Labor Lawyers Labor in New Orleans

Jonathan Hiatt, AFL-CIO General Counsel, writes this report on the April 30–May 2 meeting of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee (LCC) in New Orleans. The meeting of the LCC, whose members include union lawyers from around the country, focused on “Lessons from Katrina and the Labor Movement’s Fight for Social and Economic Justice.” Here’s what Hiatt has to say.

The LCC Board decided to hold its gathering in New Orleans to demonstrate our support for the Gulf Coast communities. Nearly 500 lawyers did just that. We certainly infused much-needed dollars into the local economy. But that is not all. The LCC has a tradition of taking action at our annual conferences to support organizing and workers’ rights. This year, we had a historic and unprecedented chance to help the people of New Orleans fight for the rights and dignity they have been denied since Katrina hit by participating in a demonstration organized by the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO.

So we joined with the local labor movement and community allies in the “Rebuild with Justice” march of more than 250 people to demand a just rebuilding, and that rally received significant local media coverage. About 20 LCC lawyers and I also volunteered to work for a day with ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) in the Ninth Ward, rehabbing houses devastated by the storm.

I have read and even written about the impact that Katrina had on working people on the Gulf Coast. However, I did not truly understand until I spent time in New Orleans—ripping down the moldy plaster walls of a flooded “house” in the Ninth Ward—the dire need for the labor movement to continue our efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast and to protect the rights of the people who do the work of reviving the communities of Louisiana and Mississippi. Just one example: Thousands of New Orleans teachers have lost their jobs, their insurance and the right for which they’ve fought for more than three decades. Their fight is our fight.

Labor lawyers at the conference also helped raise money for the New Orleans Public Library system, specifically the Alvar Street Branch, situated in the Ninth Ward, a neighborhood library that serves a racially diverse, largely working-class community. The renovated Alvar Street Branch will help provide the community with the educational and intellectual resources to rebuild their lives, and the LCC is delighted to have participated in that effort.

The conference itself was a hopeful, constructive and productive gathering. Lawyers from union legal departments and law firms across the country convened to share their knowledge and expertise to enhance the quality of representation union lawyers provide to their clients. Workshops were held on a variety of cutting-edge topics, including the extent to which the NLRA [National Labor Relations Act] protects union pressure short of strikes, the interplay of bankruptcy with labor and employment law, and non-NLRB organizing strategies.

The three plenary sessions drove home the theme of the conference. On the opening day of the conference, April 30, we had the honor and privilege of hearing from local community and labor leaders about the impact of the hurricane on the Gulf, particularly on working families and the poor; the labor movement’s relief efforts; and the current state of labor-community alliances in support of responsible and responsive rebuilding efforts. The speakers included Louis Reine, secretary-treasurer of the Louisiana AFL-CIO; Wilson Boveland, assistant to the president of the United Teachers of New Orleans and the union’s director of human rights; Stephen Bradbury, community organizer of New Orleans ACORN; and Stephen Coyle, CEO, Housing Investment Trust (via speaker phone).

Arlene Holt Baker, AFL-CIO Gulf Coast coordinator, masterfully moderated this opening plenary. (The participation of hundreds of union-side labor lawyers in the opening session was gratifying, given that we were up against Bruce Springsteen performing at JazzFest at the same time.)

The second plenary on Monday, May 1, examined what Katrina exposed about race and class in America. The discussion, which was moderated by Thea Lee, policy director, AFL-CIO, focused on how government policies and corporate behavior are exacerbating racial and class divides in America and undermining collective bargaining. We learned about these issues from some wonderful teachers, including Communications Workers (CWA) president Larry Cohen; Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor, The American Prospect; and William Spriggs, chairman of the Economics Department at Howard University. (For Kuttner’s observations about New Orleans and the Springsteen concert, click here.)

The last plenary on Tuesday, May 2, looked at what the labor movement and its allies need to do to elect worker-friendly representatives in 2006 and 2008 and to combat employer and governmental interference with workers’ freedom to choose union representation. President John Sweeney opened the plenary session, describing America as “at a tipping point because powerful interests have abandoned working families and our communities.”

Karen Ackerman, AFL-CIO political director, reviewed the political strategies for the 2006 and 2008 elections and beyond. Sweeney and Ackerman both explained how the federation’s political and organizing programs are completely interrelated. Stewart Acuff, AFL-CIO organizing director, gave an impassioned plea to LCC members about how the labor movement, including us, must organize to fight back the attacks on workers and their families.

I am honored both to work with such talented colleagues in the union-side labor law bar and to have contributed—just a little—to the rebuilding of New Orleans.

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