Public Employee Press

The World of Work
WAR on LABOR
Garrido speaks out on fighting back

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

As unions come under harsh attack nationwide, they need to do a better job mobilizing members, working together and building alliances with community organizations.

"Never waste a crisis," DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido said. "If labor unions are going to be catalysts for change, we need to look at ourselves."

Garrido spoke Oct. 16 at "The War on Labor in the Courts and State Legislatures," a forum sponsored by the Metro NY Labor Communications Council and the New York Chapter of the National Writers Union.

Forum participants discussed how organized labor should fight back as states gut public employees' collective bargaining rights, right-wing interests use the courts to undermine unions financially, and the American Dream collapses after decades of assaults on public services and working families' incomes.

"The attacks on labor are widespread, persistent and growing," said moderator Timothy Sheard, New York chapter chair of the Writers Union.

Operating outside the law

CUNY Graduate Center Professor Stanley Aronowitz said unions today are "on the defensive" and "intimidated" as they confront decades of attacks by conservatives and can't count on the Democratic Party, which is controlled by center and center-right people.

The labor movement became too insular over the years, he said. "And because of that, we are seen as an interest group, not a class movement," he said.

Unions need to be the voice of all workers, not just members, he said. To accomplish that, they must be more aggressive and willing to take risks, such as striking even if it is illegal. "The law is not on our side," Aronowitz said, noting that most of the movement's significant growth occurred when unions challenged the country's legal framework.

Carol Pittman, associate director of the New York State Nurses Association, discussed the anti-labor and anti-government agenda of the billionaire Koch brothers, who bankroll groups that work against Medicaid, support environmentally harmful projects such as the Keystone pipeline, and aim to curtail women's rights and privatize medical services.

The Koch brothers have succeeded in several states where Republican governors have refused to accept federal aid for Medicaid, leaving millions of poor people without health care.

CUNY Law School Professor Frank Deale said the Professional Staff Congress, which represents faculty at the city's public universities and colleges, needs to shed its image as the representative of privileged workers as it reaches out to lower-paid part-time adjunct professors. His observation points to the challenge the labor movement faces of uniting workers of differing backgrounds and economic conditions.

Garrido discussed the response of DC 37 and its parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, to the legal assault on unions. If successful, current court cases will deeply weaken public service unions.

The U.S. Supreme Court's June decision in the Harris v. Quinn case stopped short of declaring unconstitutional the "fair share" practice that lets unions collect fees from nonmembers for the cost of legally mandated collective bargaining services. But other cases could wipe out this right, crippling the unions financially, Garrido noted. The National Right to Work Committee has a war chest of $75 million to support anti-union lawsuits, including some for workers suing unions to escape their dues obligations.

A labor revival

Earlier this year, DC 37 joined AFSCME's campaign to sign up agency-fee payers, workers who receive services but choose not to join as members. After signing up thousands and halving the number of agency-fee payers, DC 37 now aims to make its worksites wall-to-wall union, Garrido said.

Ultimately, a labor revival will require unions to switch from the service model that Aronowitz likened to "an insurance company masquerading as a movement" to unionism that is more membership-based and encourages greater activism.

Garrido jokingly (but tellingly) observed that unions often act like Ghostbusters, with union reps sweeping into the workplace when troubles erupt, putting out the fire and then disappearing. "That has to stop," he said, drawing applause from the audience of more than 100 people.

Said Garrido, who will become the executive director of DC 37 on Dec. 31, "We are going to reorganize the workplace."