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Reorganizing the Rust Belt: An Inside Study of the American Labor Movement

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The unenthusiastic accommodation reached after WWII between employers and labor unions began to be shredded in the late 1970s as employers took advantage of the weak labor laws of the US to de-unionize and defeat new organizing efforts. Anti-unionism now permeates the corporate world with devastating effects on unions. Labor theorists and academics, unions, and union members have absolutely been at their wits' end in coming to grips with the siege on labor and in devising strategies to resist employer onslaughts. _Reorganizing the Rust Belt_ is one man's attempt to do just that. In a research project, the author, a graduate student of sociology, is permitted to become an organizing intern on the staff of Local "A" (not the real name) of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), generally operating in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, to assist and report on efforts to organize a nursing home. Choosing the SEIU to follow is highly pertinent because the service sector now dominates the US economy and the SEIU is virtually the only union that has substantially gained membership in an era of precipitous union density decline.

Large elements of the labor movement are now proponents of "social movement" unionism. It is a rather fluid concept but it has at its core the mobilization of rank-and-file workers. The importance of union staffers is supposedly reduced as workers constitute the organizing committee, orchestrate face-to-face home visits, and conduct any number of workplace solidarity enhancing exercises like tee-shirt days, leafleting, petitioning the boss, etc. Another element of the "social" approach is drawing upon community interests and resources to enhance labor's position. In one case described by the author, an attempt to privatize a cluster of nursing homes was seen by the community as potentially threatening to elderly residents due to the clear implications of reduced services. A coalition involving the union and progressive and religious groups in the community defeated the proposal, but the self interest of the union was a secondary factor to those community activists. A contract campaign later conducted by the union did not resonate with the community, though it was successful largely because of the earlier rebuke of the county officials. In the more general case, the dispersion of workers' homes from the vicinity of a firm would make community support problematic; where is the commonality? The author did not stress that forming labor-community coalitions is difficult and usually involves special circumstances.

Though the author is a staunch advocate of social movement unionism, his analysis clearly shows that so-called business unionism is well entrenched. Labor unions have been sold for decades to workers as providing bargaining and contract enforcement services. Union staff people, perhaps assisted by member stewards, are expected to perform the work. If unions are not successful in providing those services, or even worse, unionized factories are shutdown, members or potential members are inclined to place blame on the unions. The author repeatedly encountered disenchantment with unions on the organizing drive.

A contradictory fact is that social movement unionism requires more staff, not less. Rank-and-file mobilization does not just spontaneously occur. Union staff or paid member organizers have to carefully nurture an activist workplace mentality. And that is costly to unions. An earlier unsuccessful attempt to organize the author's nursing home was attempted through the less staff intensive methods of mass mailings and sparsely attended union meetings. Union staffers are often disinclined to get involved in worker motivation preferring to provide the services for which they are obligated. In addition, activist workers can often undermine the more limited, but predictable, power base of union officials. Costs and the concerns of staffers and officials will continue to part of the union dynamic, stated or otherwise.

The author is concerned with not only the sustainability of worker mobilization from a psychological standpoint, but also whether unions even know how use worker activism beyond organizing or contract campaigns. He finally seems to be content with the notion that workers once mobilized can be ramped up again when needed. It is an irony that a key component of business unionism, servicing the contract, remains most important once mobilization has passed.

Is the successful nursing home campaign applicable to other sectors of the economy? Clearly, the author's experiences demonstrate that the general public is concerned with conditions in nursing homes for both residents and employees, but working conditions for Wal-Mart workers seem to be of minimal interest. In addition, closing a nursing home to avoid a union would tend to be less tolerated than shuttering a retail establishment. Despite the difficulties, organizing a nursing home is one of the more favorable situations that exist in today's economy.

The author does not really probe the SEIU version of worker mobilization in terms of its limitations and what it could be. Achieving enough solidarity to vote for a union is commendable, but hardly exhausts worker solidarity or empowerment. A vote for union representation will not change the fact that workers have no say in a business beyond wages and some aspects of working conditions. It was not that many decades ago that US workers were concerned with actual worker control in workplaces. Even now the codetermination found in European workplaces gives workers more real voice in workplace decisions than do contracts that largely seek to constrain workers. Worker input is definitely not tolerated.

The author makes much of his findings that movements are defined by what they must overcome as opposed to the view that movements take advantage of existing conditions. The point seems rather minor as the campaign on which the author worked had both situations. The book is sad commentary on the status of working Americans. So much effort must be made to simply achieve a place at a bargaining table where decisions that have long-term consequences for workers cannot even be discussed. Corporations, if they must, will make that trade every day: a few cents an hour in exchange for nearly complete control of the business and its profits.