[Marxism] Crisis deepens in AFL-CIO

[Jon Flanders <jonflanders@xxxxxxxxx>]

 from
 http://workinglife.typepad.com/daily_blog/2005/05/the_ax_fallsupd.html

 The Ax Falls--Update May 3, 2005
    Okay, folks, here's what's coming in. Bob Welch, Sweeney's
executive assistant, and Stewart Acuff, organizing director, have held
conference calls with respective staff members (there was a major
foul-up with the first call with Welch so he's scheduling another one
for 3:30 p.m.).

   Field Moblization will be merged with the Political Department into
a new department called Political Mobilization, with current Political
Dept. head Karen Ackerman heading up the merged department; one of her
deputies will be Mike Cavanaugh, who was the acting head of the Field
Mobilization after Welch removed Marilyn Schneiderman last year.  This
is the area that took a huge hit. Every permanent position in the Field
was defunded, except for a couple of positions working in Capital
Strategies. At the management level, all deputy directors for regions
were eliminated, as were all the regional coordinators.

   A new region will be created--in the Southwest--to add to the other
four regions. Gerry Acosta will head up the new region; Joe Alvarez, who
heads up the Northeast region, is headed to a job at headquarters, with
Paul Lemon being made acting director for the Northeast.

   In addition, International Affairs will be folded and all the
international work moved to the Solidarity Center, which will continue
to be headed up by Barbara Shailor. A new department called Government
Affairs will scoop up the previous departments of Legislative, Public
Policy and Safety and Health. It's not clear to be at this writing what
the staffing will be in those two departments but I'll pass it along
ASAP. The magazine, American@Work, will be closed and public affairs
will be downsized--that department was funded at $6.1 million last year
so that number will likely come down some.

   There is a potentially nasty fight brewing which could leave a
badly wounded Federation. Welch announced that there is no longer a
position called "field representative." Instead, new positions have been
created--for which new job descriptions will be created and, this is the
key, every person will have to apply for. But, there are no job
descriptions ready for the new jobs and no one knows exactly how the map
looks in terms of the regions. So, there still could be a fairly big
fight between the staff union, The Newspaper Guild, and, as people refer
to it, management. I can't help but note the irony that corporations
often use reorganization and the creation of new titles to undermine
union solidarity and union security. Not pretty.


   There are 67 people in the field now and only 37 positions will
exist in the new configuration. That's a net loss of 30 union positions
just in the field. Four job titles will be in the organizing institute;
they will be responsible for training lead organizers. Eight new
positions will be called "senior organizers," who will be working with
unions on campaigns. Twenty new people will be called "senior field
representatives, who will work with state federations and central labor
councils. And, finally, there will be Five "field campaign directors,"
with one in each of the five regions.

   Keep in mind that all these cuts are from the General Fund of the
Federation. There is also a Special Fund for organizing, which is not
the subject of this round of cuts. A number of people, mostly on
temporary contracts of one-year or perhaps a bit longer (PFT or Project,
Fund or Temporary employee), are funded through the Special Fund (which
totaled $12.7 million last year). And, on the call with permanent Guild
staff members, the Guild rep declared that, under the contract, if a
Guild permanent staff member loses a permanent job funded under General
Fund money, he or she can bump a person working under a temporary
contract even if it's funded from the Special Fund.

    Also, curiously, Welch did not announce any cuts in other non-staff
expenses such as support for outside organizations. As one person asked
me, "these outside groups may be fine but why are we spending millions
of dollars on them while our jobs are being cut?." However, a
confidential memo to the staff that just whirred in over my fax machine
says, "We will reduce and/or eliminate cash contributions to most of our
important affiliated organizations: the AFL-CIO Working for America
Institute, the constituency groups, ILCA, Labor Heritage, Alliance for
Retired Americans, NSCERC and others; reduce our contributions to other
worthy organizations, and eliminate the Center for Working Capital."

    As one employee said, according to one report, "We have to make
sure we drag this thing out so we can drag them through the nuthole so
the longer people are on the payroll." There was also one suggestion
that the Guild organize to challenge the cuts before the entire
Federation Executive Council. But, it's not clear which national
president would be willing to carry the water for the workers--keep in
mind that, if you're looking at this as a political fight (more on that
in a moment), neither side has any incentive to fight to keep the staff
at its current level. ( Also AFL-CIO has killed the Health and Safety
Dept --see     "This week in Confined Space"
http://spewingforth.blogspot.com ).

   A bit more on the structure in the organizing department still
under Stewart Acuff (who told people on his call, when asked if he was
staying, "whether you like it or not, yes"):

   There will be a Strategic Campaigns effort headed up by Sam Leubke,
who now heads up the Organizing Institute--this will deal with campaigns
against Wal-Mart and the like. The Organizing Institute will continue to
exist but in a smaller verson, headed up by Sarah McKenzie (the OI still
will rely on people working on short-term contracts). Voice at Work will
be lead, as it is now, by Andy Levin--six positions there and I don't
think that's a huge change. The final piece will be called Industry
Committees which will try to get affiliates to develop campaigns in
broad sectors, combining collective bargaining, and the two mini-depts
of Strategic Campaigns and the Center for Strategic Research--Ken Zinn
has been tapped to lead the new area.

   ANALYSIS

   The Bottom Line: there is a lot of upset and uncertainty right now.
No one is sure if they will have a job three months from now...though I
guess that could be said of "management" since the outcome of the July
convention will determine who holds the keys to 16th Street. The
thinking is still Sweeney but there's a hell of a lot of time to go for
deals to be cut.

   And, in some way, this is what these cuts were about: trying to win
an election. Give back money in the form of rebates to national unions
and make some changes in the Federation operations that can satisfy
some. Acuff said as much to his people: the Federation is a political
organizations and this is political. And, to his credit, even though not
everyone shares his view and/or with ten years of leadership folks
believe there is already a clear record, Sweeney has now said, "this is
what I think the Federation should look like and do."

    Some of the new look makes sense (though I say that without
knowing some of the particulars of what every department will lose or
gain)--the notion on trying to figure out how to push campaigns that
have an industry focus is a good one. It's now something that, at least,
conceptually, there is broad agreement between the various positions
taken by Sweeney and some of the "insurgent" unions. So, you have to
give credit to Sweeny for saying, "I listened and here is a change."

    But, what isn't apparent here is that we've changed the psychology
of the Federation. Nothing much will change if we don't alter the
inclination of too many unions to talk about organizing but not really
organize, or to talk about solidarity but not be willing to sacrifice
some independence for the sake of working on a board strategic campaign.


 May 3, 2005





_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism