Tiny labor.

I have been a union labor lawyer for more than twenty five years and am troubled by both the recent split in the AFL-CIO and what appears to be the knee-jerk support of fellow progressives for the Change to Win movement ("Tiny Labor," by Barbara Ehrenreich, August issue). While Ehrenreich does not come right out and say it, the tenor of her article falls in this camp, and I respectfully suggest the easy critique of John Sweeney and Big Labor's failure to galvanize the labor movement over the last ten years is just too simplistic and misses the bigger picture.

It is absurd to suggest that John Sweeney's leadership of the AFL-CIO laid the groundwork for labor's decline. Much more significant forces have been at work as the country moved to the right and supported the likes of George W. and his ideological cronies.

While the compromises that sometimes pushed the AFL in less progressive directions were often disheartening, without Big Labor's activism, I wonder just how much worse things could have been.

I am not a blind supporter of Sweeney's policies and am fundamentally opposed to much of the AFL-CIO's support for a regressive foreign policy in Venezuela and Israel. However, Sweeney, himself a dissident when he succeeded Lane Kirkland, initiated a host of reforms within the AFL-CIO, including a rededication to organizing, worker education, and most of all, progressive domestic politics.

One of the key differences between Sweeney and Andy Stern is that Sweeney remained true to the principles of union democracy and rank and file control, while Stern is committed to a corporate form of union organization that runs roughshod over the labor movement's best traditions of union democracy.

Ask Andy Stern why he has consistently opposed efforts to have his own position as president of the SEIU subject to direct membership vote.

Ask Andy Stern how many local unions have been trusteed under his administration. And ask the members of those unions how much their voices counted in the restructuring of the SEIU.

Also ask him why he opposes the unionization of the staff that works for SEIU local unions.

I wonder whether Stern's distaste for the democratic culture of trade unionism may prove, in the long run, to be labor's poison pill.

Howard B. Lenow

Wayland, Massachusetts

American workers have a lot of uphill battles. Barbara Ehrenreich touches on many of the dilemmas facing the labor movement (or lack of movement). As a letter carrier for twenty-three years, I am a lot less interested in who wants to be part of the AFL-CIO or the Change to Win Coalition than I am with the profound apathy that dominates many of the existing unions. The same complacency that leads to 30 percent turnouts at the polls seems to be pervasive in the current membership. As a longstanding member of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), a current shop steward, and a 100 percent union kind of guy, I have found a large segment of the membership to be completely uninterested in union activities. Some members have never been to a branch meeting, and most never bother to read the union publications that are mailed right to the houses of all members. Most of my co-workers refuse to follow suggested boycotts of consumer goods, and many shop at Wal-Mart. When I question how they can support a company that is stocking their shelves with goods made in Chinese sweatshops, they angrily reply that their first concern is with their own families, and Wal-Mart has the best prices.

For the labor movement to be successful it will need to start educating the current membership. Bringing in sheer numbers will be meaningless if existing workers are unable to mentor the new recruits. Most union brothers and sisters today have no historical connection to their organization's past, nor do they grasp the significance of unity.

Ehrenreich hit the nail on the head when she suggested that the secret weapon is solidarity.

Steve Weaver

Via e-mail

My father was a member of the IBEW for many years and credited that union with giving him his first real living wage. I know he would agree with every word of the "Tiny Labor" commentary. As a member of a union family, I also agree. Thanks to Barbara Ehrenreich and to The Progressive for putting it down in black and white.

M. Bryant

Fulton, Missouri