American Federation Of Labor-Congress Of Industrial Organizations Research Articles

Beliefs and trade union support for trade liberalisation in the US and the UK: the AFL-CIO and the TUC compared

This article applies an interpretive approach to behaviour to explain why the United States’ American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) has opposed free trade agreements, whereas the British Trade Union Congress (TUC) has endorsed them and why the AFL-CIO shifted its position on trade liberalisation around 1970. The AFL-CIO has opposed FTAs because it views past costs of trade liberalisation as excessive and believes that FTAs do not protect workers enough against surges in imports. The British TUC has accepted FTAs and the enlargement of the EU because it sees no economic alternative to open markets. On a substantive level, the article describes how the US and the British trade union confederations have approached trade liberalisation and FTAs. On an analytical level, the article emphasises the autonomy of individual and group beliefs with respect to structures and with respect to dominant ideas and therefore the need to examine these beliefs when explaining behaviour.

Interrogating the interaction of race, gender, and class within U.S. labor movement revitalization efforts

Synopsis This article engages the subject of labor movement ‘revitalization’ in the United States (U.S.), and considers the integrated challenge of building the representation and leadership base of females of color in labor organizations. The project methodology draws on participant data gathered from the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) Union Summer program — a national campaign that brought mostly college student interns to work on campaigns throughout the U.S. beginning in 1996. The author finds that the AFL-CIO was unable to maintain longer-term commitment or ‘buy-in’ from most activists of color as subsequent labor movement actors. Furthermore, working class females generally, and working class females of color particularly, were very under-represented among those retained as emergent activists. The study highlights the need for strenuous consideration of the racial and gender dynamics entrenched in labor movement culture.

‘Labor is back?’: The AFL-CIO during the presidency of John J. Sweeney, 1995–2009

This article assesses the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) during the presidency of John J. Sweeney, which lasted from 1995 until 2009. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including press accounts and the AFL-CIO's own papers, it provides one of the first scholarly assessments of the entire Sweeney presidency. Sweeney won office in the first contested election in the AFL-CIO's history, and he came into power promising to revitalize the Federation, which is the largest labor federation in the Western world. Under Sweeney, the AFL-CIO invested an unprecedented amount of resources into both organizing and political mobilization, two key areas. In the early years of his presidency, Sweeney oversaw some important gains, particularly in the organizing arena, but the 2000 presidential election proved to be a turning point. After 2000, Sweeney's reforms were undermined primarily by external factors, particularly mounting corporate opposition, deindustrialization, and a hostile political climate, although internal resistance and division also played a role. As a result, a major campaign to secure labor law reform fell short, and union density continued to decline, yet the rate of decline was slower than it had been in the 1980s and early 1990s. Overall, although the results of Sweeney’s efforts were mixed, the important role that the AFL-CIO played in electing Barack Obama partly justified Sweeney’s emphasis on political mobilization.

Organizing for partnership: the influence of the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organisations on the British Trades Union Congress 1995–2005

The influence of the ‘organizing model’ of trade unionism developed in America by the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) on strategies to rebuild British trade unionism is often remarked. Scholars typically distinguish between adversarial organizing and collaborative partnership with employers as competing roads to union revitalization. This article demonstrates that the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) borrowed organizing principles, techniques and animating aphorisms from America, but not a model of trade unionism. The novelty of organizing lay more in its orchestration and recycling of familiar ideas than in its originality. In the hands of conservative leaders, organizing and partnership are not necessarily distinctive approaches. In Britain, as in America, organizing was proposed as a means to achieve partnership, not to prosecute conflict between capital and labour or create more democratic unions. It proved unsuccessful because of lack of resources, employer resistance and New Labour's unwillingness to provide a sufficiently pro-union public policy.

Labor in the Forgotten 1970s

Rebel Rank and Tile: Labor Militancy and Revolt from Below During the Long 1970s, edited by Aaron Brenner, Robert Brenner, and Cal Winslow. New York, NY: Verso, 2010. 408pp. $29.95 paper. ISBN: 9781844671748. The dominant U.S. labor federation over the last century, the American Federation of Labor, has experienced multiple internal and external challengers to its favored for mat of business unionism. These include the American Labor Union (ALU, 1902 1904), the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, 1905-1924, date of effective opera tion), the Trade Union Educational League (TUEL, 1920-1929), the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL, 1929-1934), the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO, 1937-1955), and, most recently, Change to Win (2005 present). These challengers provide fodder for interesting examinations that probe the possibilities for a different (namely, more progressive) type of labor movement in the United States. Yet in the end, it has been the AFL (which merged with the CIO in 1955 to form the American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organiza tions (AFL-CIO)) that persisted. Many stud ies of the two largest challengers—the IWW and CIO—have sought to uncover the fac tors involved in their success. Fewer studies chronicle the ALU, TUEL and TUUL. Fewer still call attention to the rebellions of the 1970s.

WHY LABOR IMPERIALISM? AFL–CIO'S FOREIGN POLICY LEADERS AND THE DEVELOPING WORLD

Arguing that the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and then after 1955, the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL‐CIO), have sought to dominate labor organizations globally, this article establishes this theoretically as “labor imperialism.” The essay then asks: why do labor leaders engage in labor imperialism? This essay examines past efforts to explain labor imperialism, and finds none of them sufficient. It suggests that this labor imperialism is based on an ideological approach. To test this hypothesis, it examines Labor's foreign policy under AFL and then AFL–CIO presidents Gompers, Meany, Kirkland, and Sweeney, and argues that the hypothesis that Labor's imperialism is based on an ideological construct is confirmed. Further, it identifies the ideological construct on which it is based as American Nationalism. It argues that efforts to challenge labor's imperialism must specifically challenge the American nationalism upon which it is based.

THE PROGRESSIVE QUANDARY ABOUT SEIU: A TALE OF TWO LETTERS TO ANDY STERN

The terrain of “progressive labor” in the U.S. has shifted dramatically in recent years. The two million‐member Service Employees International Union—long associated with the remaking of labor as a force for social justice—has become embroiled in a series of controversies that have alienated past campus, community, and political allies. A union that once commanded almost automatic support in left‐liberal academic circles now finds many “friends of labor” arrayed against it, rhetorically at least, and in some cases, actively assisting organizational rivals such as UNITE HERE and the new National Union of Healthcare Workers. The following article examines the recent history of the labor‐intellectual alliance that emerged in the mid‐1990s, in response to changes in the national American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL‐CIO) leadership. It assesses the current state of relations between labor‐oriented academics and key unions associated with the Change To Win coalition that split from the AFL‐CIO in 2005.

Unions in crisis?: the future of organized labor in America

Unionism in the United States was quite successful during and after World War II, especially during the golden years of American capitalism (1947-73) as workers' wages increased quite dramatically in a number of industries. For example, average hourly earnings for workers in meatpacking rose 114% between 1950 and 1965, those in steel 102%, in rubber tires by 96%, and in manufacturing 81%. At the same time as union members' wages were increasing, union membership was declining. Yet, the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) argued that organizing new members was not a priority. By concentrating on the existing membership and bread-and-butter issues, and not organizing new members, unionism could not deal with the attack on the social contract by employers and the government beginning in the United States in the late 1970s. However, while many people are claiming that organized labor is a dinosaur, Schiavone argues that a strong union movement is needed now more than ever. Unionism in the United States was quite successful during and after World War II, especially during the golden years of American capitalism (1947-73) as workers' wages increased quite dramatically in a number of industries. For example, average hourly earnings for workers in meatpacking rose 114% between 1950 and 1965, those in steel 102%, in rubber tires by 96%, and in manufacturing 81%. At the same time as union members' wages were increasing, union membership was declining. Yet, the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) argued that organizing new members was not a priority. By concentrating on the existing membership and bread-and-butter issues, and not organizing new members, unionism could not deal with the attack on the social contract by employers and the government beginning in the United States in the late 1970s. Following that attack, there was a significant decline in U.S. workers' wages and conditions in real terms, and there was a corresponding decline in union membership. However, while many people are claiming that organized labor is a dinosaur, Schiavone argues that a strong union movement is now needed more than ever. If unions make major changes as outlined in this book, the U.S. labor movement may regain some of its strength. By fighting for workplace (such as higher wages) and non-workplace issues (such as the fight for adequate childcare or against racism), unions in America and Canada that embraced what Schiavone calls social justice unionism have improved society for all. On purely bread-and-butter issues, these unions have achieved better collective bargaining agreements than their rival mainstream unions, as well as organizing more new workers per capita. How much strength organized labor will regain by embracing social justice unionism is uncertain, but it is a beginning.

Organization theory and stages of decline: the case of the afl-cio, 1955-2005

Despite the appeal of studying successful organizations, valuable tools have also been developed by social scientists for understanding organizations that fail. This study applies one such tool − a model of stages of decline − to the case of the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations), an organization that has arguably been in decline for decades. The AFL-CIO is an interesting case due to the lack of agreement among key constituencies about the appropriate criteria for measuring organizational performance. Reformers and conservatives have struggled over this issue, each viewing the conflict over performance criteria as crucial in determining who will ultimately control the organization. As the AFL-CIO has moved through successive stages of decline, struggle over the organizational mission has grown increasingly intense, finally leading to the exit of major constituencies. This study confirms the value of the concept of stages of decline, and underscores the role of internal politics, especially in a non-profit organization, in setting the criteria for evaluating performance.

Between a River and a Mountain: The AFL-CIO and the Vietnam War by Edmund F. Wehrle

190 Michigan Historical Review unions offered security above all else. As the progressive arm of the Democrats from World War II through the late 1960s, the labor movement, centered especially in theMidwest and led by unions such as the United Auto Workers, continued its educational mission yet did so inways thatmoved farther away from Gompers's voluntarism. Sinyai's analysis of the changing meaning of civic education in the American labor movement rests primarily on the views of union leaders. Although references are made in places to the political behavior of specific unions, Sinyai's arguments would have benefited from greater attention to developments at the local union level. How did local unions' "schools of democracy" reflect the views of union leaders? How did the rank and file's political behaviors impact union leaders' views? Still, Sinyai's book offers an important perspective on the vital contributions of labor unions to American political culture. Wilson J.Warren, Department of History Western Michigan University Edmund F. Wehrle. Between a River and aMountain: TheAFL-CIO and the Vietnam War. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. Pp. 320. Bibliography. Drawing. Index. Notes. Photographs. Paper, $25.95. In Between a River and aMountain, Edmund F. Wehrle demonstrates that the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and later the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) were deeply and integrally involved in the Vietnam War. The relationship between the American labor federations and Vietnam began shortly after the Second World War. The AFL saw its postwar mission in the world as advancing free trade unionism. Ideally, independent unions were advocates for worker and human rights. They were also proponents of full-employment pohcies and vigorously anticommunist. In other words, the AFL and later the AFL-CIO sought to recreate themselves around the world. Initially, the AFL's foreign-pohcy endeavors languished. But in the late 1940s, the United States government offered a helping hand. In a Faustian bargain that Wehrle states significantly weakened the AFL CIO in the long term, the federation took the money. In return, by the late 1950s the AFL-CIO had become an international force supporting anticommunist labor movements around the world and in particular in Vietnam. The AFL-CIO did not create the Vietnamese labor movement. Book Reviews 191 Its roots were in the 1920s when Vietnamese workers sought to fight oppression in the factories and colonialism at the same time. In the 1940s two Vietnamese union leaders?Tran Quoc Buu and Gilbert Jouan? forged the Vietnamese Confederation of Labor (CVTC, later renamed the CVT). The CVTC and the CVT had a difficult relationship with the South Vietnamese government. Like the AFL and the AFL-CIO, the Vietnamese federation struggled to remain an independent "third force." Eventually its alliances with both the South Vietnamese dictators and the Americans compromised its position. Stuck between those forces, the CVT became "pinched between a river and amountain" (p. 4), and the Vietnamese labor movement ultimately failed to forestall the political, economic, and military disasters that subsequendy occurred in South Vietnam. Losing the war inVietnam also contributed to the downfall of the AFL-CIO, as George Meany's unmovable stance on the war shattered the United States labor movement. Between a River and aMountain is easily one of the best books that I have read in a long time. Wehrle's narrative is engaging and hvely, and his story is compelling. One would hope that more historians would follow the path that he has blazed and investigate the relationships between the United States labor movement and the world. Andrew E. Kersten University ofWisconsin-Green Bay David K. Wiggins, ed. Out of the Shadows: A Biographical History of African American Athletes. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2006. Pp. 500. Bibhographical essay. Index. Notes. Photographs. Cloth, $34.95. Out of the Shadows: A Biographical History of African American Athletes offers a welcome addition to the field of sports history. Respected historian David K. Wiggins has collected nineteen biographical essays that investigate how sports and sports figures have reflected racial struggles inAmerican society throughout the twentieth century. Among the well-crafted essays from awide array of sports scholars, readers will find familiar names, such...

Schools of Democracy: A Political History of the American Labor Movement by Clayton Sinyai

Book Reviews 189 Clayton Sinyai. Schools ofDemocracy: A Political History of the American Labor Movement. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2006. Pp. 292. Bibliography. Index. Notes. Cloth, $55.00; paper, $22.50. When Alexis de Tocqueville lauded America's repubhcan traditions in the 1830s, he applauded the young nation's flourishing voluntary associations that promoted civic education. Clayton Sinyai's political history of American labor unions emphasizes how workers made their organizations into "schools of democracy" (p. 3) that hkewise fostered civic education. Schools ofDemocracy draws upon a wide knowledge of secondary literature to iUuminate the union movement's contributions to American political culture. The American Federation of Labor (AFL), which many labor historians have castigated as hidebound and unimaginative, emerges as courageous and visionary, while the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), typically seen as innovative and open-minded, is portrayed as having initially benefited in terms of growth from its rehance on government support, but as having ultimately been hobbled by its dependence on that support. Sinyai's point of departure is the nineteenth-century skilled craftsman's desire for independence and protection of craft skills. The most successful craftsmen created autonomous labor organizations that "achieved remarkable levels of control over their jurisdiction" (p. 30), such as the International Typographers Union. Samuel Gompers and the AFL stressed the importance of voluntarism, meaning that trade unions' independence from both business and government was essential. Sinyai explains that Gompers realized that rejection of government support during the Progressive Era "virtually doomed the great masses of industrial workers to disorganization, dependence, and poverty" (p. 102). In fact, Gompers imphcidy argued that the majority of industrial workers were not capable of exercising the type of democratic self-rule necessary for a successful independent union movement. Yet the AFL's continued neglect of industrial workers, those who were either unskilled or semiskilled machine tenders, irritated many labor leaders after World War I. By the 1930s, several AFL affiliates moved in the direction of industrial unionism and recruited new members based on place of employment rather than possession of craft skills. Crucially, the CIO's separation from the AFL and its explosive growth in the 1930s and 1940s depended on its alliance with progressive Democrats. In this sense, the CIO unions were "creatures of the government" (p. 163). Phihp Murray and Walter Reuther's efforts steered the CIO toward a new type of civic education that stressed that employers treat workers fairly and impartially; 190 Michigan Historical Review unions offered security above all else. As the progressive arm of the Democrats from World War II through the late 1960s, the labor movement, centered especially in theMidwest and led by unions such as the United Auto Workers, continued its educational mission yet did so inways thatmoved farther away from Gompers's voluntarism. Sinyai's analysis of the changing meaning of civic education in the American labor movement rests primarily on the views of union leaders. Although references are made in places to the political behavior of specific unions, Sinyai's arguments would have benefited from greater attention to developments at the local union level. How did local unions' "schools of democracy" reflect the views of union leaders? How did the rank and file's political behaviors impact union leaders' views? Still, Sinyai's book offers an important perspective on the vital contributions of labor unions to American political culture. Wilson J.Warren, Department of History Western Michigan University Edmund F. Wehrle. Between a River and aMountain: TheAFL-CIO and the Vietnam War. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. Pp. 320. Bibliography. Drawing. Index. Notes. Photographs. Paper, $25.95. In Between a River and aMountain, Edmund F. Wehrle demonstrates that the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and later the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) were deeply and integrally involved in the Vietnam War. The relationship between the American labor federations and Vietnam began shortly after the Second World War. The AFL saw its postwar mission in the world as advancing free trade unionism. Ideally, independent unions were advocates for worker and human rights. They were also proponents of full-employment pohcies and vigorously anticommunist. In other words, the AFL and...

Cold War in British Guiana 1953 – 66: The Trade Union Dimension

The involvement of Anglo-American trade unions in British Guiana was deep and decisive. The British Trades Union Congress (BTUC) was determined that there should be no Marxist government in British Guiana. The American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO) intervened by putting agents on the ground, put the head of the British Guiana TUC in its pay, and cooperated closely with the US government and its intelligence agencies to bring down the government of the late Dr Cheddi Jagan between 1961 and 1964. The evidence of this involvement is to be found in the archives of the BTUC and in the George Meaney memorial archives in Washington. In this essay we shall open up some of this evidence, which has hardly been touched upon in the literature to date. Before doing so we shall briefly look at British Guiana as a cold war theatre during the period under discussion.

THE FAILURE OF ORGANIZING, THE NEW UNITY PARTNERSHIP, AND THE FUTURE OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Organizing has been at the heart of union strategy discussions for twenty years; it became labor's top priority with the election of John Sweeney as president of the American Federation of Labor‐Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL‐CIO) in 1995. However, recent data on membership confirm that union fortunes continue to decline. In response to the deepening crisis, five major unions formed the New Unity Partnership (NUP) in 2003. These unions argue that there is a fundamental weakness in the movement's structure that must be addressed. They call for consolidation through mergers, and for open debate on the role for the AFL‐CIO. There is open resistance to the restructuring proposals, and there are practical barriers to implementation. The NUP unions themselves have not been able to achieve increased density on a national scale. In spite of skepticism and resistance, the dramatic nature of the NUP framework at least broaches the notion that organizational transformation is required.

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A Alca e as novas alianças sindicais Norte-Sul

Apoiado em entrevista com dirigente sindical e em artigos publicados em jornais de Washington (EUA), além de outras fontes bibliográficas, o texto examina os rumos que as organizações da sociedade civil das Américas, em particular as centrais sindicais, vêm trilhando nos últimos anos. Segundo enfoca, para defender os trabalhadores de seu país das ameaças ao trabalho advindas com a globalização, o regionalismo econômico - em especial a Alca - e o avanço tecnológico, a central norte-americana American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations mudou radicalmente suas estratégias. Ela agora, em vez de tentar barrar os acordos de livre comércio, tem procurado limitar a autonomia governamental na negociação dos mesmos. Ao mesmo tempo, vem buscando uma maior articulação com as centrais da América Latina. Essa aproximação, ao que parece, está dando origem a um novo e promissor "internacionalismo sindical".

Race, Gender, and Anticommunism in the International Labor Movement: The Pan-African Connections of Maida Springer

Maida Springer's reminiscence and the documentation concerning her activism provide insight into communist and anticommunist struggles within the United States and international labor movements. Her presence at the center of struggles of African labor movements during the 1950s and 1960s calls for a more complex view of the activism of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) in Africa and of the federation's conflicts with the European labor centers belonging to the noncommunist International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). This article traces the little-known story of Springer's influence on African labor and AFL-CIO policy, and explores the ways in which her race, gender, class, and nationality mediated her activism.

Bargaining over New Technology: Possible Effects of Removing Legal Constraints

In viewing potential impact of recent technological change upon economy and labor market, American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) recently concluded that the United States-indeed every industrialized nation-is undergoing a scientific, technological, economic revolution every bit as significant as industrial revolution itself [quoted in Bamber and Lansbury 1989, 41]. Similarly, widespread application of microelectronics led Harley Shaiken [1984] to claim that we are moving from of automated equipment to generation. The first generation entailed automation of single work processes, allowing workers to perform individual tasks at a faster rate. The second generation ties separate work processes into integrated systems, creating entirely new work processes. The effects this new technology have on workplace organization and employment patterns have been hotly debated. Some authors have suggested that microelectronics may facilitate individual's control of work by decentralizing production, eliminating boring and dangerous jobs, enhancing skills, and increasing leisure time.1 For example, Isaac Asimov once wrote that it will leave to human beings tasks that are intrinsically human, such as sports, entertainment, and scientific research [quoted in Friedrich 1980, 83]. Others have insisted on differentiating between potential of microelectronics and reality of its use. In this view, integrated production systems transfer control of work process from shop-

Labor Power and Social Equality: Union Politics in a Changing Economy

Despite American labor's societal significance, union politics does not command the scholarly attention it once did, in large part because most of the postwar literature has concluded that American trade unions behave much like other pressure groups. Comparativists have little difficulty demonstrating that U.S. unions lack the class orientation of their European counterparts. In the workplace U.S. unions have largely ignored production control and corporate participation in exchange for high wages and job security. Similarly, American unions have never mounted a serious effort to organize a political movement aimed at challenging management's right to control capital. At the same time, political behaviorists cite union electoral and lobbying activities to argue persuasively that organized labor pursues narrowly defined political goals, the principal purpose of which is to extract rank and file benefits from government, benefits otherwise unattainable through collective bargaining. Also consistent with group theory is the fact that though the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) remains aligned with the Democratic Party, rank and file unionists break frequently with both the federation and the party in presidential elections. Despite these well known tendencies, American labor cannot be characterized as a mere trade union movement. Since the early 1960s organized labor has behaved much like a social movement: pressing for a higher standard of living and better working conditions for less fortunate segments of our society such as blacks and the urban poor. Moreover, recent studies by J. David Greenstone, Harry Hol-

Internationalism in Eclipse: The ICFTU after Two Decades

Presents an update on the status of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) as of 1970. Relations between ICFTU and the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO); Conflict between the AFL-CIO and the United Automobile Workers; Issues faced by the ICFTU. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)

Racial Inequality in Employment: The Patterns of Discrimination

Negro wage earners are experiencing a major crisis of unemployment and underemployment. The differential in median income between white and Negro workers has been growing since 1951. Automation and other technological in novations are rapidly displacing Negroes from jobs in dis proportionate numbers. Negro workers have not made signifi cant employment gains in new Southern industrial development and remain excluded from the textile industry, the basic manu facturing industry of the South. In other Southern industries, Negro workers are adversely affected by separate racial seniority lines in collective bargaining agreements. Federal executive orders banning employment discrimination by government con tractors have not been broadly enforced. Federal support of racial discrimination is indicated in the discriminatory operation of employment service agencies and in federally supported ap prenticeship and vocational training programs that discriminate against nonwhite workers. The traditional pattern of anti- Negro practices within organized labor remains intact. The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organiza tions (AFL-CIO) is becoming more conservative and increas ingly basing itself upon the narrow and restrictive craft unions. Negro workers are mounting an attack against racism within organized labor through public protest and litigation. Recent decisions of the National Labor Relations Board indicate that as a result of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) action there may emerge a new body of labor law to protect the rights of Negro workers. A perma nent crisis of increasing unemployment for the Negro com munity will have far-reaching consequences for American society.