Re: AUT: unions as temp agencies

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

ROWAN WILSON wrote:

>An article in a recent issue of the Economist (June 12th '99) talked
>of the new turn of the AFL-CIO in Silicon Valley, in the face of
>increasingly flexible labor markets. The Economist asks: "How can
>unions represent people who might be changing job any day? And how
>can they recruit people who fear that a reputation for bolshiness
>could stop them from getting another job?" Answer: by becoming even
>more like middle management.
>Amy Dean, leader of a local branch of the AFL-CIO, has set up a
>temping agency, Together@Work, planning to pay better and provide
>benefits, pensions and training; in other words, to provide more
>stability for people. Apparently, Dean would like this to become the
>norm for the union movement. The Economist liken the move to the
>craft unions of the 19th century which "proved so good at providing
>[benefits] that they controlled the supply of workers".
>This means that it is in the union's interests to throw lazy
>workers of their books.
>Does anyone know anymore anout this and the consequences?

Dean seems very imaginative, a rarity in U.S. unions. For more, see
<http://www.atwork.org/>.

Doug


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