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Feature
Story (continued) |
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Conversation
with
Enid Eckstein
AFL-CIO
Field Mobilization (MA) |
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| Free
to Speak ... Assemble ... Organize |
I work with the AFL-CIO Organizing Department
to help affiliated unions build a field component into their
organizing campaigns so that we bring together good labor
councils and community-religious coalitions. We want to figure
out how to shift the organizing climate so that it’s more
conducive to actually winning. So we’re trying to create
changes even before we’re able to enact major labor law
reform. We’re experimenting. We’ve had some success in
getting employers to agree to be neutral in organizing
campaigns.
We conducted some focus groups a couple of
years ago on this issue, and I found it fascinating. It was
just kind of amazing how off our language was. The public
doesn’t care a lot about "labor law." But they do
think that workers have the right to have a voice in the
workplace, and they understand that a union provides the basis
for doing that.
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
So I think talking about the right to have a
voice, to assemble, to engage in concerted action ... these
are fundamental rights. It’s all pointing to different ways
of thinking about "labor rights" that creates a
moral climate and moves us toward some international
standards.
I think some unions have really taken all this
in. They see that what we are looking for is community
standards — it’s not just about defending unionized
workers.
I like the theory laid out in the paper. I’m
very much a pragmatist, so I have to wonder if you could
actually get unions to use these theories. Because when you’re
organizing, you’re putting people’s lives on the line. And
until you know for sure that this is a good risk, you may not
want to do it. I think that any attempt to change the status
quo has to be part of a fairly large concerted effort. There
may have to be more of a critical mass of organizing campaigns
before we’ll see a sea change of support for this.
Unfortunately, if you look at organizing this
year, we’ve fallen off. In 1995-97, a lot of unions put more
resources into organizing. We saw some results of that in 1998
and 1999. But in ‘99, we had two victories that brought in a
couple hundred thousands workers — in Los Angeles and
Puerto Rico. So, by comparison, our numbers in 2000 are
considerably lower.
Next: A Conversation
with Jerry Fishbein ->
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Jill Furillo
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