[Sosfbay-discuss] Labor Plank

[Wes Rolley]

Jim,
I noted that Warner's notes from plenary issue discussion said the following 
about the labor plank.

Platform plank #2  Rewrite of Unions statements in the Social Justice & Liveable
Communities Section of the GPCA Platform.

Comments by Jim Stauffer:  More concerns about specialized and unclear language
in this proposal.  Written comments need to be forwarded to the Platform
Committee.
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I will not be able to be at the County Meeting, but I would agree with you on 
this.  I have a lot of concerns with this item. They begin with the unstated 
assumption that all union activity is good and that all corporate activity is 
bad.  It is my experience, both as a union member and as a corporate manager 
that neither is the case.  I have seen the seamier side of union behavior and it 
is not pretty.  As I note below, any provision that does not allow the worker to 
opt out of being in a union that has become corrupt is not democratic.  I find 
that this is a good reference for democratic unionism: 
http://www.uniondemocracy.com/pdfs/Democracy.PDF
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Here are some specifics:

1.· Repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act and "right to work" laws that restrict the 
right to organize unions.

There are a lot of problems with the Taft-Hartley Act.  However, if a worker 
were to feel that their union were corrupt and did not want to belong to that 
union, under these cases the worker could be forced to join the union or quit. 
Union shop agreements form a financial  underpinning for corruption (e.g. 
Historical Teamsters and Longshoreman's unions).

3. · Legislation to allow all American based workers to join the independent 
union of their choice through a "card-check" sign-up procedure.

The term, independent union is undefined.  Does this imply only that the union 
is not a "company union"?  Does it imply the existence of many unions with the 
same bargaining rights for the same jobs at one company?

8.· The continued and secure existence of a fully government funded social 
security system.

While a valid social justice issue, it does not belong under the heading of a 
"union" plank.

16. · Legislation to facilitate workers and/or communities taking over closed 
plants and forming employee-owned businesses.

This may keep jobs in a community, but how is this a "union" isssue any more 
than it is a Sustainable Development issue.

B. Labor Organizing Strategies:

1.· The direct and democratic control of unions by their rank and file members.

This may alleviate some of my concerns about the structure of the union, but we 
can't even implement this within GPCA.

C. Labor Unions and the Environment:

While the goals stated here are worthy, the facts are that unions, in the 
interest of creating new, often ephemeral jobs, support some of the most 
environmentally objectionable projects.  In particular, I should mention the 
Teamsters Union support of all of the current proposals for offshore drilling, 
drilling in the ANWR, oil shale development, etc.  In a similar manner, all of 
the building trade unions consistently support the rampant expansion of 
development anywhere, everywhere, as long as there are carpenter, electrician, 
etc. jobs.  They continulally support the same politicians with their funds as 
the large scale developer and real estate interests.  This proposal does not 
address the development issues in any manner.  It is a first start at trying to 
prevent the jobs vs. environment conflicts, but it still needs a lot of work.




-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you 
are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
http://www.refpub.com/
Tel: 408.778.3024