Chris Rickert: Private matters for public unions
By CHRIS RICKERT
Wisconsin State Journal
August 19, 2012
http://host.madison.com/news/local/chris_rickert/chris-rickert-private-matters-for-public-unions/article_e9191538-e93d-11e1-a049-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz246Qb3EsB


Eighteen months after Gov. Scott Walker introduced Act
10 -- his ultimately successful bid to eviscerate public
sector collective bargaining -- and two months after the
failure of a union-led effort to recall him from
office, the story on the front page of Thursday's paper
was pure deja vu for this columnist:

Council 40 of the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees -- traditionally the bastion of,
well, state, county and municipal employees -- had
successfully helped organize about 300 employees at the
privately run Journey Mental Health Center in Madison.

I couldn't help but think of something I'd written only
days after Gov. Scott Walker "dropped the bomb":

"As unionization in the private sector continues its
long decline, it would do us all a lot of good for
public sector unions to instead lend some of their
money and expertise to private sector organizing."

Some Wisconsin union representatives don't even return
my calls; who would have suspected they'd take my
advice?

I'm not really so delusional as to take credit for
Journey's unionization, but that doesn't mean I can't
applaud it.

Private-sector unions have been on the decline for
decades -- corresponding, incidentally, with the
flattening of middle class wages and rising wage
inequality.

And while I don't contend de-unionization is solely
responsible for those latter two trends, given labor's
record for improving employees' wages and working
conditions, it certainly didn't help.

Council 40 organizer Mary Burpee told me that efforts
to organize private-sector workers aren't new for her
union. But until collective bargaining rights for most
of the state's public workers are restored -- something
she is confident will happen -- private sector
organizing will get more emphasis.

"It certainly makes sense for us to concentrate on the
private sector," she said.

To my surprise, no matter what they're called or what
sector of the economy they traditionally represent,
most unions can seek to organize pretty much whoever
wants to be organized, according to Paul Secunda, a
Marquette University associate law professor and expert
in labor law.

He pointed out that the United Auto Workers, for
example, represents some public university instructors.

Efforts by traditionally public-sector unions to
organize the private sector "shows unions are trying to
be flexible" in a "polarized political environment," he
said.

It's not clear whether some of the other major
Wisconsin public-sector unions who were out front in
opposing Act 10 and trying to recall Walker are taking
an approach similar to Council 40's. My calls and email
messages to the Wisconsin State Employees Union, the
American Federation of Teachers and the Wisconsin
Education Association Council were not returned.

For his part, Secunda thought some public-sector
unions, depending on their expertise and political
outlook, could look to make inroads to the private
sector.

It makes sense for AFSCME to organize private-sector
mental health workers, he said, because they already
have experience representing public sector human
services workers. WEAC, on the other hand, might be
reluctant to organize private charter school teachers
because historically it's been opposed to charter
schools, he said.

Either way, there are signs private sector workers
might be ready for more union attention.

"We're getting a lot of calls from workers in the
private sector," Burpee said. Kevin Gundlach, of the
South Central Federation of Labor, also said he's seen
more interest from private sector workers since he took
over as SCFL's president in February.

To be sure, public-sector unions wouldn't organize the
private sector simply out of a desire to improve the
lives of its workers. Unions, like any other
organization, have a bias toward self-preservation, and
under Act 10, there's just not been much for unions to
do in the public sector.

But if the result is that more workers have better
wages, better benefits and a greater say in the
workplace, I don't much care what the unions'
motivations are.

Besides, as I wrote back in February 2011, more
attention to private sector organizing "just might pay
off for public workers in the future in the form of an
electorate less disposed to electing a governor who
wants to kill collective bargaining."

____________________________________________

PortsideLabor aims to provide material of interest to
people on the left that will help them to interpret the
world and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

PS Labor Archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate