As we predicted in the March 11 issue of INK labor unions are hard at work trying to turn their moment into a movement. The always trustworthy Huffington Post reports that Working America, the AFL-CIO advocacy group for all the rest of us, signed up 20,000 new members between February and March 15. Working America claims to offer many of the same benefits of belonging to a union (dues, class warfare, the chance to be a part of overthrowing our economic system) without being forced to endure a democratic election or the annoyance of a union contract. Meanwhile the AFL-CIO is calling for teach-ins and other job actions on April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King because it’s “a day to stand in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin and dozens of other states where corporate-bought politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for.” (Wow.) They are also calling for a “not-business-as-usual” Nationwide Day of Action at workplaces and communities across the country in support of labor rights. In approving the plan of action, the AFL-CIO Executive Board urged “movement-wide dramatic actions” on that day. We are on the edges of our seats. It seems the entire labor movement (and friends) is shifting towards this new shtick of “collective bargaining as a basic human right” first pushed to the front pages by Bob King earlier this year when he demanded foreign automakers adopt the UAW’s “ground rules” or be labeled “human rights violators.” This approach is the brainchild of Richard Bensinger, the new UAW organizing director, and it reinforces the narrative of the reasonable Ghandi-esque labor leaders versus the tyrannical Gaddafi-like corporate overlords. At an Emergency Labor Meeting in Cleveland on March 5, ninety-six such rights lovin’ union leaders from twenty-six states adopted fifteen “Perspectives” that expand on Bob’s “ground rules” and read in large part like a Marx manifesto. Principle Four quite officiously invokes the (shudder) United Nations and (what’s this??) puts the United States on trial. “The right to collective bargaining is a right enshrined in universally recognized Conventions 87 and 98 of the UN-based International Labor Organization; it is also a human right codified in the UN Charter. In fact, the United States is on trial before world public opinion for violating basic labor rights at home.” In addition to calling for street fighting and the end of all Right to Work laws as “human rights violations” the Principles also call for the government to take over the role of creating jobs from the private sector and the strengthening of the “social insurance model” including food stamps and Medicaid for all. Back to Wisconsin. Two interesting fun facts have emerged since the end of hostilities. First, as it turns out, the son of Judge Maryann Sumi is a former field manager for the state AFL-CIO and data manager for SEIU who now runs his own leftwing organizing firm. His mother, Judge Sumi, issued the temporary restraining order that stopped implementation of the Wisconsin’s new law governing public sector unionism. Surprised? And we all remember Wisconsin protestors blowing around about how the entire Wisconsin electorate stood behind them and not Gov. Walker in defense of their God given inalienable right to forcibly collect dues and coerce their wages and mega-benefits out of beholdin’ politicians. Well, turns out they were wrong about that too. (Surprised?) An analysis by the non-partisan Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism found that of the 50,000 plus emails that flooded the governor’s office during the Madison standoff, 85% of out-of-state emailers supported Governor Walker as did 55% of Wisconsites. Finally, it’s not all doom and gloom at the state house level for organized labor. The Connecticut legislature is considering a bill to expand the reach of public employee unions to most salaried employees and graduate assistants. A second bill promoted by SEIU (surprised?) would recreate the scam that forcibly unionized day care and home care private providers in Michigan, California, Oregon, Illinois and Massachusetts. Both UConn and the state’s director of labor relations Linda Yelmini have strenuously objected to the bills. The result would be that at least 99.5 percent of classified state employees would be eligible to unionize. “Under this bill, the balance between labor and management would be permanently modified with the taxpayers, clients and other citizen groups being shortchanged,” Yelmini said in testimony submitted to the committee. “Management and labor would be on the same side of the table,” Yelmini said. “Bureau heads could not be expected to manage entire agencies alone.”
