Association for Union Democracy

By now there is something to be learned from the bitter internecine battles that embroil Andy Stern of the SEIU, Sal Rosselli of the new National Union of Healthcare Workers, John Wilhelm of UNITE HERE, and Bruce Raynor of Workers United. It is becoming clearer that this is no mere struggle for power among ambitious union leaders. It involves a sharp challenge to Stern's favored conception of a labor movement highly centralized at the top and regimented below.

The constitution of the International Association of Machinists provides for the election of international officers by direct membership vote. But machinists are not actually burdened with the chore of casting ballots because it's so difficult for any dissident to get nominated that no one runs against the administration.

Stephanie Green is a woman and one of the few African-Americans in the 1,200-member Steelworkers Local 12-369, mostly white, in the state of Washington. As soon as she was elected local president in November 2005, the executive board began to give her a hard time.

The International Longshoremen's Association is definitely evolving, but into what? This is one of the four unions that, over the years, had been cited in government investigatory reports as most heavily infiltrated by organized crime: the scene of payoffs and murder so graphically portrayed in On the Waterfront. It is still the object of a stalled federal RICO suit. But things are happening that could never have happened before.

Rich Trumka, now AFL-CIO president, had a fine reputation when he was president of the United Mine Workers; and he has been a good militant voice for the AFL-CIO as secretary treasurer; and he will surely be a good workers' representative as AFL-CIO president. In any event, it is hard to think of a better choice. But as Rich ascends, it is a proper time to remember where he came from and how he got there. If not for Jock Yablonski, Trumka would probably be forgotten, if ever even noticed.

We are deeply saddened to announced the passing of long-time AUD Board member and supporter Ruth Sachere Spitz. She was 90 years old, and lived near her grandson Leo Macdonald in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

By Matt Noyes "At 25, Kensey Alsman was a millwright at Bethlehem Steel serving as an observer to get a fair election for Ed Sadlowski in his 1976 insurgent run for international president of the Steelworkers union. Now at 59, having retired, only to see his health care and pension go down with the bankrupted company, Alsman is back in a mill, this time at Beta Steel in Indiana where he is a member of the International Longshoremen's Association, battling for fair elections and democracy in ILA Local 2038..."

"The U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia has upheld a union rule that places new burdens on candidates who want to use their own independent web sites to campaign for union office. The court's decision gives the green light to those nervous union officials who hope to develop new ways to limit the potential of the internet as an instrument for union democracy..."

"The Teamsters Independent Review Board has been doing a scrupulous job of policing the union for corruption and expelling characters with organized crime connections. But some Teamster reformers feel that the Board has been slow in dealing with the kind of offenses against union democracy that resist evaluation in dollars, like intimidation, election fraud, and blacklisting. Which makes reports of the Board's investigation into events in Local 82 (in TDU's Convoy-Dispatch) of special interest. Local 82 union representatives, according to C-D, stand accused of vicious beatings of members who protested against the destruction of the local's contract defenses of job seniority."

By Herman Benson "When Steve Early applied at the 2008 SEIU convention in Puerto Rico for press credentials as a reporter for Union Democracy Review and AUD, he was abruptly turned away as persona non grata. Not you, Steve Early! The guardians at the gate were not bothered by the UDR/AUD label. In fact, we got a nice note later explaining that we were quite welcome to send some other reporter. But definitely, NOT STEVE EARLY! And so we learned, to our surprise, that of all the people in, around, and for the labor movement, Steve is perhaps the only pro-labor activist capable of getting under the skin of some labor leaders more deeply than AUD..."

By Herman Benson -- A Federal judge peremptorily dismissed the complaint filed by members of Machinists Local S6 and upheld the trusteeship imposed by the IAM international on this 3,400-member local of shipyard workers at the Bath Iron Works in Maine. The decision is a blunt reminder of how difficult it is to resist an arbitrary trusteeship imposed by an authoritarian international upon a dissident local union; and it reveals a serious flaw in the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act.

"Stern has created a problem for himself: Entrenched at the height of organizational authority, he is losing the moral high ground he once occupied so prominently. Change to Win, the union coalition he led, is falling apart..."

"SEIU President Andy Stern ordered four locals in California... to join together in a new district council called United Service Workers-West. Here is something drastically new in the SEIU. Unlike the various mega locals created earlier by Stern by dissolving several locals into one, these four locals each retain a separate existence, but only as desiccated shells deprived of substance..."

(In an election last year, an insurgent caucus defeated the local administration that had originally been appointed by International President Andy Stern. Author Ferd Wulkan was an SEIU field rep for 13 years, serving non-faculty professional personnel at the University of Massachusetts.) "SEIU Local 888 was created in 2003 in a wholesale reorganization of SEIU's Massachusetts locals. In reducing the number of locals, a new public sector local was created, one that would be unquestionably loyal to the International. Susana Segat, a longtime employee of the International was appointed president. When a new local is created, the appointed leadership can stay in office for three years before an election must be held..."

"The farce being enacted in Transport Workers Local 100 is called an election of officers. That's the big union of NYC subway and bus workers. For one thing, votes are cast in June and then go into deep freeze to be counted in December. Members have been disqualified because the union claims they violate a rule which requires that candidates remain in continuous good standing for at least one year before the voting."

"In his piece in UDR No. 177, Robert Levine, President of Musicians Local 8, criticized how Thomas Lee, International President of the American Federation of Musicians, dealt with a dispute with the Recording Musicians Association. We print Lee's letter to UDR and Levine's reply."

(Attorney Rosenblatt represents, pro bono, members and officers of shipbuilders Lodge S6 at the Bath Iron Works in Maine in their legal challenge to the imposition of a trusteeship over their shipbuilders local by the International Association of Machinists. His experience is typical of the ordeal faced by lawyers for union reformers. Here are some excerpts from his letter published in our $100+ Club News) "This case simultaneously is exciting and maddening. LMRDA cases tend to be that way. My clients - Mike Keenan, Troy Osgood, Mike Cyr, and Cathy London - are very, very talented union leaders. The IAM defendants are very, very bad..."

The AUD Blogroll from our bloglines page is now on the AUD site. Thanks to Grazr, the blogroll from our AUDFeeds page is now on this website. What does this mean? Frequently updated information from over fifty rank-and-file sites. Please check it out and let us know if you like it. We welcome suggestions for feeds to add.

Kevin Condy, active CWA member and AUD supporter, recently wrote a report for his senior project at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, "Local Union Elections-Can They Be Run More Democratically?" (Fall, 2008). Condy surveyed fellow union members' knowledge of their democratic rights, focusing on two specific groups of workers - "outside technicians," -- union members that respond to problems onsite, and "inside technicians" or union members who do most of their work from a company's office. Condy's discoveries are interesting, but troubling. Here are a few excerpts from his paper...

"Three years ago Sal Salerno, Archie Green, Franklin Rosemont, and I scrambled to send The Big Red Songbook, a giant compilation of Industrial Workers of the World songs (Charles H. Kerr Company) to press. In putting final touches on my small introductory contribution to the book, I recalled the title of the 2000 AUD Thirtieth Anniversary conference, "When the Workers' Inspiration Through the Union's Blood Shall Run." The title played, of course, on a line from Ralph Chaplin's classic 1915 labor anthem "Solidarity Forever." That line ran, "When the union's inspiration through the workers blood shall run"...