Chapter 3 - Problems in Our Movement and Strategies to Overcome Them

The point of departure for discussion on the second day of the convention was inevitably the disastrous state of the official labor movements in Mexico and the U.S.

But it also focused on the successful initiatives of unions that have transformed old structures and of worker centers creating new ones so that both can organize workers that traditional unions are unable to reach. The message was that it can be done and even on a large scale, as Aehwa Kim, an organizer for the Korean Immigrant Workers Association in Los Angeles, detailed in a fascinating presentation on how an insurgent movement of garment workers in Korea transformed the government trade union in that country in the late 1990s. “U.S. unions represent 8% of private sector workers, a percentage that has been falling for thirty years,” said Salvador Bustamante, regional vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). A big part of the problem is structural, he noted, with unions assigned jurisdictions that most are unable to organize but which also prevents other unions or worker initiatives from organizing.

Wade Rathke, ACORN and SEIU Local 100, demands that we need to change current labor laws “in a way that does not require permission from the employer or the government for them to function as a union.”

Wade Rathke, chief organizer of SEIU Local 100 and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) advocated a bold new initiative - the formation of a mass-based organization of individual workers that could serve as a powerful political force for pro-worker legislation as well as the base for more traditional organizing campaigns. “We need to organize workers in a way that does not require permission from the employer or the government for them to function as a union.”

Representatives of U.S. worker centers addressed the theme of uniting the labor movement, stressing the importance of recognizing worker centers and independent unions as part of the labor movement as much as the AFL-CIO. The Convention agreed to begin an Enlace worker center collaboration that will help worker centers develop assessments, center-to-center connections, and research to enhance mutual strength-building. Enlace will also place more emphasis on assisting worker centers to develop effective connections with unions at the local level.

Betty Chan, Chinese Progressive Association, a new Enlace affiliate, questions how unions can help overcome the problems that exist between unions and worker centers.