Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for February 8, 2007 STATE OF THE UNION

From the Pioneer Press...

Illinois a union state, but numbers shrink

By KAREN SHOFFNER Staff Writer

The workforce in Illinois is more unionized than the nation as a whole, but like the nation, union membership among private-sector workers is declining here, too.

In Illinois, unionized workers made up 16.9 percent of the workforce in 2005, according to an estimate from the Union Membership and Coverage Database. For the nation, the percentage was 12 percent last year and 12.5 in 2005, according to a January report from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Illinois posted a modest gain in the total number of union members over the last couple of years, going from 965,000 in 2005 to 979,000 members in 2006. The increase was not driven, however, by private sector jobs.

"I think we can attribute that (increase) to public-sector jobs," said Beth Spencer, communications director of the Illinois AFL-CIO.

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Card-check boosts public sector unions

Spencer said that "card-check" legislation, which Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law 2003, provides that if 50 percent or more of public-sector workers sign union authorization cards, recognition of the union by the employer is automatic.

Steve Smith, a spokesman with the national AFL-CIO, said that of the 12 percent of union members nationally, 52 percent are in the private sector and 48 are in the public sector.

"It's more the decline of the private-sector numbers that's closing the gap," Smith said.

In Illinois, the percentage of unionized public-sector workers is far higher than in the private sector. According to estimates found at the online Union Membership and Coverage Database, 11.8 percent of Illinois private-sector workers were union members in 2005, down from 12.1 percent in 2004. Nearly half -- about 48.5 percent -- of all public-sector workers were union members in 2005 and 2004. The percentage for public sector workers in 2003 was 49.8 percent. The estimates are based on statistics compiled from the Census Bureau's monthly Current Population Survey.

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Jobs grow faster than union membership

Carl Rosen, president of the United Electrical Workers' District 11 in Chicago, acknowledges there has been some decline in the numbers.

"But the bigger impact is that the workforce has gotten bigger. The number of members hasn't kept up with that," Rosen said.

Union representatives offered several reasons for the decline or stagnation in union membership. Among them is the automation of many manufacturing jobs and their migration to southern states and overseas where unions are not prevalent, as well as anti-union sentiment by the federal government.

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Reagan and unions

Rosen said presidential administrations since Ronald Reagan have "encouraged businesses to do whatever they can to avoid having unions."

Rosen points to Reagan's busting of the air traffic controllers union, Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization in 1981 as the major turning point in relations between labor and management.

"Ever since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, he gave notice to companies that they could do the same thing with impunity," Rosen said.

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Hostile environment

Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and industrial relations at the University of Illinois-Chicago, dates unions' troubles earlier than Rosen, saying the political environment has been hostile to workers' right to organize, guaranteed in the National Labor Relations Act, since the late 1960s. He added that labor laws, as interpreted over the past 30 years, have not protected workers' rights.

"It's pretty easy to use the law to stop organizing," Bruno said.

Corporations such as Wal-Mart have been aggressive in quashing attempts at organizing.

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Low-pay workers ignored

"And you have to lay some of this at the doorstep of unions. They've been uninspiring in their attempts to organize. They really stopped doing grassroots organizing. They didn't really appreciate that the part-time, low-paying jobs would be the dominant jobs," Bruno said.

Rosen of the United Electrical Workers added that corruption played a part in unions' decline.

"A portion of the movement fell into, if not outright corruption, but into a go-along-to-get-along thing," Rosen said.

Bruno described the decline in union membership as a steady decrease rather than a precipitous drop.

"You have got your finger in the dike. It's not a rushing water, but a trickle. It's really quite incredible that the number hasn't dropped further," he said.

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Working families suffer

Stewart Acuff, organizing director for the national AFL-CIO, attributes a number of troubling statistics -- from the number of Americans living without health care to the number of people living in poverty and the diminished spending power of minimum wage -- to the decline of union membership among private-sector workers.

"It's a huge concern. Union density has been declining, therefore the strength of working families has been declining," Acuff said.

But Bruno said unions lately seem to have more dynamism and creativity when it comes to organizing. One strategy unions have adopted is to avoid the National Labor Relations Board election process.

Acuff said that fewer than 20 percent of new unionized workers have organized through the NLRB process.

Labor law gives employers the right to insist on elections before a union is recognized for collective bargaining. This sometimes causes delays and often involves intense campaigning.

"Going through the NLRB process allows the employer to game the system. The NLRB has almost treated union organizing as if it were a criminal activity," Bruno said.

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Going around NLRB

Rosen, of the United Electrical Workers, said that instead of organizing company by company, unions now target an industry or occupation as a whole, such as hotel workers and janitors.

Some form of card-check recognition has already been used successfully to organize workers in recent years. A few years ago, for example, UNITE HERE organized the majority of its new members through card-check. The union represents workers in the apparel and textile industries, industrial laundries, hotels, casinos, restaurants, food service and airport concessions.

Employees trying to organize their workplace often face intimidation and the threat of being fired, too. According to a report released in early January by the Center for Economic Policy Research, about 1 in 5 union organizers can expect to be fired from their jobs. The probability of a pro-union worker being fired -- a 1 in 53 chance -- is far greater today than the rate at the end of the 1990s, when it was only 1 in 87. The report also noted that the number of successful union elections has declined significantly, partly as a result of the increase in illegal firings.

"Losing your job is a pretty powerful disincentive to organize. Labor relations in the U.S. have always been more hostile and violent than anywhere in the world.," Bruno said.

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Federal law eyed

One effect of the change in control in Congress, from the Republicans to the Democrats, could be legislation making it easier for private- and public-sector workers to organize. The Employee Free Choice Act, like the card-check legislation in Illinois, would make union recognition automatic if 50 percent or more workers sign union authorization cards. The federal legislation, which hasn't been introduced yet, would also enhance penalties for employers who punish union organizers would face and stipulates that corporations cannot run from unions, the AFL-CIO's Acuff said.

"If a contract agreement can't be reached within the first year, the union can go to arbitration," Acuff said.

Assuming Congress passes pro-labor legislation, it could still face a presidential veto.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 3 million businesses and organizations, opposes the Employee Free Choice Act. In a statement on its Web site, the chamber said the card-check method strips employees "of the democratic rights and protections provided by the secret ballot election process."

But union representatives see the legislation not only as a way to boost membership, but also to enhance working families' quality of life, something they say unions have done historically in the U.S.

"Unions have raised the standard of living in this country. The fact that living standards are stagnant or falling for the last two decades is because of the decline in unions," Rosen said.

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For union organizers, Wal-Mart is nut that cannot be cracked

By KAREN SHOFFNER Staff Writer

Wal-Mart, the largest private U.S. employer, has proven to be a tough nut to crack for union organizers.

"Wal-Mart is immune (to unionization) because it has been a bottom-line mission to stay union free," said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and industrial relations at the University of Illinois-Chicago. David Tovar, Wal-Mart's director of media relations, said Wal-Mart is not against unions and they might be OK for some businesses, but Wal-Mart doesn't see a need for unions in its stores.

"We believe there is no need for a third party to come between our associates and our managers," Tovar said.

The retail giant hasn't hesitated to act to keeping its stores union-free. In early 2005, it closed a store in Quebec after employees voted to form a union. At the time, Wal-Mart officials reportedly said the store was unprofitable anyway and union demands would have forced it to hire more workers.

If the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union had succeeded in negotiating a contract for the Quebec store's employees, it would have been the first Wal-Mart store in North America with a union contract.

Tim Drea, legislative director for UFCW's retail local in Illinois, said one of the problems with organizing Wal-Mart is turnover.

"The cashier jobs just turn over constantly. Pay is low; the benefits are non-existent. The one thing Wal-Mart doesn't want is for people to think of it as a career," Drea said.

Another obstacle for organizers has been the effort Wal-Mart puts into dissuading its associates from forming unions if the corporation hears that organizing is afoot.

"They have the most sophisticated anti-union program in the country. If they think that a store is trying to organize, they fly their union busters out there," Drea said.

Tovar said Wal-Mart educates its associates about the impact of having a union in its stores.

"We explain how our business model operates. We tell them that we're focused on offering merchandise at the lowest possible price. We explain to them how unionization would hurt our business model and our associates have rejected unions in this country. They realize it's not in their best interests," Tovar said.

However, the story is different in some other countries where labor laws are different. Some Wal-Mart stores in China are unionized, Tovar said.

Drea said the union has shifted its focus from trying to organize Wal-Mart to educating the public about Wal-Mart's business and labor practices.