WHO'S ON FIRST?
Hentoff, Nat
WHO'S ON FIRST? Nat Hentoff Conscience and the Union Card When I was fifteen, I organized a union. We were workers in a small chain of candy stores in Boston, and were being paid thirty-five...
...Therefore, her union's solution to Kidwell's complaint would not do, said the court...
...Why, said the judge, should she have to choose between her membership in the union and her First Amendment rights...
...We never did go out on strike...
...Some are probably orchestrated by pro-life groups, but many have the imprint of indignant individuals...
...He would not mention that, as usual in these matters, there would be no floor vote...
...What particularly shook Kirkland and other high officials was a comment by New York's John Cardinal O'Connor...
...There is one such woman at The Voice...
...In this internal labor dispute, O'Connor has advised pro-life union members to withhold their dues if the AFL-CIO supports abortion rights...
...Well," he said, "it won't be by just one or two votes...
...Some of my co-workers were planning to make life miserable for her if we did go out on strike, and I told them that if they did, after I finished my time every day on the picket line against Murdoch I would picket them for their treatment of her...
...A good many of these workers are expressing themselves not only to pollsters but also to their local and international union officials...
...This was at the tail-end of the Depression...
...Meanwhile, a rising chorus of protest within the House of Labor on another issue may diminish dues income a great deal more...
...Brennan held that a nonmember who nonetheless pays the equivalent of union dues and other costs has a right not to be assessed for union expenses that go beyond collective bargaining...
...Furthermore, for exercising those rights...
...Suddenly, however, the most effective union organizer I have ever seen came along...
...With strong convictions on both sides of this issue, the fissures will be a lot deeper than disagreements over endorsement of a Presidential candidate...
...This would appear to signal an extension of the Beck decision when the Kidwell case, or one similar to it, comes before the High Court...
...the United Food and Commercial Workers International...
...she would be penalized by losing her right to vote on the terms and conditions of her employment...
...The special committee would make its recommendation to the executive council and Lane Kirkland would announce the result, lauding the democratic processes of the AFL-CIO...
...Because there are many rank-and-file prolifers in organized labor...
...Ordinarily, the rest would be a formality...
...Kilroy told Kirkland he hopes the AFL-CIO "remains silent on such a controversial and difficult issue...
...This would allow unions to back local, state, and Federal pro-choice candidates and become otherwise involved in the fierce battles currently going on—with more to come—as the Supreme Court gives more authority over abortion matters to the individual states...
...There, Judge Paul Niemeyer ruled that Kidwell has a First Amendment right to disagree with her union's choice of political causes...
...k>ing the other way were 31 per cent...
...She does not want to pay for any of the political and other undertakings of her union that do not pertain to collective bargaining and corollary basics...
...Just like now...
...They had contempt for the House of Labor because the AFL-CIO supported the war in Vietnam and included racist unions...
...The opinion was written by William Brennan, probably the most pro-union member of the Court...
...His column on First Amendment rights appears quarterly in The Progressive...
...It included, for instance, William Wynn, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and the three women who serve on the AFL-CIO's executive council (which will make the final decision...
...For a long time, others and I tried and failed to organize The Village Voice...
...Rupert Murdoch bought The Voice and the very next day a long line of Voice workers marched down to District 65, a catch-all local, and joined up...
...Labor officials were not too worried about the Beck decision...
...O'Connor refused to hire strikebreakers when New York's hospitals, including those of the Archdiocese, were on strike...
...Still, it's useful for individual consciences on both sides to get a workout...
...Furthermore, 43 per cent of the union households prefer—if a position must be taken— that the AFL-CIO be pro-life...
...Nat Hentoff is the author of "The First Freedom" and many other books...
...Why...
...In view of the Federal Court decision in Kathryn Kidwell's case—and the Supreme Court's apparent support of that decision—the fear is that O'Connor's advice may be widely accepted...
...and he helped Jesse Jackson gather public support for organizing home health-care workers...
...The union had told her that if she withdrew from the union, she would not have to pay for these additional expenses, and she would keep her job...
...No one wanted to be alone when it came to job security in a Murdoch enterprise...
...The judge could not resist quoting from Thomas Jefferson's conviction that no one should have to contribute even "threepence" for the "propagation of opinions which he disbelieves...
...He is the most passionately pro-labor prince of the church since James Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore...
...I asked him...
...In a March decision on the limits of political contributions by corporations, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, a majority of the Supreme Court casually noted—as if everybody knew this—that even if all members of a bargaining unit are compelled to be union members, a union cannot force any of these workers to lend financial support to union activities that infringe on their First Amendment rights...
...But there are signs that Kathryn Kidwell will prevail when and if the case arrives at the Supreme Court...
...Four years later, I helped organize the first union that radio station WMEX in Boston ever had...
...There are men and women in my organization who stand strongly on both sides of this issue...
...But the effect on organized labor may not be so sanguine...
...His father was for years a union organizer and official...
...Among the large and powerful unions pushing for the AFL-CIO to get involved on the pro-choice side in the abortion wars are the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees...
...The Transportation Communications International Union is, of course, appealing the decision...
...Gibbons, a century ago, prevented a papal condemnation of the national American labor union, the Knights of Labor...
...Kidwell, said the judge, should get her threepence back...
...Yet someone I know who is very high in the AFL-CIO's executive suite keeps telling me that nothing will happen, that the executive committee will recommend that the AFL-CIO have no policy on abortion rights...
...A March poll commissioned by the National Right to Life Committee indicated that 77 per cent of union households interviewed wanted labor to focus on wages and worker safety and stay out of the abortion debate...
...She is an Amtrak secretary and a full member of the Transportation Communications International Union...
...That question was answered by the Supreme Court in a 1988 case, Communication Workers of America v. Beck...
...The boss never forgave us, especially me...
...To force such financial support is to violate the First Amendment and the associational rights of the dissident worker—the right not to associate in certain cases...
...Because the executive council represents the House of Labor and, anyway, floor votes are messy and can become disrespectful to the hierarchy...
...Lane Kirkland, the CEO of organized labor, appointed an exploratory committee weighted in favor of the pro-choice side...
...Represented by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund—which was also involved in the Beck case and is no friend of organized labor, to say the least— Kidwell went to Federal District Court in Baltimore...
...Frank Swoboda of The Washington Post figures that at least nine of the fourteen members of the committee will vote for labor taking a pro-choice position...
...It doesn't happen all that often in the House of Labor—or anywhere else...
...It was an alternative paper, and most of its staff identified all unions with the AFL-CIO...
...But that may be changing because of a grievance Kath-ryn Kidwell brought to court against her union...
...But I was the shop steward by then, and the boss, afraid of the union, held his hand...
...If it is pro-choice, the abortion rights forces will be significantly helped...
...Among them are Richard Kilroy, international president of Kathryn Kid-well's Transportation Communications International Union...
...In many states, under the "agency shop," such dissenters pay the equivalent of union dues and keep their jobs even though everyone else is in the union...
...Only union members can so vote...
...I tell you this to indicate where my alliances are—with labor unions and with men and women who, for reasons of conscience, will not join unions...
...I've since been on several collective-bargaining committees and have helped other shops organize against the bosses...
...It did not, after all, apply to union members...
...Some years ago, when it looked as if we'd be going out on strike and feelings were high and nasty, she said she would not go on strike—for religious reasons...
...But what if a nonunion "agency shop" member protests the use of some of the money he pays the union for political and other causes not directly connected with collective bargaining and organizing...
...And Larry McFather, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, wrote: "Brother Kirkland, I cannot stress too strongly that I feel it would be a grave mistake for the AFL-CIO to take a position on reproductive rights...
...There has been a flood of such letters...
...We were workers in a small chain of candy stores in Boston, and were being paid thirty-five cents an hour...
...the International Ladies Garment Workers Union...
...However, the outcome has become too close to call...
...Although a partisan group paid for the poll, the margin of error is hardly enormous...
...On this kind of policy question," he tells me, "we operate by consensus...
...The presence of the union later saved my job...
...We figured we ought to get fifty cents an hour, and since we threatened to stike at the beginning of the Christmas season, we won...
...the United Electrical Workers, and the United Auto Workers...
...But I also support those people who, out of conscience, will not join a union but instead pay the equivalent of union dues for collective bargaining, grievance procedures, and organizing purposes...
...Why does he think it could be that close...
...If these auguries prove to be accurate, the dues income of some unions in the AFL-CIO may be significantly lessened...
...The boss was convinced I was a Communist because Pete Seeger had been a guest on my folksong program...
...We could get hurt," an official of the AFL-CIO told me...
...A majority of organized labor's representatives would not be heard...
...There has been considerable pressure in some labor quarters to have the AFL-CIO take an official stand in favor of abortion rights...
...And she stays in the union...
...Labor's special committee on abortion may have a report ready for the executive council when it meets in Chicago on July 31 and August 1. Despite my source at the AFL-CIO and other reports from within, I still think the decision could go either way...
...The presidents of various unions have, as a result, written to Lane Kirkland to back off...
...How do you know you have a consensus...
...Her religion tells her not to be part of any institutions except her church...
Vol. 54 • August 1990 • No. 8
