Chapter 3 Farmworkers Fight Back
Chapter 4 Worker Centers in Focus
Chapter 5 Freelancers Union: Backward to the Future?
Chapter 6 Taking to the Streets
Chapter 7 All Roads Lead to … Sectoral Bargaining?
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
The determination and commitment of those battling for social and economic justice inspired me to write this modest book. I thank them for the many sacrifices they make and the hope they give us for a better future. My great appreciation also goes to those participants in the struggle who found the time to talk to me and tolerate my often naïve questions. Edward Escobar of the Alliance for Independent Workers was a fantastic source of information. His patience and willingness to assist went well beyond anything I could have expected. As one who has felt the sting of abusive corporate power, Edward helped me understand why some California gig drivers want to become “real” independent contractors rather than corporate employees. Freelance worker Halley Bondy put the concerns of freelance workers in perspective, as did the recently appointed head of the Freelancers Union, Rafael Espinal. And many thanks to Bob Simpson for allowing me to use his photo of a Fight for $15 rally on the book cover. Two good friends and former colleagues in the New York State United Teachers union, Alan Lubin and Brian O’Shaughnessy, invited me to meetings of the Rural Migrant Ministry and spent hours with me analyzing issues facing farmworkers. Many of my academic friends and former colleagues contributed to this work as well. Mike Urban reviewed several chapters and made a number of insightful comments. Sid Plotkin, Ray Petersen, Ray Borycka, Vinnie Seravallo, and Artie Siegel, my childhood friend from the old neighborhood, also read the manuscript during its various stages of development. My son and namesake, Bill, read parts of the manuscript and was not shy in pointing out some shortcomings he found in an early draft of the conclusion. I thank him for his intellectual rigor and honesty. My wife Louise deserves thanks for reading the various drafts of the book and living through months of my self-imposed exile to libraries or meetings or to my study. Finally, I owe my greatest thanks to all my sisters and brothers in the labor movement who have dedicated their lives, often at great personal cost, in the seemingly endless struggle against the forces of economic and political oppression. Needless to say, the book’s shortcomings are the sole responsibility of the author.
Introduction
On a crisp October day in downtown Albany, New York, a small coalition of fast-food, retail, and transportation workers and their supporters took to the streets. The sound of a voice through a bullhorn pierced the air. “What do we want?” the voice roared.
“Paid sick leave!” the crowd answered.
“When do we want it?”
“Now!” 1
This Central Avenue rally wasn’t their first. Previously, coalition members conducted silent protests before the Albany County Legislature to secure a law requiring all area employers to allow both part-time and full-time workers to earn paid sick leave. Strategically, the coalition linked its demands to the larger communal good of protecting public health. All the protesters wore surgical masks. “I Served Food With the Flu,” read one protester’s sign. Their actions worked. The county legislature drafted such a bill. 2 But on that October day in 2018 the group marched in protest of an amendment that weakened the bill in favor of small business owners. Caught in the struggle between local business interests and protesting workers, in November 2018 the county legislature temporarily tabled the bill. As of this writing, the coalition is still waiting for the county legislature to reconsider the bill. Meanwhile, the workers take hope from the successes of similar coalitions throughout the state. The Westchester County legislature passed a mandate that now provides a new opportunity for paid sick leave to over 100,000 workers, almost a third of whom are women. 3 In New York City, 1.2 million workers gained paid sick leave for the first time in 2014. 4
There’s a new spontaneous energy in the labor movement, and a new kind of direct action is its engine of change, born of the decades-long war against unions that has blocked vast numbers of American workers from the bargaining table. These direct action movements are taking place mainly outside the realm of organized labor and are in the process of reshaping the American labor movement. Conscious of their economic vulnerability and no longer willing to accept the economic and social status quo, tens of thousands of exploited workers in industries running the gamut from farm laborers and gig drivers to freelance artists and fast-food employees have taken to the streets in a collective attempt to attain a living wage and decent working conditions. This spontaneous new militancy, an upsurge of vibrant democracy from below, expressed through mass demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins, political action, and similar activities, has already achieved some successes and offers models for workers to exercise their power in the twenty-first century.
The history of the union movement in the United States has been the subject of an endless number of studies. And recent decades have produced countless analyses of why unions are in decline. Along the way, this book will briefly recap that history and summarize various factors cited as contributing to the union movement’s current sorry state. This work argues that all these analyses are partially correct, but they fail to address the core of the problem: the structure and culture of organized labor no longer serve the larger labor movement .
This book frames the rise and development of the new labor movement in light of organized labor’s decline by asking a number of important questions. The first series of questions arises from the historical contributions of labor unions, their current condition, and their future prospects: Why are unions important, and why does it matter that they’re on the decline? Why are they losing members? What, if anything, can they do to reverse this decline? Finally, what are the social and political implications of a weak and ineffectual union movement? A second group of questions examines the new labor movement that has emerged outside the parameters of organized labor: What economic and social changes have given birth to this new militant labor movement? What are the goals of these new organizing groups, and what are they doing to realize them? What is their relationship to unions and to electoral politics? How might this relationship evolve? A third, and not inconsequential, set of questions looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on these workers and their direct action movements.
Before proceeding with a brief synopsis of the chapters, a few words on the idea of direct action are necessary. The genealogy of the concept “direct action” goes back to the nineteenth-century anarchists, syndicalists, and others for whom direct action meant not just grassroots activities such as taking to the streets, demonstrating, and so on, but those activities that directly and immediately brought about the new world they envisioned. For example, when anarch