Labor’s Choice Union Election Could Set Future Course

The federation of unions representing 15 percent of the U.S. work force is experiencing a shake-up that could change the face of U.S. labor for years to come.

Led by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and three giant industrial unions, 25 unions are pushing the AFL-CIO to take a more aggressive stance against employers and regain the political clout organized labor wielded at the end of World War II.

In 1945, 36 percent of the work force - public and private sectors - was unionized.

The campaign comes at a time when U.S. workers are seeing jobs disappear as corporations slash personnel or shift production abroad, and as the Republican-led Congress tries to reverse labor protections dating back to the New Deal.

It will climax Oct. 25, when a slate of candidates led by John Sweeney, president of the Service Employees International Union, challenges AFL-CIO President Tom Donahue for the leadership of the federation.

“He’s ahead, there’s no question in my mind about that,” said Donahue, in an interview this week. But he predicted he will win by persuading some opposition unions to switch sides.

On many issues, the campaigns offer similar programs; both stress the need to expand union organizing, attract more women and minorities to the labor movement, and sharpen the AFL-CIO’s political and media work.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement came up in a recent debate in Los Angeles, Sweeney praised Donahue for leading labor’s fight against it.

But clear differences have emerged over the future of the AFL-CIO and labor’s role in international affairs.

Many labor activists believe the AFL-CIO must make sweeping changes, to meet the challenges of the global economy and to confront corporations and politicians trying to weaken unions. They envision transforming the AFL-CIO from a loose federation into a powerful social movement.

“Workers have only one thing, and that is each other,” Richard L. Trumka, president of the United Mineworkers of America and the opposition candidate for secretary-treasurer, said in an interview. “We will respond on behalf of workers, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and on leap years it’ll be 366.”

Internationally, the opposition wants the AFL-CIO to adopt a strategy that confronts multinationals with coordinated global bargaining and confrontational tactics involving unions from other countries.

“We want to refocus international campaigns (and) make them relevant to winning campaigns for workers here and creating cross-border solidarity,” Trumka said. “Strategic campaigns in a global economy means a lot of jobs.”

To coordinate those efforts, Trumka said, the AFL-CIO should organize a Transnational Monitoring Project to assist unions engaged in international disputes and to monitor global institutions such as the World Bank.

The project would have a full-time staff and be linked to a proposed Office of Strategic Planning, which would work with AFL-CIO affiliates to develop organizing and targeting strategies.

“We will expand our capabilities beyond the borders of the U.S. and Canada to every corner of the world,” Trumka said.

As a model corporate campaign, many labor activists pointed to a 1991 campaign in which the United Steelworkers of America tracked down the holdings and whereabouts of Marc Rich, the elusive Swiss owner of Ravenswood Aluminum Corp. With help from European unions, the campaign forced the company to reinstate 1,700 workers fired during a West Virginia strike.

“All of these ideas are things we’ve been doing for years,” said Donahue.

“What’s wrong with the Sweeney campaign is, they want to proclaim the way forward, and they’re going forward with a minority of unions,” he said. “With their emphasis on the federation, they’re exaggerating what it can do, in opposition to what individual unions can do.”

Donahue said he would continue to press for protection of workers’ rights in new trade agreements, such as the proposed extension of the NAFTA to Chile. “Without workers’ rights in the main agreement, without the ability to enforce violations as actionable unfair trade practices, we should oppose future agreements,” he said.

He said the AFL-CIO keeps tabs on multinationals through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and other organizations. The AFL-CIO has also organized support for several corporate campaigns, including the one against Ravenswood, he said.

The proposed transnational institute, he said, “is old wine in new bottles.”

“There is a danger in claiming you have to build a huge institution” to conduct solidarity campaigns, Donahue warned. “Pretending to gather information on every multinational in the world against the possibility you may have a problem” with some of them “may not be the most efficient use of resources.”

The most explosive issue raised by the opposition concerns the record of the AFL-CIO institutes that use U.S. government funds to support unions in developing countries. In 1995, the AFL-CIO institutes in Asia, Africa and Central America received nearly $12 million from Congress, a State Department official said.

Many labor officials have criticized the institutes for being too closely tied to U.S. Cold War policies.

“Before, if you got involved supporting unions, you had to look after whether they were right-wing or left-wing,” said Jack Sheinkman, a former textile-union president who challenged AFL-CIO foreign policy in the 1980s. “We supported unions, independent unions.”

Critics of the institutes point to an incident in 1988, when the AFL-CIO’s American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) lobbied the Reagan administration to reject a proposal to penalize El Salvador for violating workers’ rights.

“That is one of the worst blots on AFL-CIO history,” said Holly Burkhalter, a representative for Americas Watch, who wrote the petition to remove El Salvador from the Generalized System of Preferences.

She said the AIFLD overlooked serious human-rights violations against unions supporting the leftist insurgency against the U.S.-supported administration of Jose Napoleon Duarte.

“The focus of those institutes was not on winning any kind of campaign, but geared towards winning the Cold War,” Trumka said. Government money, he said, “set the agenda rather than the trade union movement setting the agenda.”

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story: 1. LABOR FACES BIG FIGHT IN CONGRESS Unions call it an outright attack on labor standards and the working poor. Republican legislators say they just want to trim the fat away. Observers expect showdowns on several issues, including: Davis-Bacon Act. The law requires that contractors on federal projects pay prevailing union wage in their labor market. Supporters say the law prevents non-union contractors from undercutting union contractors by using cheap labor. Detractors say inflates the cost of public projects. The 40-hour work week and overtime pay. Federal law guarantees pay of time-and-a-half to most hourly employees who work more than 40 hours a week. Those who favor repeal see the law as unnecessary. Opponents hark back to the bad old days of a standard six-day work week. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The agency enforces workplace and safety laws. Senate Republicans want to slash OSHA’s budget by 50 percent. Budget-cutters say OSHA wastes taxpayers’ and companies’ money; labor officials complain that the agency’s enforcement arm needs to be strengthened. - Boston Globe

2. THE AFL-CIO IN SPOKANE Twenty AFL-CIO affiliated unions have full-time offices in Spokane. The AFL-CIO’s local office, operating as the Spokane Labor Council, is at 102 E. Boone. The phone number is 327-7637. Here are the addresses, local representatives and phone numbers for local AFL-CIO affiliates: Asbestos Workers No. 82 102 E. Boone Spokane, WA 99202 Pete Forrest: 328-5439 Bakers No. 74 120 W. Mission Spokane, WA 99201 Stan Heimbigner: 326-0440 Boilermakers No. 242 6404 N. Pittsburg Spokane, WA 99207 Lynn Rawlins: 489-1891 Carpenters No. 98 120 W. Mission Spokane, WA 99201 Dan Holland: 326-0900 Electrical Workers No. 73 1616 North Washington Spokane, WA 99205 Doug Barnard: 326-2182 Electrical Workers No. 77 1506 North Washington Spokane, WA 99201 Mike Hanson: 328-8670 Engineers No. 280 (Stationary) 120 W. Mission Spokane, WA 99201 Jim Hendry: 326-0777 Engineers No. 370 (Operating) 510 S. Elm Spokane, WA 99204 Jerry Stephenson: 624-5365 Hotel Empl. & Rest. Empl. No. 400 1719 North Atlantic P.O. Box 5580 Spokane, WA 99205 John Workland: 326-4499 Iron Workers No. 14 120 W. Mission Spokane, WA 99201 William C. Burns: 328-8452 Laborers No. 238 1330 North Calispel Spokane, WA 99201-2316 Craig Gruenig: 328-6660 Machinists No. 86/D.L. 751 209 North Havana No. 103 Spokane, WA 99202 Craig McClure: 534-9690 Plumbers No. 44 10 W. Second Spokane, WA 99204 Scott B. Smith: 624-5101 Roofers No. 189 102 E. Boone Spokane, WA 99202 Pat Bauer: 327-2322 Service Employees No. 202 102 E. Boone Spokane, WA 99202 George Holmes: 328-4032 Sheetmetal Workers No. 66 1522 North Washington, Suite 213 Spokane, WA 99205 Neal Graeber: 327-9330 United Food & Commercial Workers No. 1439 1719 North Atlantic Spokane, WA 99205 Jim Millsap: 328-6090 United Steel Workers of America No. 329 1727 E. Francis Spokane, WA 99207 Jerry Miller: 483-1848 United Steel Workers of America No. 338 14015 E. Trent Spokane, WA 99216 Joe Thorp: 924-2650 Washington State Council of City, County Employees No. 2 222 W. Mission, Suite 30 Spokane, WA 99201 Randy Withrow: 328-2830 Washington Federal State Employees Council No. 28 400 S. Jefferson, Suite 109 Spokane, WA 99204 Tom Watson: 455-4422 Building Trades Council 5605 North Market Spokane, WA 99207 Frank Forrest: 483-2530 NOTE: Several other AFL-CIO unions are represented in Spokane, but do not have full-time offices.