Where Labor Will Strike Next
from Summer 1999
by Antonio Ramirez
Nothing to fear from unions—they’re relics of the past. Right?
Think again! Union activity, including widespread organizing, is heating up within several industries—airlines, retailing, and parcel delivery among them—and is even targeting temporary work forces at Boeing and Microsoft.
In 1998, union membership grew by 100,000 to 16.2 million, the largest gain in five years. Yes, the membership gain lagged behind the year’s extraordinary job growth, which meant the unions’ share of the work force dropped from 14.1% to 13.9%. But that decline is the smallest since 1979. The unions have been emphasizing recruitment rather than job protection, benefits, and contract enforcement and are spending much more of their cash on collecting new members.
When John Sweeney took over the helm of the AFL-CIO in 1995, he challenged the federation’s member unions to increase their organizing budgets from the 5% most were spending to a hefty 30%. Most unions are moving toward that goal. The Service Employees, a union that represents public and private sector health care workers, claims to have done far better, spending 47% of its budget on organizing.
Further evidence of labor’s new militancy is the decision by the AFL-CIO Executive Council to spend $40 million on the 2000 congressional campaign. A similar outlay in 1998 helped with the Democrats’ unexpected five-seat gain in the House. While corporations generally outspend unions by a huge 11-to-1 margin in political action, unions have large numbers of members they can turn out to work the phones, distribute leaflets, and otherwise twist voters’ arms.
Airlines took the brunt of union activity in 1998 and will continue to be targets this year. At American, an end-of-year pilot slowdown caused chaos after the carrier tried to impose a lower pay scale for pilots brought in by the purchase of Reno Air. That issue went to negotiation, and a court later ordered the union to pay American $45 million in damages. Signs of things to come: The Communications Workers, which recruited all 15,000 of American’s customer service employees, is continuing a campaign to organize the airline’s ticket agents. The Machinists, which signed up United’s 19,000 customer service workers, the largest single group recruited by a union in 1998, is now eyeing the airline’s 5,000 clerical workers along with Continental’s 10,000 fleet service workers. The Transport Workers, having concluded a five-year drive to organize America West’s 2,000 fleet service employees, is planning to organize 40,000 Delta employees, including flight attendant and pilot instructors.
In the world of retailing and warehousing, UNITE, the needle trades’ union, won over warehouse employees at Marshall’s clothing chain and workers at various Kmart outlets. In a surprise narrow loss, however, the union failed to sign customer service workers in Loehmann’s New York City flagship clothing store. (For more on Loehmann’s, see Directors in the Hot Seat, page 17.)
On other fronts, the Teamsters are continuing a three-year drive to recruit thousands of FedEx drivers and package handlers.
At Microsoft, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers is hoping to organize up to 6,000 so-called permatemps, a third of the company’s programming staff. The workers complain that even though they’ve been on the job for more than a year, they receive no benefits or stock options and are even barred from company picnics. A federal district court judge recently directed Microsoft to end requirements that force temps to sign away rights to gains from class-action suits. WashTech reports that similarly placed workers at Boeing have shown an interest in representation. The implications are profound for this industry and many others, considering that temps account for an estimated 10% of the U.S. work force.
Meanwhile, the steel industry, which has an often-violent history of labor relations, may be finding ways for management and workers to coexist constructively. The United Steelworkers and major producers such as Bethlehem, USX, and LTV, have set aside their traditional differences to fight a greater adversary—countries that dump steel at less than cost and undermine U.S. steel prices. Says United Steelworkers Union President George Becker: “We’re all in the same struggle. As a union, sure, we bargain tough. But it’s like picking a family fight—if someone from outside the family attacks, we come together.”
