AUGUST 22, 2005
The Northwest Strike: Another (Bad) Watershed Moment
It's never easy to do crystal-ball stuff, but, heck, they can't sue you, can they? Looking at this Northwest strike, all I can think is: it's the 1981 air-traffic controllers strike all over again. But, it's even uglier and potentially more far-reaching, if that's possible. And there are a few lessons here about the whole state of play in labor.
It's scary to think that some readers here may not have been born, or, at least, they were still in diapers but...back in 1981, Ronald Reagan fired air-traffic controllers who had gone out on strike. There simply wasn't much support for their strike from "organized labor." There was a lot of rhetoric from then-AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland but pilots and machinists continued to their jobs. Boy, what a mistake.
Because that firing of those folks opened the door for an entire new era of union-busting and strike-breaking. It wasn't that you couldn't attack unions prior to 1981. It's more that it was seen as a bit distasteful to take an aggressive ant-union stance. But, since 1981, the union-busting industry has grown dramatically and no company hesitates to try breaking its union or a union organizing drive--helped, of course, by a legal system that is heavily weighted towards companies.
So, now comes the Northwest debacle. As reported today in The New York Times (registration required), Northwest has been preparing for this strike for many months, training non-union mechanics to step in to jobs if the unionized workers walked out. We will see if the airline can sustain its operation for very long.
But, if it can, this will be a very bad precedent: companies inside and outside the industry will come to the conclusion that the Northwest plan is a blueprint for the future.
Some months ago, I wrote that part of the disaster facing unions in the airline industry came from the dysfunctional nature of the labor movement. Yes, the airline industry's workers have been the victims of very bad economic factors: deregulation and a system that simply has too many seats to fill. But, given that, it is total insanity for there to be more than a dozen unions in one industry.
The twist here is on the question of labor solidarity. There is universal disdain for the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) and, particularly, for its national director, 0. V. Delle-Femine. AMFA is an independent union that basically has grown by raiding other unions, particularly the International Association of Machinists (IAM) but also the Teamsters and Transport Workers. Delle-Femine, as far as I can tell, is a labor entrepeneur, someone who can cut out a sweet spot for himself without really having to think about the broader labor movement.
And, as you can see from this letter from the IAM, he's not about to get much love, or support, from the IAM, or probably any union in either the AFL-CIO or the Change To Win coalition, the two largest labor federations in the country. IAM's Vice President Robert Roach stops just short of saying "fuck you" to AMFA's request for help--you can read the details as to why (just check out the beginning of the letter--not even the neutral "Dear" so-and-so...just "O.V. Delle-Femine").
So, here's the problem. If Northwest does break the back of AMFA, the auto companies will take a good, hard look at replicating the Northwest strategy, as will companies in telecommunications , transportations, and retailing, to mention just a few. A whole new arm of the union-busting industry will evolve, offering to recruit, train and direct an entirely complete strike-breaking workforce--ready to go on 24 hours notice.
It's a screwed up situation. As bad as AMFA is, can we let it fail?
The larger points are:
1. This strike points up the urgency of making sure that the current bad blood between the two labor federations be quickly replaced with an understanding and a solution on how to work together. If you look back at the debate here over the Solidarity Charters, there is a general sense that people at the local level want the Change To Win coalition and the AFL-CIO to figure out a way to co-exist.
2. Raiding is bad. See the mess AMFA finds itself in--no love, no support and unions giving it the international middle-finger flip-off. Raiding is bad. It's a waste of time and resources. Did I make it clear enough--raiding is bad.
3. The Change To Win coalition's push for strategic mergers is on the money--and the AFL-CIO has adopted some of that rap. This is even more urgent to accomplish and I, for one, hope that the resolution adopted by the delegates at the AFL-CIO convention doesn't get drowned in the red tape of the Blue-Ribbon Commission and buried...though I'd say I'm not optimistic.