Serving the Public Interest: Preventing Double-Breasting in the Construction Industry

Excerpt] But the immediate question I am addressing is how the practice of double-breasting undermines the stability of collective bargaining in the construction industry. The simple answer is that it is not exceedingly difficult for a unionized contractor to operate a double-breasted nonunion firm and, given the increasingly intense competitive pressures to cut labor costs (given rising land and material costs), employers have a strong incentive to double-breast. To the extent unionized contractors have pursued that business strategy, how has it impacted the system of collective bargaining in the construction industry

Ask the Jobless If Marx Is Relevant

Grabelsky29_Ask_the_Jobless_If_Marx_Is_Relevant.pdf: 120 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Unions Impose Stability on a Turbulent Construction Industry

Grabelsky31_Unions_Impose_Stability_on_a_Turbulent_Construction_Industry.pdf: 133 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Lighting the Spark: COMET Program Mobilizes the Ranks for Construction Organizing

This article describes the COMET (Construction Organizing Membership Education Training) program. Faced with declining membership and market share and an erosion of bargaining strength and political influence, building trades unions have undertaken a number of Initiatives to reverse their fortunes. COMET, an educational program that generates membership support and participation in organizing, has emerged as one of the most noteworthy of these new initiatives. Before COMET, organizing efforts were stymied by the reluctance of many union members and leaders to recruit into membership the large nonunion workforce. COMET appears to have transformed the political culture within those local unions that have utilized it by placing organizing on the top of their agendas. Although organizing activity and effectiveness are growing, it may be too soon to tell if construction unions can use COMET to successfully re-unionize the industry

Standing at a Crossroads: The Building Trades in the Twenty-First Century

American building trades unions have historically played a critical and stabilizing role in the nation’s construction industry, establishing uniform standards and leveling the competitive playing field. Union members have enjoyed better than average wages and benefits, excellent training opportunities, and decent jobsite conditions. But in the last thirty years the industry has undergone a dramatic transformation. This article describes the decline in union density, the drop in construction wages, the growth of anti-union forces, the changes in labor force demographics, the shift toward construction management, and the emergence of an underground economy. It also analyzes how building trades unions have responded to these changes, identifies structural impediments to union renewal, and proposes strategies for building trades unions to reassert their presence and power

Building Labor’s Power in California: Raising Standards and Expanding Capacity Among Central Labor Councils, The State Labor Federation, and Union Affiliates

[Excerpt] For several years, the California Labor Federation has been engaged in a strategic planning process that began with a critical evaluation of a political setback in 2004 – losing an important statewide ballot initiative – and soon evolved into a systematic effort to elevate the performance of all the labor movement’s constituent parts. Spearheaded by a statewide Strategic Planning Committee, union leaders throughout the state have struggled to overcome organizational weaknesses, to develop a common and coherent program, to articulate standards and benchmarks to guide and track progress, to establish systems of accountability uncommon in the contemporary labor movement, and to build unity of purpose and action among diverse affiliates. Despite the many challenges inherent in this enterprise, California unionists have made significant progress and members of the Strategic Planning Committee remain positive, even passionate, about their mission. “To be quite honest, I was reluctant to participate in the committee,” admits IBEW Vice President Mike Mowrey. “But this experience has given me a new perspective. I started to see the potency and potential when unions really get together.” This article tells the story of these union leaders and their ongoing efforts to build labor’s power across the state of California. As a result of their solid work, and with vitally important support from the national AFL-CIO, California unionists are building organizations – the State Federation, Central Labor Councils, and affiliated unions – that are increasingly capable of shaping and driving a working peoples’ agenda in the nation’s largest state

Letter to the Editor, \u3ci\u3eNew Labor Forum\u3c/i\u3e

[Excerpt] Bill Fletcher and Rick Hurd have shined a critical light on a vital issue facing the labor movement. They have asked, but not yet answered, how the AFL-ClO\u27s Organizing for Change, Changing to Organize program will help us build vibrant and democratic unions committed to inclusion and ready to grapple with the tough issues of race and gender. If their essay provides an excuse for some unions to avoid the challenge of organizing while debating these issues, it would be most unfortunate. But if their piece provokes a more serious and candid dialogue about external organizing and internal transformation, Fletcher and Hurd will have once again made an important contribution to revitalizing the labor movement

Heroes of New York

Grabelsky25_Heroes_of_New_York.pdf: 85 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Reinventing an Organizing Union: Strategies for Change

[Excerpt] Confronted by declining membership and market share as well as an erosion of bargaining strength and political influence, a sense of crisis now pervades many international unions. Some labor unions continue to adhere to programs and practices they have pursued for several decades. But others, faced with challenges so fundamental that their viability is at stake, have chosen to reexamine their basic policies and performance and to reorient their essential course. This paper evaluates the experience of four such international unions, all of which have recently embarked on strategic planning initiatives. Three of the unions – the Electrical Workers (IBEW), Carpenters (UBC), and Painters (IBPAT) – operate primarily in the private sector, representing workers in the construction industry but serving significant branches in other industrial sectors as well. The fourth is a large public –sector union, the Government Employees (AFGE). The membership rolls range from about 100,000 members to more than 700,000 members

Construction or De-construction? The Road to Revival in the Building Trades

[Excerpt] The building and construction trades have historically been one of the most stable and secure sectors of the American labor movement. In the period immediately after World War II, their power in the construction industry was legendary, controlling over 80 percent of the work and setting standards that were the envy of workers everywhere. How did the building trades\u27 position devolve so dramatically that it is now commonly described as a crisis of survival? How has the construction industry evolved in ways that have undermined the strength and vitality of building trades unions? How have construction unionists responded to the changed circumstances of their industry and their weakened position in it? How has the larger context of a labor movement in crisis influenced the strategic options of building trades leaders on both sides of the national split