On Fri, 26 May 2000, Marta Russell wrote:
>
> Well I hope that Labor Notes puts the In home workers on their radar screen.
> No union publication or group that I am aware of, not even the SEIU which has
> organized In home workers, pushes their plight as much as it does the
> janitors and other workforces.
>
> Nathan I had no idea that you would be so sensitive.
Ah..just had come off a couple week exchange on a labor list with someone from NYC going off on how SEIU had sold out the janitors and how much better construction unions were for members, with no understanding of the local situation or how hard this victory had been fought for over a decade.
I generally find anyone spitting on other peoples activist work to be pretty reprehensible. I do have the activist bias that only those also working on the fight have a real legitimacy to attack it, especially when the attack is on tactical decisions such as what was the best contract possible. Substantive criticism of the goals of a campaign are a bit more valid target for outside commentators.
I also agree with you that the home health care workers deserve more attention. But I believe they have made some real progress up in San Francisco with smaller gains in other areas. And yeah, Wilson (oops I mean Davis) is a real problem from everything I have been hearing from labor and other folks in California.
But the bottomline is that these 30% wage and benefit gains for LA and San Diego janitors are amazing advances in industries were ten years ago, complete deunionization was a real possibility. It needs to be built on in coming contracts, assisted by further organizing and unionization of the remaining non-union contractors, but it is a significant and real gain for workers int he region. It just boggles my mind when sectarians spit on the victories of progressive forces, just adding to a general defeatism that breeds in parts of the Left.
A lot of folks seem to forget that one element of building an energetic left is a positive celebration of our victories, not to the exclusion of self-criticism and debate, but one that fully honors the hard work of other activists, even ones you may disagree with on many points.
-- Nathan Newman