``Change to Win'' at the 2005 AFL-CIO Convention: Real Reform or Glorified In-Fighting?STAMFORD, Conn. -- Labor Law labor law, legislation dealing with human beings in their capacity as workers or wage earners. The Industrial Revolution, by introducing the machine and factory production, greatly expanded the class of workers dependent on wages as their source of income. Firm Says While All Eyes Will Be On Chicago, Look at SEIU SEIU Service Employees International Union SEIU Special Education Intake Unit SEIU Secondary Education Interdisciplinary Unit SEIU Software Engineering Institute Union If You Want to See Substantive Change News regarding the formation of a five-member coalition of aggressive and successful unions within the AFL-CIO-- called "Change to Win"-- has attracted the attention of the media, unionized employers and labor relations professionals. Yet, the general business community seems disinterested. While avoiding unionization was a priority for many American companies years ago, it is rarely, if ever, on the agenda today. For most Americans--employers and employees alike--unions seem irrelevant: more than ninety percent of all private sector employees are not represented by any union. The "Change to Win" coalition, led by SEIU president Andy Stern For other people with this name, see . Andrew L. "Andy" Stern (born 1950) is the president of the Service Employees International Union, the largest and fastest-growing union in the United States and Canada. , is calling for a reformation of the labor movement. Stern has asked John Sweeney John Sweeney is the name of:
AFL-CIO in full American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations U.S. if more is not done. With support for organized labor Organized Labor An association of workers united as a single, representative entity for the purpose of improving the workers' economic status and working conditions through collective bargaining with employers. Also known as "unions". at an all-time low, Stern is correct in calling for public dialogue. It is relatively certain that Stern and the coalition will succeed in shaking things up at the AFL-CIO Convention next month in Chicago, especially in the area of redirecting significant resources toward new employee organizing. However, the real news is not about what might happen at the convention, but about what the SEIU has already accomplished: --SEIU is now in the process of a massive restructuring program which will merge many separate health care locals into large regional unions which will have the power to coordinate massive organizing and collective bargaining collective bargaining, in labor relations, procedure whereby an employer or employers agree to discuss the conditions of work by bargaining with representatives of the employees, usually a labor union. campaigns. There has been little, if any, publicity regarding this consolidation. --SEIU is the fastest growing union within the AFL-CIO; it has grown by hundreds of thousands since the last AFL-CIO convention. --SEIU's organizing model is to pressure employers to sign neutrality agreements and avoid Labor Board-supervised elections altogether. --Under so-called "employer neutrality" agreements, the SEIU claims a success rate of nearly 80%. --Even with traditional Labor Board elections, the SEIU wins nearly 75% of the time. |
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