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Issue No. 149 | 23 August 2002 |
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Our Historical Mission
Interview: Something Smells Cole-Watch: Credibility Crisis Unions: Union Cities Industrial: Lib Men Gang Up Against Working Mums History: Eureka! East Timor: Don�t Rob Their Future Review: Black Chicks Say It All Poetry: Self Regulation
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard Week in Review Bosswatch
 Shit SheetsSusan's Soccer Outrage
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Unions Union CitiesBy Jim Marr
**************** Silicon Valley, USA. Home to computer geeks and a bunch of multis living off the fat of the land, right? Not according to Labor Council campaign coordinator, Adam Kerslake, who has just returned from a US study trip fired with enthusiasm for the "community unionism" with which American workers are taking the fight to big business. Kerslake saw the principle, or variations on it, in California, Seattle, Washington DC, New York and Colorado. But it was in in the seeminly-unlikely terrain of Silicon Valley, about an hour south of San Fransisco, where it rung most bells for his work in NSW. Perhaps, he concedes, because the Valley's "hourglass economy" so resembles our own. The region is home to a substantial number of fulltime professionals who do very nicely out of the new economy; its middle class is in rapid decline; while there is a growing number of essentially service workers - teachers, cleaners, police, bus drivers, clerks, waiters etc - living near or below the poverty line. The top of the pile, of course, set the prices - from burgers to real estate and, more and more, those outside that group struggle to survice. Anyone notice any similarites with Sydney in the first decade of the new millenium? Well, here's something else to throw into the mix. The labour movement was losing membership and influence at a rapid rate of knots until South Bay Labor Council executive officer, Amy Dean, introduced "community unionism" in the mid-90s. "It's such an interesting place because what they are about is new economy organising," Kerslake says. "There is plenty of money in Silicon Valley but, just like here, it doesn't flow through the community. "The South Bay Labor Council has set about challenging that. "Here, busines drives everything. Over there, they have sat down and worked out a viable alternative." In practical terms, Kerslake identifies four areas in which the South Bay Labor Council works differently, and more effectively, than its Australian counterparts. - Research: There is a huge emphasis on research. South Bay, for example, employs something like six fulltime researchers who study community, social and economic issues in depth and analyse alternatives. It is their work, Kerslake says, that underpins campaigns which follow. - Relationships Between Unions and Local Communities: "At its best, the community and labour movement are virtually indistinguishable," Kerslake says. - Politics: Based on research, the council develops economic, social and environmental policies and pitches them to local, district, state and federal candidates. Those that sign on, irrespective of affiliation, win the campagin backing of activist networks. Essentially, the Council sets the political agenda, rather than being tied up in Byzantine squabbles over party rules. - Industrial Campaigning. Kerslake has one word for this, "sophisticated". Their research, he says, allows them to know the target's weakest point, whether it be with a supplier, a supplier's supplier, or some other associate. Consumer boycotts are used as frequently as direct industrial action. - So effective has Dean's organisation been in spreading its influence, it is now recognised by generally conservative local newspapers as not just a positive force but a leading advocate for community development. She writes columns for the San Jose Mercury News and features, regularly, on its news pages. Her organisation's research, campaigning and advocacy was central to getting Silicon Valley workers covered by the highest mimimum rates in the States. More often, though, it focuses of the quality of life away from the workplace. While Kerslake was there the South Bay Labor Council was driving a campaign for children's health insurance. The issue is one where American and Australian attitudes are poles apart because, essentially, US insurance companies have won the propoganda battle hands down. Thus, better-off Americans pay a big slice of their incomes for health insurance and the less fortunate, facing hospital, either go into years of debt or die. The Council recognised widespread public antagonism to universal medical care so set its sights on winning benefits for the region's children, holding family picnics and galvanising a raft of parents, school and community organisations into the campaign. It has led or supported environmental, planning and public transport campaigns that have changed the shape of the region's politics. Candidates endorsing Labor Council programs have been elected to district, state and federal legislatures. Dean, herself, has described the core role of quality research thus: "Our research contributes to the development of a Community Economic Blueprint for the Silicon Valley which reflects our conviction that the community and its values must drive development, and that empowered people can create a vision for public policy that reflects social and economic wellbeing more comprehensively than traditional business-driven values." Kerslake said that from his experience the change away from traditional unionism appeared to be working. "By taking up community issues, even with low union density, they have changed the way in which unions are seen," he explained. "They have effectively positioned business as the third party interest and exposed its agenda." Kerslake says community unionism has given practical effect to the famous call from the George Meaney Centre's Andy Banks for every campaign to be "waged in the court of public opinion". Back home, he has set himself the formidable task of convincing Australian unionists, not yet as despearate as their American counterparts, that they should change tack before it is forced on them.
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