Beyond ‘Brand X’ Unionism

By William Lucy

One of the core issues being discussed throughout our union is organizing and its importance to our future.

If you look through the pages of any AFSCME publication — local or national — these days, you will see “strategic targets,” “internal organizing” and other phrases that represent the powerful new organizing program of our union.

And while we must use every bit of collective knowledge and skill we have accumulated in this union over the years to continue to organize new workers, we cannot rely on that knowledge and skill alone to succeed.

We can have the best strategic plan and polished sales pitch, but without the product to go with it, it will come up short.

And while there is no doubt in my mind that AFSCME is the best union this country has every known, we can, and must, do more.

This is a time of great concern and a time of great challenge for our members and the people we seek to represent. And if we are to organize these workers and effectively represent their interests, we must understand the concerns and challenges they face.

In this period of great economic expansion, we continue to see the “rich getting richer” and the “poor getting poorer.” And we understand that there is a growing insecurity among those caught in the middle.

A key component in this economic growth is the continuing drive to privatize the public sector — health care, public works, water treatment, solid waste, employment security, corrections.

Wall Street’s prosperity is based on downsizing good jobs in the public sector and eliminating well-paying jobs in the private sector.

However, the working poor are not reaping the benefits of the current bullish market. In fact, the working poor are losing ground. As welfare reform measures start to take effect, millions of Americans are finding themselves without health care coverage, the skills to get a well-paying job or any type of support network.

Most of the people who seek our representation do not have a Wall Street nest egg to fall back on. They do not have a vision of their future that is secure. They are not sure their children will do as well as they have done. They are not sure they will have their job next week, next month, or next year.

Brothers and sisters, we are the perfect union for the workforce of today and the best hope of the workforce of the new millennium, because we have a proud history of fighting for working families and we have a vision and a concrete plan for confronting the challenges ahead.

But we cannot do this with “Brand X” unionism which is embodied by old union slogans from the 1920s like, “Vote for me and I will set you free.”

Instead, AFSCME must continue the tradition of leading the labor movement by becoming a militant crusade that will bring not only economic, but social and, yes, spiritual hope and healing to the workers of the 21st century. We must make ours an exciting, and proactive, brand of trade unionism. We must take our message of help and hope to every highway yard, every hospital and nursing home, every sewage treatment plant, every prison, every welfare office, and every office building.

We must bring our crusade to every worker who walks, talks, eats, sleeps and breathes. We must help them understand that there is a clear-cut advantage to being a part of this family we know as AFSCME.

We must let women in the workplace know that despite the fact that women only earn 79¢ for every $1.00 earned by men, unionized sisters are doing better — 38 percent better, and AFSCME women are doing even better than that.

We must let African-American workers know that unionized African Americans make 42 percent more than non-union workers.

We must let Latino workers know that unionized Latinos earn 52 percent more than non-unionized workers.

And while these facts may be persuasive, I am convinced they are not enough. Leaving “Brand X” unionism behind means that we offer workers more than dollars and cents. It means that we offer the power to extract respect from employers and to expect treatment with dignity.

It means that we must offer hope for a better life — just as we have done for the past 60 years. And there is no better union than AFSCME to do that.