Some Thoughts on Union Democracy

...I would not go beyond this in legislation...

...It is very good in the local union...

...As an administrative enterprise, the union is always facing decisions—depending on the level of union government —that by all standards and precepts of administrative "science" require a high order of executive initiative and leadership...

...Against this background, I should like to suggest two broad tests of union democracy in practice and in theory...

...Much of this rivalry is necessary and real...

...Consideration might be given to a labor-movement-wide board of appeals...

...No easy inference about democracy can be drawn from the extent to which the local union is free to go its own way in relation to the national union...

...It is the leadership of the labor movement at all levels of union government, from steward and business agent to the national president, that must act positively and creatively to give vitality to democracy in the union within the framework of union goals...

...The upshot is that the public government can tolerate a very broad range of diversity without endangering its existence or seriously impairing its effectiveness...

...The idea of the public review board of the kind adopted by the UAW and by the Upholsterers offers additional possibilities...

...But because legislation cannot and should not do the whole job, I do not mean to say that legislation cannot serve a useful purpose at all...

...At this point, I am not certain that sufficient evidence exists to justify the setting up of a public body as a court of last resort...

...I do not share the cynical doctrine of the "iron law of oligarchy" school that dooms the labor movement irrevocably to authoritarian government...

...The opportunities for face-to-face campaigning in the shops that are available to opposition groups in the local minimize the disadvantages of the local out-group or candidate...

...In large part, this is due, not so much to the "cussedness" of the leaders in office and their resentment of criticism, as it is to the absence of regular channels short of an election campaign through which criticism and opposition can express itself as a matter of course...

...Yet, I feel safe in saying that, unless these democratic and humane values are reasserted as fundamental operating principles, the labor movement in the United States as we have known it will deteriorate...

...If it isn't, then additional law is necessary to protect the interests of members from the acts of union officers who violate their fiduciary responsibilities by collusion with employers and pilferage and embezzlement of union treasuries...

...To achieve this, the union leadership must, first, act out of conviction that democracy is worthwhile even if occasionally inconvenient...

...There is evidence, however, as I have suggested, of some serious lapses from democracy in both local and national unions...

...The origins and growth of the labor movement are inextricably tied up with the democratic idea...

...4. Inadequate protection of individual union members seeking redress of grievances against an officer...

...At the same time, we must acknowledge that certain specific goals of union power Here Jack Barbash, professor of labor education at the University of Wisconsin, continues a discussion begun with J. B. S. Hardman's December 2 article, "Legislating Union Democracy...

...Certain kinds of legislation are in fact appropriate as aids to democratic procedures—specifically, the disclosure type of legislation...

...The main difficulty lies in the fact that the prevailing democratic theory has emerged from the management of public governments, not from the management of private governments, which is what a union is...

...Reinhold Niebuhr has observed in another context that "power-political realities are being obscured by moralism...

...The ease with which access to such bodies needs to be available must be balanced against the good faith and the seriousness of the complaints and the damage which can result if there is indiscriminate processing of such complaints...

...The idea of democracy has ever been the source of strength and sustenance of the labor movement...

...The crisis that the labor movement is confronting with respect to corruption also has redeeming features...

...The smaller unit—i.e., the local—is not necessarily the more democratic...

...It depends on the issue...

...Admittedly, the purposes which can be achieved by legislation are quite limited...

...As a political enterprise, the union is committed ideologically to democratic methods and structure in a way that no other kind of private government is...

...This is not to say that the union is not seriously affected with a public interest...

...And I see no connection between how long leaders stay in office and the degree of democracy...

...Democracy is not simply the mechanics of determining consensus...

...And, finally, there is a serious question as to whether democracy as a total process is an appropriate subject for legislation...

...Is there intent on the part of leadership to abide by democratic principles in the management of union affairs...

...I have noticed that opposition within a union will on occasion have an unsettling effect far out of proportion to the importance of the controversy...

...I know several unions which are or have been so stalemated by factionalism that the union cannot do its job...

...First, we do not have a firm enough grasp of the operating ingredients of a democracy...

...As has been observed by many students of the labor movement, the union is both a political and an administrative enterprise, and the political and administrative are inseparable and interlaced...

...And few will disagree that the general goals of union power— economic and personal security on the job—are compatible with the values of a free society...

...This is especially serious for elections beyond the local union level...

...More needs to be done, however...

...And a related consideration is the "appropriate unit" —to borrow an NLRB concept—in which consensus is sought...

...NL, February 4) The "power-political realities" of labor unions need to be taken into account in formulating a theory of union democracy...

...on the part of particular unions or union leaders are not compatible with a free society...

...And, secondly, union leadership must communicate to the membership an awareness and sensitivity to the responsibilities and the occasional inconveniences involved in the exercise of democratic rights...

...Second, even if we did, there are probably many critical requirements which legislation can do nothing about...

...There are strong signs that, out of either self-interest or ideological commitment to the principles of the American labor movement or both, the leadership will take firm and positive steps to strengthen democracy in the labor movement—as indeed it is now doing...

...A generation ago, a very perceptive student of the labor movement, Robert Hexie, said: "So far as workers are concerned, there is no society as a whole and no long run, but immediate need and rival social groups...

...Democracy must necessarily be related to the values for which consensus is sought...

...collective bargaining is one form of it...

...The rival groups which the union is confronted with are employers, governments, rival unions and internal factions...

...This means, therefore, that the major responsibility for revitalizing union democracy is that of the labor movement itself...

...I am not certain that the problem of irresponsible and undemocratic use of disciplinary powers constitutes such an overriding threat to the public interest that additional legislation is necessary beyond the remedies now available under existing law...

...I am not a lawyer and do not know to what extent existing law is adequate to deal with this problem...

...In enacting such legislation, we must also punish the conspirators among employers and their middlemen...

...Depending on the level of union government, are there constitutionally established mechanisms—the union meeting, the convention, the referendum, etc.— constituted on a representative basis and set up through periodic secret elections whereby the leadership can be held to account...

...A failure of the union to function democratically is therefore a failure in its central function...

...I am inclined to place my greatest reliance for the preservation and strengthening of the democratic processes of the labor movement on the labor movement itself...

...A labor specialist offers Some Thoughts on Union Democracy By Jack Barbash The problem in developing a theory of union democracy, as I see it, is to find the common ground between democracy as part of the complex of values in our society and the union as a going, effective institution in modern industrial society...

...This kind of rivalry is not characteristic of public governments...

...Indeed, the democratic process is of the essence of union functioning, because if the union is not an instrument of interest representation it is nothing...

...So that an international union which directs a local to cease discrimination against Negroes or face disciplinary action, or which refuses to approve a substandard contract negotiated by the local, is functioning democratically...

...2. Does the climate within the union make the utilization of these instrumentalities possible without fear of reprisal...

...The promulgation of the AFL-CIO Ethical Practices Codes with respect to democratic procedures is an excellent beginning...

...It is now possible for friends of, and participants in, the labor movement to discuss these issues openly and candidly without being made to feel that somehow the solidarity of the labor movement is thereby being put in peril...

...I am certain that the strategic element in democratic unionism must be this "will to democracy" on the part of the leadership...

...or, conversely, the extent to which the international or district councils regulate the local...

...It may easily be a subversion of democracy for a local unit to determine an issue in such a way as to prejudice the interests of the larger unit and thereby to deprive the larger unit of the right of choice...

...Nothing so attenuates the leader's will to democracy as indifference on the part of the members...

...I feel moderately optimistic that we are now witnessing a reassertion of democratic principles...

...Professor Barbash's piece is adapted from a talk at a recent Tamiraent Institute seminar...

...The "moral influence' theory has an ultimate validity in the sense that issues of right and wrong are ultimately potent...

...The practical problems of union survival and particularly good times have blurred the commitment to these democratic values...

...The private government of the union must operate within a narrower range...

...3. The unreviewable authority available to top union officers to spend money, discipline members and interpret the union constitution...

...It might also be worth exploring the use of the disclosure requirement with respect to such matters as trusteeships by the international union and reasons for such trusteeship—a requirement which could be met through publication in the union's official organ...

...2. Lack of adequate opportunities for an "out" group to get its views to the membership through the official publications of the union...

...This "rival social groups" provides us with the strategic point at which the private government of the union differs from the public governments...

...Judging by the reports of the kinds of letters which the McClellan Committee has been receiving, there is ground for holding that many of them are of the crackpot variety...

...On balance, the state of union democracy is good...

...Nor is the fact of centralization of collective bargaining in the national union inherently less democratic...

...It is a serious mistake to work on the theory that union democracy can be instituted through legislation where it does not now exist...

...Where unions depart from democratic principles, the points at which they are most vulnerable are: 1. Excessive and persistent interference by the national union in local union affairs through the device of setting up indefinite receiverships or trusteeships...

...There are several facts about the ways that unions function that I do not consider, by themselves, to be indicative of the absence or presence of union democracy...

...Another proper area for legislation is the enforcement of fiduciary obligations of union officers in respect to their constituents...

...The accommodation of union functioning to democratic processes is more subtle and elusive in the higher levels of union government, but my impression and experience is that the run-of-the-mill national union meets the requirements of working democracy in the context in which the national union has to function, which is necessarily at several removes from the membership...

...Indeed, this is the vital posture of the problem...

...The union's ability to represent its constituents has been and is its chief stock-in-trade in a way that is not true of any other private association...

...The principle of comprehensive disclosure should also be applied to health, welfare and pension funds with one addition: namely, that the requirements should apply irrespective of whether the programs are administered by unions, by managements, or jointly...

...But this, I believe, is inherent in the nature of the problem...

...It could easily be used as a weapon for harassment by enemies of the labor movement and by every crank who felt he had a grievance against the union...

...In addition to making the official publications of the union available to conflicting views, I think that the labor movement will do well to explore further the kinds of grooves that can be cut in the normal structure of the union to admit the give and take of opinion within the union...

...At this point, I would favor a broad disclosure statute with respect to union finances at all levels of union government which would make available to the individual union member a comprehensive reporting of union finances to show in detail how the union's money is spent: who gets how much and for what purpose...

...5. A weakening of the impulse to democracy by rank-and-file members and by union leaders who equate opposition to individual union officers with treason to the union...

...Every union situation must handle this in its own way...

...Do the mechanisms exist and is it possible for aggrieved members to get due process, including adjudication by officials or bodies which are not involved in the dispute...

...1. Do the instruments of democratic government exist...

...In a future issue, we will publish the seminar remarks of Professor Clyde Summers of Yale Law School...

...The two-party system of the International Typographical Union is such a device, but it is unique to the "culture" of the ITU...

...Here again, the test has to be the "appropriate unit" whose interests are necessarily affected by the nature of the decision that has to be made...

...But a simple moralism is always pathetic when it obscures the power realities which underlie moral issues...

...An international which establishes receiverships or trusteeships in local unions for the purpose of removing dissident elements is not functioning democratically...

...The test is (1) the purpose and use to which the regulation of authority is put and (2) conformity with constitutional due process...

...The idea of power per se has come to have highly suggestive overtones, but the test of power must be the use to which it is put...

...Is there a "will to democracy" on the part of the rank and file of the membership...

...As of now, I do not believe that there is any necessary relationship between turnover among union officers, or the existence of factions or organized opposition groups, and union democracy...