The Last Word:

The New Alliance: This may be labor’s answer to today’s needs

Ask any group of workers how the benefits they assume and enjoy — eight-hour workday, health benefits and paid vacations, for instance — came about. It certainly wasn’t because management desired that workers spend quality time with their families or pursue a new hobby. Nor was management overwhelmed by a desire to improve employees’ health and welfare or to provide them with opportunities to visit exotic locations so they would have something to talk about around the water cooler. These basic provisions — along with scheduled pay raises, breaks, safety regulations and equipment, sick days, grievance procedures, job security, overtime pay and countless other benefits — were the result of hard-fought, hard-won battles between management and labor unions.

It was the labor unions, standing alone, that won proper treatment for the workers. These unions demanded that workers be treated justly and with dignity. They called for the elimination of unsafe working conditions and guarantee of appropriate wages and other benefits. So, it is easy to see why workers wanted to join an organization that spoke for them and fought for their best interests. What worker could be opposed to goals designed to bring about positive changes in the workplace? Labor unions gained in numbers and popularity.

Workers scrambled to organize their respective workplaces. It is estimated that by the middle of the 19th century, more than 35 percent of the workforce in the United States was unionized. In contrast, the current percentage of unionized workers is 13 percent.

Why has union density dropped so drastically? Why do so many workers feel a diminished need for the provisions and protections of labor unions?

These issues were specifically addressed in a convocation of union leaders held in New York City on June 5. The initiative was led by national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and New York state AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes. Out of that meeting came the labor force’s answer to the declining union density in the form of a plan for revitalization. It is known as the New Alliance.

This is the first major statewide re-energizing of the labor movement since the merger of the AFL and the CIO. The New York state AFL-CIO, along with local labor councils, is embarking on an innovative plan for union unity, diversity and strength. New York was chosen because of its high union density and the political and economic power that comes from strength of numbers, along with the strong tradition in union values.

The focus of the New Alliance is to annually organize 130,000 new members in New York state and one million members nationally, thereby regaining a voice and power for workers in their places of employment, in their communities, in national government and in the global economy.

Plans for implementation include launching a Solidarity Project. Through this will come a survey of affiliated organizing objectives; review of legal, regulatory and legislative options; initiation of relationship-building initiatives with political, religious and community groups; provision of grassroots assistance; and expansion of the statewide political action network and utilization of it to activate, educate and motivate union members and their families. In this effort for solidarity, the size and scope of AFL-CIO’s lobbying efforts will be increased to help pass a working-family agenda and legislation supporting the right of workers to organize. The New Alliance will take aggressive action to attract and place more women and people of color in leadership positions.

It will be the responsibility of labor councils and area labor federations to build strategic relationships with key leaders and organizations and to secure commitments for support of the freedom of workers to form or join unions. Commitments have been given by all affiliates connected with the New Alliance to fund these initiatives to the extent necessary to ensure success.

With this vision of the need for revitalization of labor unions and commitment of financial support to implement it, the New Alliance can build power for the working family. Beginning at local and state levels, labor unions will work to regain the prominence they acquired through hard years of struggle. These organizations developed in response to the need for a unified voice for all laborers. They were successful in negotiating, demanding and winning better lives for all workers.

Nowadays, the workplace is more diverse and the workers more varied, but the needs remain and the issues involved impact all of us. The unified voice of the unions will be re-energized and, once again, be acknowledged as the force that speaks for laborers and their families.

(José Feliciano serves as Treasurer for the Stony Brook chapter and is a delegate to UUP Delegate Assemblies.)