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by Brian Johns
Social movements are about establishing and building power to support what we value — and both labor organizing and community organizing have been in the forefront of doing this. However, labor unions and community organizations approach building power differently. The occasional tension between labor and community groups, when their strategies conflict, or when they misunderstand each other, can be a problem for our overall work for social justice.
Labor and community organizing share common roots. A. Phillip Randolph, who in 1925 organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (representing the predominantly African-American Pullman Porter workforce), said, “The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor.” Randolph’s words also describe community organizing. Randolph himself took a leadership role in the 1963 March on Washington, considered one of the greatest of the heroic organizing efforts of the Civil Rights Movement.
For us to best address the needs of all of Virginia’s communities and citizens, we need to understand the different self-interests and approaches of labor unions and community organizations. By understanding each other’s methods and priorities, both types of organizations have an opportunity to strengthen one another.
Labor history overview
Since as early as 1648, workers have come together to organize in what is now the United States. In the last 150 years especially, labor unions have built power and won countless improvements in the lives of working people. The establishment of a minimum wage, retirement benefits, five-day work weeks, eight-hour work days, overtime pay, health care coverage, free public education, improved safety standards, and the right to collectively bargain, as well as outlawing child labor and ending the practice of imprisoning people in debt, all came about because workers organized and fought to build power.
Generally speaking, unions are formed when workers in a specific workplace (a coal mine or hospital for example) come together and decide to organize, a process that usually requires an election. If the workers win the union election, they negotiate a contract that lays out conditions such as wages, retirement benefits and health care coverage. The union gives the workers a voice on the job. The National Labor Relations Act, enacted by Congress in 1935, governs union elections and employees’ and employers’ rights.
At their height, labor unions represented about 35 percent of all workers in the United States and had the strength to set standards for wages and benefits across the country. Thousands of Americans were, and still are, able to support their families and educate themselves and their children on union wages, and continue to receive benefits into retirement through their union-won pension plans. Many non-union companies raised their standards to match the standards that unions gained.
Not that long ago, a notable union victory was won right here in Virginia in 1989 when the United Mine Workers of America led a wildcat strike against the Pittston Coal Group. It spread to include 50,000 miners in 11 states. A bitter nine-month civil disobedience campaign, with strong support from Southwest Virginia neighbors and labor from around the nation, won a contract for miners.
Labor unions have always been under attack from employers, especially powerful corporations. In the last 50 years, these attacks have succeeded in many ways. Unions currently represent 15.4 million workers in the United States, just 12 percent of the workforce — and only 9 percent of the private non-government workforce. Factors in this decline include a multi-billion dollar union-busting industry, corporate strategies to fight unions, and government policies that have limited unions’ influence such as so-called “Right-to-Work” laws, which outlaw “union shops” where all workers must belong to the union.
In Virginia, which is a “Right-to-Work” state, there are only 139,000 Virginians who are members of a union — only 4 percent of the workforce. According to the AFL-CIO, only North Carolina and South Carolina have a lower percentage of organized workers.
While the Virginia AFL-CIO (consisting of, among others, the Laborers’ Union, the Communication Workers of America, the United Mine Workers of America, the International Association of Fire Fighters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Food and Commercial Workers), and other unions such as the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers and the Service Employees International Union, are working hard to organize new members and build power for workers, progress is slowed by almost constant attacks from employers and union-busting firms aimed at decreasing their power.
Comparing labor organizing and the VOP approach
Labor Organizing
Almost universally, union organizing campaigns require certain steps. First, union organizers meet with workers, listen to their needs, and form a committee of the most involved workers to run the organizing drive, the process of recruiting other workers to sign cards in support of the union. Once a certain number of workers sign on, they file for an election
Through that election, a majority of workers at a specific workplace must publicly declare that they want a union. However, companies that do not want unions have gotten very good at countering the organizing efforts of unions. Often, in contested elections, the time leading up to the election can be very tense, with both sides attempting to sway workers with sometimes conflicting sets of data and personal appeals. The union wins the right to collectively bargain if a majority of workers votes “yes” for the union.
Because of these dynamics, most union organizing drives focus heavily on numbers. Organizers are constantly assessing how many people are for/against the union, checking in daily on the numbers to determine whether or not they will reach the “50 percent plus 1” needed to win the election. Leaders and organizers spend a lot of time talking to other workers who are themselves being told by company representatives why they should not join the union.
Once workers win a union, the struggle has just begun. Their contract bargaining campaigns set standards and work conditions with the employer. Then these contracts come up for re-negotiation, and members often have to fight to increase and/or keep their benefits. At this point, asking for help from politicians and community members, getting letters of support for their campaign, and holding rallies and meetings, can send a signal of community support. Sometimes, strikes are necessary.
Still, most unions are effective in getting improvements in wages, health care coverage, retirement benefits, and working conditions. These issues make up the core of why people come together in unions. Workers show their commitment to this voice by paying part of their wages to fund the unions, which receive every bit of their funding from member dues.
Labor unions are also major players in electoral politics, not just through fundraising and organizing non-partisan voter registration, education and get-out-the-vote work, but also through mobilizing members to work on specific political campaigns. In the 2006 Congressional elections in Pennsylvania, thousands of union members and staff from dozens of unions worked in five different districts to elect candidates supporting working people, a campaign that brought home care workers out to knock on doors and talk to their neighbors about health care issues and, most crucially, about candidates that supported them.
Through campaigns like this, the labor movement has empowered hundreds of thousands of people to get involved in elections and the political process. Unions have used the political process to successfully build power for their members and all workers.
VOP organizing
In contrast, as many of our readers know, VOP organizes based on one-to-one conversations with diverse groups and individuals in an area. Through these conversations, we learn each other’s issues and go through a process of strategically designing local campaigns, such as working for an inclusionary zoning or living wage ordinance. Our local leaders then provide input to the VOP Statewide Governing Board about statewide campaigns such as our racial profiling and tax reform campaigns. We focus on building power by (1) building relationships with each other and with elected officials and decision makers, and (2) taking actions like writing letters to the editor, holding press conferences and holding meetings with legislators that allow people to hold those in power accountable.
This is different than labor organizing, in both scope and timing. Unions have a specific, sometimes narrow focus on workplace issues because of their structure. However, this structure also allows for the possibility of achieving big wins rather quickly, adding hundreds of members to their ranks by organizing one facility. VOP’s approach takes longer, but leads to very committed and well-trained leaders.
While one-to-one relationship building and campaign strategizing can take a year or more before launching a campaign, VOP is able to address multiple issues, according to the widely varying needs of individual communities.
Labor and community organizing working together
“At no time in recent history has there been more of a need and opportunity for labor and citizen organizations to work together.” — Organizing for Social Change, a publication of the Midwest Academy, an organizing training center.
Labor organizing focuses on workplace issues (and on their members as workers) and then on fighting to keep the improvements they have won. After all, their resources come straight from members’ paychecks. However, the recent attacks and decline in membership have made many unions realize that they must broaden their focus and look at their members’ roles in their communities and not just their workplaces. Some unions have realized that they must view community outreach as more than just asking a “community representative” to support their actions. They must actively engage in those communities and become involved in their issues as well.
The Service Employees International Union, for example, has created a Community Strength Division, stating, “As union members, we fight for better wages and benefits. But we realize that winning a better future for working families doesn’t stop there. It means building stronger communities and getting involved in the fight for affordable health care, immigration rights, racial equality, and equal opportunity for all.”
Community organizations must also change their ways of relating to labor unions. There has often been tension between community and labor groups because of experiences where community groups are used by unions to achieve a goal, and then are forgotten and the cooperation is not returned. In addition, since so few Virginians are union members, some people may base their opinions of all unions on anecdotes from the media or one bad experience we may have heard about.
Experience around the country has shown that unions and community organizations have a lot to gain when they work together. In Manhattan, a community-labor coalition is pushing for answers on the toxic effects of the 9/11 attack. Community-Labor United has been a voice for justice in the reconstruction of New Orleans. Other common issues that union and community groups are working on include fairness in elections in Maryland and Massachusetts.
Fighting for minimum wage increases and living wage ordinances, expanding health care coverage and access, and fairness for immigrants are just a few of the campaigns in which labor and community organizing have joined forces to build power and win in Virginia. It was labor-community cooperation that got a minimum wage increase bill farther than ever before in the 2007 General Assembly.
By understanding each others’ self-interests and common values, we can continue to build a powerful coalition of workers and community members that will work for the long haul to improve the lives of all Virginians.
After interning with and working with the Virginia Organizing Project from 1999 to 2005, Brian Johns spent two years coordinating Community and Political Organizing with the Service Employees International Union District 1199P in Philadelphia, PA. He’s now back as VOP’s Southwestern Virginia organizer covering everything west of Pulaski and Galax over to the Kentucky line.
Brian Johns can be reached at bjohns@virginia-organizing.org or (276) 619-1920.
Charlottesville, VA 22903-5208
Phone: (434) 984-4655 Fax: (434) 984-2803
