New to the list. Hello to all. And a few comments...
> >>
> >>Let's look at the Carey case: As the federal election officer who
> >>ordered the '96 Teamsters election rerun, Barbara Zack Quindel would
> >>have to have been in on the plot. But according to Quindel, she made
> >>the decision before the strike. But she didn't reveal her decision
> >>so as not to affect the strike's outcome. There's evidence to back
> >>her claim.
although many reformers in the teamsters would probably doubt this, i am willing to concede it, because i still feel the central theme of TDU holds: get the mob AND the government off our backs!
TDU's position has always been to push for more rank and file control. when TDU decided to support federal oversight, they did so with the stipulation that the government allow a one member-one vote plan as opposed to the original government plan to put the entire union in federal trusteeship. while what carey did was definetly against the rules, he should have to answer to his members for his crime. he was never given that chance, as he was stripped of his right to run.
Instead it talks about the consequences
> >>of corruption stories: they help the boss and demoralize trade
> >>unionists fighting the good fight inside the union.
this is true. media stories of failed strikes, "violent" strikes, union corruption do hurt the labor movement in the sense that these stories pass for "labor journalism" and replace reporting on what little social movement unionism exists in america. rarely does a signed and sealed collective bargaining agreement that creates jobs and boosts the living wage get as much attention in the press as a tense standoff that puts workers out on the line. a couple of years ago, tom frank wrote a piece in the baffler about how what passes for labor reporting nowadays focuses on the "sadness" and the "unfortunate" situation of strikes and unions coming between workers and their surrogate families: the company.
in sum, this type of reporting, while much of it is true, is still union busting. it is an intentional attempt to turn public opinion against organized labor. and to applaud it is to contribute to it yourself.
im not arguing that we shouldnt report on union corruption. but until the media is able to report on labor as more than just a corrupt animal that takes advantage of members, then we should embrace TDU's position and tell the media to get off our backs too, while we (the rank and file, not the left) clean up our own house.
What's "unfortunate"
> >>is not what's in the media but what's in the shops; not the exposure
> >>of the conditions but the refusal of the union to fight them.
what you maybe dont understand in the case of unite in nyc is that many of these unite shops and contracts have been around a LOT longer than some of the new york unite elected leadership. unite is a new union, one of the newest, a product of the 1995 merger of two old unions, the ILGWU and ACTWU.
almost every clothing shop in nyc is an old ILGWU shop, which had a particularly unique bargaining agreement in the clothing industry, one that didnt involve conventional contracts. and many ACTWU leaders in nyc have no idea how many "members" still exist in the city. some say around 20,000, but you would never know it, since many of these "members" are only members in the sense that they work for a jobber who pays the union for the priveledge of getting union work.
these arrangements hold over from a darker day in the ILGWU, one that did have alot of mob corruption. but UNITE is a different union, which has a lot of internal political struggles, and at least on the ACTWU side (which is based in the american south) a lot of homegrown leadership. and i believe that unite is doing a good deal to take care of a terrible situation in new york city with regard to mob influence and "union" sweatshops. again the media has seized an opportunity to denigrate labor at the cost of sensationalizing the experience of sweatshop workers.
Dave Hill New York City _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com