Organizing: Our First Responsibility

By Susan Ellen Holleran

It’s the traditional — and vital — duty of union members to organize the unorganized.

Today everyone’s time seems stretched to the limit, and it’s difficult to make room for one’s own union activities — let alone help other workers organize.

"Why should we care about unionizing other workers?" members ask. Sylvia Twardowski has the answer: the power of numbers.

Now president of Illinois Local 1555 (Council 31), she led the recent organizing drive at her own workplace and then set out to spread the union gospel, often driving for hours to meet with other mental health direct-care staff.

After a string of organizing successes, Council 31 lobbied the state to add $1-an-hour to its appropriation for these workers, and the victory changed her life. She can now give up one of the three jobs she has worked for 11 years — letting her spend more time with her teen-aged children. She was even able to attend her daughter’s out-of-town softball tournament.

AFSCME members like Twardowski demonstrate the spirit on which AFSCME was founded — the spirit of bringing union protections to those who need them most.

FROM THE START. AFSCME’s founders knew there was safety — and power — in numbers. Organizing was a primary focus of the new International union from its first Convention in 1936. But organizing was an uphill battle. At the time, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) did not actively recruit members. It was primarily composed of craft unions that considered it an honor for workers to be accepted as members. The federation even opposed public employee unions.

Although the AFL eventually changed its policy and accepted AFSCME as an affiliate, it did not offer significant organizing support. Like the Little Red Hen, AFSCME realized that if it was going to grow, it would have to do the work itself. So it did.

Initially, AFSCME fought to establish civil service systems. Before, jobs in the public sector were considered political spoils: When a new party came to power, workers hired under the old regime would be forced out, so the new officials could repay their loyal supporters. There was no job security.

CONTRACT. Seeing that workers needed union contracts, AFSCME quickly turned its attention to bringing collective bargaining rights to public employees. It wasn’t easy. Existing labor laws did not cover government workers. In each jurisdiction, AFSCME had to win the right to bargain.

In 1939, a Philadelphia sanitation strike led by William J. McEntee resulted in AFSCME’s first collectively bargained contract in a major city. Thirty years later, William’s son, Gerald, headed up Pennsylvania’s collective bargaining campaign that brought enabling legislation and then a major, statewide organizing blitz, resulting in 70,000 new members.

That system set the pattern by which AFSCME grew to 1.3 million members in the mid-1990s. Successful collective bargaining campaigns were waged in such states as New York, Illinois, Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa, Ohio and Indiana. We kept growing as other unions were losing membership.

But new strategies were needed.

Although AFSCME had won public-employee bargaining rights in half the states, the struggle had been long and hard, and prospects were limited in the remaining states. In addition, by the 1990s privatization was taking a major toll on the public sector.

FOLLOW THE WORK. Elected officials in many jurisdictions had been sold on the idea that they could save money and escape responsibility by privatizing tasks that city, county and state workers had traditionally done. AFSCME members were losing jobs to privatization or, in some cases, being moved with their jobs to the private sector — losing income and benefits in the process.

It was time to follow the work. AFSCME’s leadership began analyzing industries, especially those with large numbers of public workers. The union focused on fields like health care, child care, home care, food service, higher education and mental health. We understood these workers’ needs and concerns. In many cases, former AFSCME members energetically spread the union gospel at their newly privatized jobs.

Taking up the cause, AFSCME was able to raise pay and benefits for low-wage workers providing essential services. These increases brought an additional advantage: They made privatization less attractive. Privateers profit by keeping employee costs down. Raiders had less incentive to court public employers, so AFSCME jobs were safer.

NEW ATTITUDE. As most of the world worried about the Y2K bug, AFSCME was planning how to strengthen the union for the future. The organizing spirit that had been AFSCME’s trademark needed revitalization. Delegates to the 1998 Convention adopted a far-reaching proposal to bring more human and financial resources to the organizing process.

That commitment has had an impact. Since 1998, we have brought 70,000 new members into the union.

Where in the past AFSCME would take on one or two major organizing projects at a time, we are currently conducting them in 25 states.

After reaching a plateau in the 1990s, AFSCME is again growing. And just as a satisfied customer is the best advertising, an active member is the best organizer. As we look to AFSCME’s future as a strong union, leading organized labor deeper into the 21st century, you and your co-workers will be taking the bold steps that will create that strength.

Why Unionize?

Do you need some proof of organizing’s value? Here is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ union/non-union comparison of hourly wages and benefits, published in March 2001. Having a union can change a working family’s standard of living. Wages are higher, the benefits that provide support during illness and old age are doubled and tripled. Add the value of having a voice at work, and you quickly see that a union doesn’t cost — it pays!

Growth in AFSCME Membership

Union Density

Most of us understand how union representation improves our own work situation: better wages, benefits, conditions. But the percentage of unionized workers in a particular job or geographic area influences the standard for everyone.

Economists call the concept "union density": the impact of the rise and fall of unionization rates. Between 1978 and 1997, the percentage of workers represented by a union was almost halved, dropping from 24 percent to 13 percent.

That fall stemmed in large part from employer hostility and the loss of unionized industrial jobs. It seriously eroded workers’ wages, including a 21 percent drop in the buying power of the minimum wage.

Increased union density also brings increased political and lobbying power. Community and worker safety nets benefit from labor’s ability to speak out for employees’ rights.

In 2000, the maximum unemployment-compensation benefits in the 10 states with the highest union density averaged $365 a week: $100 more than the average for the lowest 10. The spread for workers’ compensation is even greater: $621 for the top 10; and $459 for the lowest.

SOURCES: The State of Working America 2000/2001, by Lawrence Mishel, et al.Common Sense Economics, AFL-CIO — available online at www.aflcio.org.