DAILY MEMO: LABOR:

See unions’ future here this week, but hurry

Convention’s white-collar crowd is new rank and file, experts say

Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 | 2 a.m.

More unions and labor coverage

Unions want their money's worth from politicians (8-7-2009)

International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers

Unionizing success stories are rare in the modern labor movement — and even rarer in the private sector.

Victories, however marginal, have come in the public sector, with government workers accounting for the bulk of the gains. Just 7.6 percent of American workers in the private sector belong to unions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s down from a high of 24 percent in 1973.

Labor experts say that unions, now more than ever, must try harder to connect with white-collar and high-tech workers to remain relevant in a rapidly changing economy, and they point to the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers as a model.

The union, which is holding its national convention this week in Las Vegas, represents 100,000 workers in the United States and Canada, and its organizing campaigns are changing the face of American labor.

Its members are engineers, technicians, scientists, researchers and analysts — 35 percent of whom work in the private sector. The union’s largest unit is the Boeing Co., where it claims about 25,000 engineers and technical workers.

As Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor expert at Cornell University, put it: “This union has proved that nerds organize and they can be militant.” In 2008 nearly 53 percent of all union members were classified as “professional and technical” workers.

Greg Junemann, the group’s president, says the downsizing craze and offshoring boom of the past 20 years has changed the dynamic among a group of workers that has traditionally been hard to reach.

“Professional workers, in a lot of cases, could write their own ticket in the past,” Junemann said. “But now it’s not quite so easy. More and more professionals are finding themselves in the cross hairs of the bean counters. They want some sort of say in what tomorrow might bring, and they see the union as a vehicle for that.”

Elaine Bernard, director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, said the professional and technical engineers were smart in targeting a growing sector of the workforce at a time when those employees are being squeezed in the workplace. Technical workers, she said, often face a situation where the workers below them on the pay scale have union representation — and the supervisors above them control their livelihoods.

“These people are caught in the middle,” said Bernard, who addressed the union’s convention Monday. “And they’re not getting the respect and attention they should as really knowledgeable folks.”

In 2007, 10 national unions joined with eight professional associations, including the American Chemical Society, in the hope of reaching more technical workers.

Bronfenbrenner said globalization prompted a sea change in the worker-management relationship, particularly in high-skill trades. “Professionals used to be very tied to management,” she said. “They trusted executives to take care of them. Then management broke the promise to workers, laid them off, outsourced their jobs and treated them like anybody else on the line.”

Another selling point: Bernard said the professional and technical workers have mastered the balance between international and local autonomy. Local unions are oriented toward specific occupations, so they have the feel of a professional association, she said.

Notably, Bernard said, the union has succeeded in marketing itself as “something more than an insurance company.” To point, Junemann said his union is working on career development programs at the local level, offering workers training and leadership classes so they’re better prepared in the event of a plant closure or a layoff.

“We need to plant seeds for the future of the movement,” Junemann said. “Instead of just addressing wages and benefits, we need to do something for people that we haven’t done before. The evolution of society and employment demands it.”

Discussion: 6 comments so far…

By WilliamClarke

8/11/09 at 3:46 a.m.

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It's about time.
By neiman1

8/11/09 at 6:35 a.m.

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The unions abuse their own workers? The teamsters are facing a work action and pickets from their own employees. Watch as the unions eat each other alive.

Are the unions evil employers abusing their workers and unfair practice or are the workers unreasonable and demanding more than can be provided.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0...
By Patrick_R_Gibbons

8/11/09 at 8:58 a.m.

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Unions have not done very well in the modern competitive market. In the modern age unions have only been able to thrive on government workers and private sector jobs that are protected by government power. Meaning that when given the option Americans prefer to consume goods and services from non unionized companies. And when given the option Americans prefer to work in non unionized companies.
By freeandinformed

8/11/09 at 7:55 p.m.

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By Patrick_R_Gibbons
8/11/09 at 8:58 a.m.
"Suggest removal Unions have not done very well in the modern competitive market. In the modern age unions have only been able to thrive on government workers and private sector jobs that are protected by government power. Meaning that when given the option Americans prefer to consume goods and services from non unionized companies. And when given the option Americans prefer to work in non unionized companies."

Intersting observation from this writer.

If this were true, then the polls indicating a majority of working men and women want the opportunity to join unions as long as their choices are free from employer intimidation and threats of being fired.

If this writer,s premise is correct then employers and the Chambers of Commerce wouldn't be throwing millions of dollars lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act. They fear unions more than this writer.

A cursory look of America's history will reveal that Unions even with their faults, have helped create and sustain the middle class in this nation. If you have the benefits of a 40 hour week , minimum wage protections, health care coverage, universal public education, laws prohibiting child labor, pension and vacation guarantees, protections from unsafe working conditions, a level playing field under collective bargaining providing a voice in your work place resulting in some dignity to the worker and a push back against a race to the bottom when wages for working families have fallen, then you can thank organized labor. Even those in non-union shops recognize what ever benefits their benevolent employers give them is primarily to keep out union organizers and to remian somewhat competitive. In spite of this , non-union workers make less than unionized employees.
By afveteran

8/11/09 at 9:29 p.m.

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The middle class in this country has flourished despite unions, would be a more precise comment.
Corporations like Dell and Microsoft have become icons in the hi-tech industry because Bill Gates and Michael Dell were free to build their business plans and strategically steer their companies without cumbersome unionized labor.
Now, let's look at steel, auto, and railroad industries. Yep, all unionized and going extinct in our country. The pro-union folks need to buy a glass stomach so they can see things as they really are.
By Nevada_Ned

8/11/09 at 10:59 p.m.

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The Sun article explains that technical professionals turned to unions after management started abusing the professional employees.

What about Microsoft? A very long time ago, Microsoft pampered its employees. But then management went out for blood. The last time I checked, Microsoft was the largest private employer in Mumbai (Bombay), India. Microsoft has outsourced a lot of programmer jobs.

A couple of decades, some writers acted as if technology would solve all our problems. But now, with computer hardware outsourced to China, and computer software outsourced to India, the computer industry is starting to look a lot like the auto industry or steel industry. There's a HUGE trade deficit in high technology products.

Michael Dell and Bill Gates have become multi-billionaires. And how much are their workers paid?
Dell and Gates once made big profits paying American workers, but they are making even bigger profits by exporting the jobs, and importing unemployment.