LETTERS
Editors: Robert Kuttner thankfully does not attribute all of labor's ills to external factors as so many do; instead, he reveals some of the internal problems unions must overcome if organizing...
...Editors: For reasons financial, I am not now a subscriber to Dissent, but I usually purchase each issue at a magazine or book store, not an easy matter...
...Kuttner mentions union leaders' wariness of organizers...
...In my experience, most labor organizers believe in the overriding importance of labor's institutional interests and reserve their radicalism and political activism for the "wider" struggle outside unions, or they prefer to discuss their vanguard role vis-à-vis "the workers" in whichever caucus or line they currently adhere to...
...This may explain why rank-and-file members are not used by unions to organize new union members...
...He excludes from his analysis the role of the rank and file...
...Mill Valley, Calif...
...For workers, to lose is bad enough, but never to have made the fight sets the stage to view the unions as in bed with management...
...The proper spelling of the name is Herri Batasuna—and it's the name, not of any candidate, but of the party itself...
...Likewise, newly organized members are more occupied with gaining a contract and settling scores with management than in reforming the union...
...Union members have a great deal of influence on the labor movement's future...
...These include a cut-rate MasterCard (presently charging 12.5% interest), a reduced-fee legal service program, group insurance benefits, a package of financial benefits including money-market funds and individual retirement accounts, travel and lodging discounts, etc...
...Union leaders' paranoia explains this reluctance: they are afraid of stewards and activists from one facility or factory forming alliances with their pre-organized counterparts elsewhere...
...What the AFL-CIO is doing through a nonprofit corporation, Union Privilege Benefit Plans, is to develop a series of national consumer benefits available to members through their own unions...
...Ralph E. Luker, assistant editor (404) 526-8982 or Dr...
...One of the main benefits of unions is their function as a voice for the exploited...
...If one's voice is stifled in one's own union, how can that collective voice serve effectively for workers against management...
...Although it is true that many union leaders are fearful of an active membership, I think the challenge posed by aggressive organizers to entrenched leaders is overstated...
...The ability to negotiate for these benefits on behalf of thirteen and a half million AFL-CIO members and their families has provided significant savings...
...Derek Bok and John Dunlop write in Labor and the American Community: "So many labor organizations began as benefit societies that it is hardly an exaggeration to say that trade unionism in America arose almost as much from a desire to band together for mutual insurance as from a desire to bargain collectively...
...400...
...The editors of the King Papers would be grateful to receive original documents or copies of original documents for possible inclusion in the volumes of the King Papers...
...Indeed, before public-sector collective bargaining became possible, many public-sector unions, such as the Teachers and AFSCME, were built on benefit packages...
...quite another to be sold down the river by unions too weak, too lazy, too frightened, or too disorganized to mount a credible struggle against concessions...
...It takes many years of disillusionment for most members to reluctantly take on their own leaders...
...Another obstacle to organizing is the problem of internal democratic participation, which Kuttner mentions but never expounds upon...
...Our efforts and attitudes are vitally important to any future at all for the movement...
...Washington, D.C...
...Clayborne Carson, c/o The Martin Luther King Center, 449 Auburn Ave, N.E., Atlanta, GA 30312, or call: Dr...
...last June voted for Henri Batasuna, candidate of the one nationalist party that refuses to condemn the ETA...
...Editors: The Martin Luther King Papers, which will be published in twelve volumes under the editorship of Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson, will be the most comprehensive collection of the publications, sermons, speeches, correspondence, photographs, and other documents relating to Martin's role in the civil rights movement...
...What is often forgotten is that in an earlier period of American labor history it was benefits such as these, in many cases pioneered by the "social unions" of the needle trades and others, that were a key attraction for union recruiting...
...I also like having Dissent around, and in spite of some of the criticisms which you have frequently heard —"It lacks liveliness," or among some of the active members of the local DSA chapters: "It's too conservative" (meaning it is Social-Democratic and puts too much emphasis on human rights)—there is something inspirational in the magazine's survivability and the dedication of its contributors, who give of themselves in their articles without stint...
...Letters must be kept to about 500 words, typed, double-spaced, and carry the full address and name of the sender...
...That concept holds out the possibility of providing labor with increased organizing opportunities, as well as a method of recruiting members, not merely on the job, but as consumers, tenants, citizens, etc...
...For further information, please write: Dr...
...Who wants to pay dues money for that...
...Editors: Robert Kuttner's critique of labor's current perspective on organizing (Dissent, Winter 1987) touches too offhandedly on the associate member concept being developed by the AFL-CIO and some affiliates...
...No," she said, and added warmly, "but I like having them around...
...A return to these concepts through associate member programs in which unions seek to recruit former members, as well as other nonmembers, by offering these types of benefits, plus job and personal counseling services, seems promising...
...Lillian Ashcraft Eason, assistant editor (404) 5268984...
...We reserve the right to edit letters down to fit our space and to choose which shall be printed...
...San Francisco, Calif...
...instead, he reveals some of the internal problems unions must overcome if organizing is to become a real priority in the labor movement...
...I disagree, however, with his focus on union leadership— officers and organizers—as the primary players in unions' organizing successes...
...But the biggest drag on organizing workers is the concessionary bargaining climate in the 1980s...
...Unfortunately, democratic abuses in unions are serious and very difficult to correct...
...But in the forty years since the end of World War II, successful fringe benefit negotiations by unions 399 have made health and retirement benefits part of the collective bargaining process, rather than unilateral union benefits, and unions have lost much of their character as mutual benefit associations...
...And always there is a glimmer of fresh insight and critical intellect...
...A sentence in the article states that "seventeen percent of the Basque population...
...Atlanta, Ga...
...the attitudes of union members play an important part in any organizing campaign...
...As I paid the cashier/owner of the store, praising her for carrying the magazine, I asked her if she sold many copies...
...In fact, because organizers are fully aware that they have no job security, and are generally unwilling to organize themselves, labor leaders do not find them a threat to their own job security...
...Letters will not be returned to senders unless they are accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelopes...
...Correction Because of an editing error, a mistake appeared in Joel Bleifuss's "Spain: Democracy With Difficulties," in the Spring 1987 Dissent...
...Therefore, if old members are alienated from their own unions, potential new members will be nearly impossible to organize, no matter how much commitment, money, and organizers unions allocate to their numerical survival...
...It's tough to organize during these times, and impossible when the unorganized are exposed to unions unwilling or unable to fight against these concessions...
...I live in Marin County, California, an area much publicized with both praise and derision, and previous to last month I knew of no place in the county where I could purchase Dissent...
...It is one thing to be assaulted by management...
...Last month I discovered half a dozen copies of Dissent, a veritable treasure trove, at the "Newsstand" in Sausalito...
Vol. 34 • July 1987 • No. 3
