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Working America ‘One of Labor’s Greatest Successes’ |
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More than 2 million workers have joined Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate, and one of the nation’s preeminent labor scholars says if it keeps up its present pace, it will become the largest labor organization in the country.
Why has Working America been so successful when past efforts to organize workers outside of collective bargaining have failed? In a Point of View column on the AFL-CIO website, Richard Freeman, who holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in economics at Harvard University, says:
The story of Working America is one of the greatest successes in reaching workers outside of collective bargaining since the Knights of Labor in the 1880s. Its primary mode of enlisting members is through community canvassing, where bright young activists go door to door in potentially union-friendly neighborhoods. At the same time, Working America’s strong online program has resulted in 60,000 new members signing up through its website.
Freeman’s column describes a two-day workshop at the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program last fall on how Working America’s outreach is making a big difference in boosting the strength of the union movement. Click here to read the column, “Working America Is at Your Door.”
Freeman points out that national surveys show many workers want to join a union-affiliated organization that avoids employer opposition and that Working America’s pilot canvassing in 2003 showed people would join an organization that asked them to come together to press for workers’ interests in the public arena, even if it could not represent them at work.
He says Working America “has successfully tapped the desire of workers to participate in the labor movement.”
People joined in droves and continue to do so. Some 67 percent of those contacted—Democrats, Republicans, fundamentalists, gun owners, you name them—join. Today, 89 percent give their telephone numbers and one-third give their e-mail addresses when asked by Working America canvassers or when joining online. Twenty percent show their commitment by writing a letter on an issue important to them, which the canvasser picks up and mails to the public official or agency.
Working America members have been active on campaigns to enact the Employee Free Choice Act, to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and more. Working America members vote for candidates the organization endorses as being favorable to workers in similar proportions as do members of unions. Thousands visit the Working America website daily for information, and many participate in its online activities.
While the program has been hugely successful, Freeman says the Harvard workshop participants view Working America as a work in progress. Participants included Working America leaders, canvassers and staff, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and General Counsel Jon Hiatt, leaders of the New Mexico and Oregon AFL-CIO state federations, British and Dutch experts and labor scholars. They suggested several options that Working America could adapt to increase member involvement and stimulate local leadership and activism.
Yet clearly, Freeman says, Working America
is part of the future of unionism—a potentially large part. It can create a more friendly public environment for collective bargaining unions. It can provide a non-collective bargaining home for millions. If it finds ways to represent workers at their workplace without collective bargaining, it will be the biggest thing since…since sliced bread.
1 Comment
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I walked for Working America to raise the minimum wage and I can tell you from it experience that it was really a lot of fun! It only takes a couple of hours or as much time as you are willing to give.
It is an opportunity for retired union members to pass their wisdom on to a new generation of labor.
We should also be reminded of how to act like union members. I would like to see an AFL-CIO newspaper like “The Labor Tribune.” printed on line. The boycott is the most powerful tool that the consumer has, union or non-union. Giant global corporations that think they can move jobs to Mexico and act with impunitiy could use a good consumer spanking!
There are still a few USA, Union made products left. Let the consumers know which appliances and products they are. After all, the products now produced in Mexico aren’t a penny cheaper so why reward the companies by buying their foreign products!