Owen TudorThe latest figures from the USA show that trade union membership is up over the last year, despite the difficult economic conditions, continuing anti-union activism by the Republicans, and – and this is perhaps the most interesting element of the statistics - a decline in the number of trade union members in the public sector. As well as the increase in union numbers in the private sector, union density in the public sector has gone up despite the number of members going down – a result of the reduction in public sector jobs.
Posts Tagged “AFLCIO”
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Handing in the million signature petition to recall Gov Walker. Photo: Wisconsin AFL-CIO
Unions in Wisconsin, a year into their titanic battle with Republican Governor Scott Walker over the scrapping of collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, were celebrating today as they handed in over a million signatures on a recall petition demanding a new election for the Governorship. Under Wisconsin law, they only needed 540,000, but the final count showed that over a million Wisconsin voters want Walker out. What’s really incredible about this is that there are only 3.2 million people registered to vote in the state, and at the last gubernatorial election, only just over a million voted for Governor Walker. The summer recall election – in a state that voted Democrat in 2008 but Republican in 2010 – will be a key indicator of how the Presidential election will go. At the same time, recall petitions on three Republican state senators were also handed in.
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Indiana State Capitol building. Photo Cindy Seigle.
Following on from last year’s battles in Wisconsin and Ohio, the latest key battleground state on union rights is Indiana (where a similar battle last spring was ended when state Democrats prevented a vote in the legislature by absenting themselves and denying the Republicans a quorum). State Republicans are seeking to introduce the same ”right to work” laws that exist in 22 other states of the USA (there’s a great explanation of the issue – and a map of which states have such laws - on the Bad for Indiana website) and hinder the trade union movement’s ability to bargain collectively over pay, or ensure decent health and safety laws.
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This is NOT a sales pitch, but I’d be interested in any examples of similar provisions in Europe. I’ve just come across a remarkable blog on the AFLCIO website about a union-backed mortgage plan which provides cover for people on strike, unemployed or off sick (remember that in the US, social security is far more restrictive than in the UK or the rest of Europe – mortgage insurance and state benefits in the UK would certainly cover some of these, but not, I think, being on strike!) Part of the reason for the decline in strike activity in the UK is due to the high cost of living which means that workers are reluctant to lose more than a few days’ pay at a time, and unions rarely have the reserves for prolonged strike pay, but this US mortgage would make that decision a bit easier (although it’s mostly based on interest free loans, with only a few grants).
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I often use this blog to ask you to take solidarity action with workers in other countries. But tonight, it’s the other way round. On Wednesday, nurses across the USA will be protesting in solidarity with British public sector workers who are striking to defend their pensions. The National Nurses Union (NNU) will be leading protests outside the British Embassy in Washington DC and at five Brish Consulates from the North East in Boston, the Mid-West in Chicago, the South East in Orlando and in California (Los Angeles and San Francisco). The NNU is an affiliate of the TUC’s sister organisation, the AFLCIO, who will also be taking part in the protests with unions like the Teamsters – one of the unions who we’ve helped, most recently over the Sotheby’s US lockout. -
Great news this morning from Ohio, which along with Wisconsin is one of the slew of US states where Republicans (in this case Governor John Kasich) have been trying to remove collective bargaining rights and key working conditions from public sector workers in the name of austerity.
A publicly demanded referendum has dramatically overturned the law Gov Kasich rammed through in the face of protests last March. That they did so in the face of well funded campaigns by right wing outrider organisations, and attempts to restrict access to voting makes the 2/3 majority result all the more impressive.
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Peter Wallsten had an interesting article in the Washington Post on Thursday about the links between unions and Occupy Wall Street.
As I’ve said here before, unions won’t want to co-opt the protests – and the protesters wouldn’t want them to. But there is a clear alliance to be formed with a new social movement, and a job for unions to do in responding to their concerns (as well as offering the practical and reciprocated support that in a past era characterised the US union relationship with the civil rights movement).
John Wood
