Occupy and organised labour

Abstract

REPORT□ UNIONSANDTHE 'OCCUPY' MOVEMENTINTHE US Occupy and organised labour Occupyand the US labour movementmay need one another. Inthe week followingthe nationwide Occupy protests theAFL-CIO signed up a record25,000 recruits JULIA TOMASSETTI is isaphD student at UCLA Department of Sociology in Los Angeles The ment States relationship and has ranged Organised between from Labour easy the to Occupy in fraught, the United moveand mentand OrganisedLabourin the United Stateshas rangedfrom easyto fraught, and from casualtoengaged. The Occupymovement emerged on September 17,2011with a protest inManhattan's financial district . Themovement hadgestated during thesummermeetings of an international set of activists, including Indignados , ArabSpringactivists, and budget cutprotestors whohadbeencamping outsideofNewYorkCity Hall.Overthesummer, the activists beganpracticing 'general assemblies', the consensus-based,non-hierarchical method of deliberation and decision-making thatbecamean Occupyhallmark. InJuly, theCanadiananti-capitalist magazine Adbusters issuedtherallying callfor people to occupyWallStreet; on September 17, protestors setup camp.By October, therewere hundredsof Occupy encampments across the country. WhiletheUS Occupymovement seemed to someobservers to present a bewildering kaleidoscope of purposes, themovement has always focused on increasing inequality, money's corruptingpolitical influence, and theeconomicdestructionwrought byfinancial institutions. Although police clearedmosturbanencampmentsbetweenNovember andJanuary, Occupy brigadeshave continuedto physically occupy banklobbies,foreclosed homes,and schools. Occupy and Organised Labour Occupyat first receiveda mixedreception from manylabourleaders, whowereconcerned about publicly allying with whatthey felt might become a radicalfringe movement. Therewereevidentcultural and demographic differencesbetween Organised Labour and Occupy.Unionised workers tendtobe olderand holdconventional jobs;themostly younger OWS activists tendto be casualisedworkers who,for legaland institutional reasons,are oftenexcluded from unions. Over30 unions,including severalofthecountry 's largest, soon endorsedOccupyWall Street (OWS) and offered support. On October5,2011, thousands of members from the Transport Workers Union (TWU), Service Employees International Union(SEIU),UnitedFederation of Teachers, United AutoWorkers, andother unions marched withOWS in New York.Unionshave sinceparticipated in manyOccupymarches and rallies. Theyhavedonated cashandprovided protestors withamenities likeblankets, rainponchos, showerfacilities, first-aid tables, andflushots. Labourorganisations also participated in,and supported, Occupiersin civildisobedienceand direct action.Unionslobbiedand demonstrated againstOccupyevictions in New Yorkand Los Angeles.TWU bus drivers refusedto transport OWS arrestees. SEIU President MaryKayHenry was arrested withOWS activists intheOctober5 action.In New York,OWS and labour-affiliated groupshavecooperated inoccupying foreclosed homes. Likewise, Occupiershave brought theirtactic ofcreative disruption totheunionpicket line.In November, Occupiers joined forces with Teamsterswho worked as art handlersfor Sotheby's, an upscale artauctionhouse in New YorkCity. Sotheby's had lockedtheworkers out oftheir jobsinAugust. Occupiers interrupted the auctions, blocked the entrance,and trailed Sotheby's boardmembers. Unionleadersare taking heed ofwhatmakes theOWSmovement so popularandsalient. Some havebegunto adoptOWS tactics, including the confrontational disruption, extensive useofsocial media,and messaging of'the99 percent'. Affinity and Conflict Occupyand theUS labourmovement mayneed oneanother. Asa young movement, bothinterms ofitsrecent historical adventand age ofitsparticipants , Occupycould benefit from thelabour movement's organising experience, member networks , andorganisational infrastructure. Likewise, Occupy can contribute an egalitarian structure, strategic agility, and incorruptible socialcritique tothebureaucratic structure andoutlook ofmany unions.Occupy 's sweepinganalytical and active denunciation of inequality, financial speculation, andcorporate political influence - anditsability to shiftthe nationaldebate fromdeficitsto inequality - provides a context that couldenable unionsto mobilisearoundparticular organising, electoral, orpolicygoals.Unionscouldalso help unify andchannel thesocialconcerns enunciated byOccupyintoconcrete actionplans. Despite apparentdemographic, cultural, and political differences between unionmembers and Occupiers, themovement hashelpedtoswellthe ranks ofunionmembership intheUSandincrease unions' popular esteem. Intheweekfollowing the nationwide Occupyprotests inearly October, the AFL-CIO signedup a record 25,000recruits. The potential forsymbiosis also createsconflict . Occupy'spremise thatthesystem is fundamentally broken,and thatneither businessnor government leadersarewilling orable toaccede todemandsforitstransformation, is atoddswith manylabourleaders'concern withachieving the politically feasiblein theshortrun.Further, the Occupy perspective - an integrated critiqueof war, environmental degradation, globalisation, inequality, andcorporate greed - sometimes conflicts withunions'focuson protecting members. Forexample, several construction unionssupport theoil andgas industry's campaign forconstrucINTERNATIONAL union rights Page 22Volume 19Issue 1201 2 tionof theKeystone XL pipeline,and use the Occupyrhetoric of'the99 percent' to arguethat the projectwill create jobs. However,many Occupiersoppose thepipelineon thegrounds that itwilldamagetheenvironment and provide a relatively smallnumber oflow quality jobs. The legalframework ofUS unionisation tends to structure unions around narrowly defined enterprise bargaining unitsof full-time, permanent , direct employees. Itlimits unions'incentive andability toengageworker interests beyondthe privity of the contractual employment relationshipandgenerally leavesunderemployed, unemployed , andcasualised workers outside theunion constituency. The framework oftenaligns the concrete interests ofcorporations and unionsto theexclusion ofworker interests intheir capacitiesas residents, parents, consumers, etc. Similarly, Occupy'scommitment to non-partisanship conflictsat times with Organised Labour'sallegiance to the...