
Issue No 16		04 June 1999

Review

Organising Our Future - What Use the US??

By Neal Towart - Labor Council Research Librarian

A new paper looks at what Australian unions can learn from the experiences of their American colleagues.

Barbara Pocock and John Wishart have a solid background in union issues and remain at the forefront of academics who are engaging with trade unions in attempts to revitalise and renew their organisational and membership base.

Pocock especially has written and researched a great deal about the role of women in trade unions - how to get them into unions and how to get them involved in running unions, a task she sees as essential for union survival.

The recent research paper Organising our Future: What Australian Unionists Can Learn from US Labour's Fight Back ( Research paper no. 9; Centre for Labour Research, Dept of Social Inquiry, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005) is another example of their seeking out possibilities for renewal. It is accessible to union members with little if any academic jargon and has lots of ideas of varying usefulness to Australian unionists.

With US union membership at around 15 per cent and a completely different industrial system (much more hostile historically to collective organisation, although with the current federal govt, we are trying to catch up) the question has to be asked - why look at the US experience? Pocock and Wishart do ask the question and set out their reasons at the beginning of the study.

Both the Australian and US movements must battle hard for their survival. In the US, with population growth as it is, the unions "must recruit 300,000 new members per year just to stand still, and one million if it is to grow by 1%". In 1997 they managed 385,000 new members, the first time for many years they haven't gone backwards.

However, the good reasons for studying the US, according to Pocock and Wishart, do lie firstly in the numerical size of the movement, with 16 million members. This provides great scope for diverse experiences providing insights in organising and recruitment methods. Also methods of survival in the face of employer thuggery and violence may be important in an increasingly hostile environment in Australia.

The second major reason is the role of the state in the US in directly acting against union organising efforts and strikes. Thirdly the American cultural hostility to collective action and very ingrained individualism which makes getting to first base a real battle. This individualism is an attitude seemingly taking a firmer hold in Australia. The authors insist that it is not part of the cultural cringe to look at US efforts because of the above factors. The US have had a longer term crisis in union membership and have a huge country with many different ways of approaching the problem. We do not have to copy their efforts, but that does not mean that we can't get a few tips and clues.

The paper is organised into ten case studies, all seeking to illustrate various aspects of organising. Examples here include the role of peak bodies (AFL-CIO) in helping individual unions and in diverting more of its budget into organising. Also important to much US organising is getting union community links happening and developing solid political partnerships. Corporate campaigns such as the one at Yale University for union recognition of graduate teachers are a further example. Staff alerted donors to the university about massive fund wastage, boycotted medical services provided by the university, and made direct visits on a individual basis to senior decision makers in the university to air their grievances.

Regional and local issues are an important focus for organising with unions working with community and religious groups in certain communities to develop local area plans. This raises the union profile and has been an important catalyst for the renewal of Labor Councils across the US. With regional areas in Australia often hard hit by large firm closures (eg Newcastle, Lithgow) this campaign focus can provide insights for Australia.

All case studies are well summed up and the lessons the authors see from them are summarised in each section. The authors also emphasis where campaigns have gone wrong, such as the ambitious (for the US) attempt to organise Los Angeles manufacturing workers across all industries rather than on the usual site by site basis.

This is a good read for union activists and those concerned with equity and justice in the workplace and in communities in Australia. We don't have to follow the exact tactics but fresh perspectives are welcome as unions face the challenges of survival and renewal.

View entire issue - print all of the articles!

Issue 16 contents

Interview: Opening Australia
Lindsay Tanner talks about new ideas, new policy and new politics in the Information Age.

Unions: An Educated Fightback
A visiting US trade unionist reveals how training better union delegates is the key to reversing the membership slide.

Legal: A Fair Case for Free-Rider Laws
The proposal to enable unions to charge non-members a service fee for negotiating enterprise agreements is consistent with the principle of freedom of association.

History: New Ideas in Labour History
See the latest from the May issue of Labour History, A Journal of Labour and Social History.

International: Tiananmen Square Ten Years On
We remember the massacre and the role that working people continue to play in fighting injustice.

Review: Organising Our Future - What Use the US??
A new paper looks at what Australian unions can learn from the experiences of their American colleagues.

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