[Excerpt] The trade union movement has always been the strongest when it has built upon diversity and woven from that diversity a grand mosaic — embracing different cultures and traditions in the name of that one great notion of solidarity. Our strength has always been in our diversity and solidarity has always been our motto

Sheinkman, Jack

English

[Excerpt] The trade union movement has always been the strongest when it has built upon diversity and woven from that diversity a grand mosaic — embracing different cultures and traditions in the name of that one great notion of solidarity. Our strength has always been in our diversity and solidarity has always been our motto.Issue_20____Article_1.pdf: 91 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

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Multiculturism in Building the Union

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Labor Research Review 
Volume 1 | Number 20 
Building on Diversity: The New Unionism Article 15 
1993 
Multiculturism in Building the Union 
Jack Sheinkman 
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© 1993 by Labor Research Review 
Multiculturism in Building the Union 
Abstract 
[Excerpt] The trade union movement has always been the strongest when it has built upon diversity and 
woven from that diversity a grand mosaic — embracing different cultures and traditions in the name of 
that one great notion of solidarity. Our strength has always been in our diversity and solidarity has always 
been our motto. 
Keywords 
ACTWU, multiculturalism, diversity, union organizing, trade unions 
This article is available in Labor Research Review: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/lrr/vol1/iss20/15 
'**$£. 
Jur union has had to re-examine itself critically, experiment 
with new strategies, programs and practices as part of a long 
and complicated process of cultural and organizational change 
designed to transform challenges into growth opportunities." 
L A B O R R E S E A R C H R E V I E W # 2 0 
Multiculturism 
in Building 
the Union 
*Jack Sheinkman 
The trade union movement has always been the strongest when 
it has built upon diversity and woven from that diversity a grand 
mosaic—embracing different cultures and traditions in the name 
of that one great notion of solidarity. Our strength has always been 
in our diversity and solidarity has always been our motto. 
As President of the Amalgamated, I represent a union built on 
the dreams and aspirations of immigrants. The faces and the 
nations represented in our unions today may be different, but the 
hopes of our members and their families are identical. 
I like to think of ACTWU as a mini United Nations. An increas-
ing number of our union's members come from the Caribbean, 
South and Central America, from Southeast Asia—and more 
recently, new immigrants have joined our ranks from the troubled 
lands in Eastern Europe. We also have among our ranks Afro-
American workers, white textile and apparel workers in the rural 
South, and others from the urban centers whose ancestors were 
immigrants from Europe several decades ago. A majority of our 
members are women—and women of color are the fastest grow-
ing segment of our union family. 
• Jack Sheinkman is President of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union 
(ACTWU). These remarks were originally made before New York labor leaders in a 
forum sponsored by Cornell Univ. Labor Studies Program/NYSSILR in October 1992. 
2 Labor Research Review #20 
We've had negotiating teams with 10 members and 10 languages. 
Yet even when our workers may not be able to converse in the 
same language, they share the same goals. Our job as union leaders 
is to foster the similarities by respecting the differences. This is 
the way to make our union strong—and to make the union move-
ment a welcoming venue for new workers and for the workers 
of the future. 
To do this, our union has had to re-examine itself critically, 
experiment with new strategies, programs and practices as part of 
a long and complicated process of cultural and organizational 
change designed to transform challenges into growth opportunities. 
Our union has always had as its mission the merging of diverse 
cultures. From the old ACWA, which was an amalgam of immi-
grants from Eastern, Southern, and Central Europe—to the TWUA, 
which included a large number of Southern white and Afro-
American workers—our union always sought to break down the 
barriers of differences through mutual respect. 
Today, because of the concentration of Asian and Latino workers, 
we concentrate on issues of critical importance to these workers. 
One example of this is the pressing issue of immigration policy. 
It is estimated that as much as 39% of the apparel industry's entire 
workforce now consists of undocumented Asian and Latino immi-
grants. Partly as a response to these changing demographics—and 
more importantly, because it is a matter of civil and human 
rights—ACTWU had adopted a policy calling for the repeal of 
employer sanctions contained in the U.S. immigration laws. In fact, 
ACTWU, along with the ILGWU, are the only two AFL-CIO unions 
to oppose employer sanctions for hiring undocumented workers. 
This is an important step in shaping a strategy to increase and 
improve both the organizing and representation of this growing 
immigrant workforce. 
Our union has always stood for international worker solidarity, 
but recently we have increased our international activities to assist 
workers in developing countries to organize themselves. 
An example of this is the union-to-union work we've done 
between ACTWU and SACTWU, the South African Clothing and 
Textile Workers Union, the third largest union in COSATU, South 
Africa's labor federation. We've brought workers and leaders from 
SACTWU to meet with our union leaders, members and staff 
across the country. We've shared information about how to build 
the union with everything from organizing campaigns to corporate 
campaigns to public relations. This has been an invigorating 
experience for both unions—and it has strengthened both unions. 
I might add that this strategy also helps us plan campaigns which 
I 
Building on Diversity 3 
are international in scope when we are fighting in the global 
marketplace where multinationals are the name of the game. 
Another example of this is the work ACTWU has done on behalf 
of workers' rights and human rights in Central America. Recently 
you have heard about the news which the National Labor Com-
mittee broke about USAID funding in the Caribbean Bas in-
siphoning off millions of dollars in American taxpayer monies to 
pay American corporations to relocate in free trade zones in Cen-
tral America, where workers are abused and underpaid. ACTWU 
was the lead union in this probe—our aim is twofold: one is to 
promote job training and investment here in the U.S. Two is to 
make sure that American dollars don't go to abuse workers in the 
Third World. Further, many of our workers have family members 
still in their mother country, in Honduras or El Salvador. We want 
to make certain that these workers are not laboring under dan-
gerous and oppressive conditions, just as much as we want to 
ensure jobs for our workers in the U.S. 
The only way in which the union movement can grow in an 
ever-changing climate is by fostering a sense of "ownership" 
among each and every union member. The union belongs to the 
members—that is the most basic and fundamental principle of 
democratic trade unionism. 
Second, the union is an amalgam of the cultural diversity of the 
membership and the union promotes this diversity in a spirit of 
mutual support and respect. This means that there must be 
avenues of opportunity opened to all members—at all levels of 
the union. 
We must give our members the tools with which to build the 
union. These tools include basic literacy and multi-lingual train-
ing. We must expand internal educational efforts to introduce 
members to the cultural background of their union brothers and 
sisters. We must use the union movement as a way to eradicate 
bigotry and racism. 
If the union is seen in an inclusive manner, more members will 
seek to get active in the union's internal life. A union, my friends, 
must be a living organism. Our unions are rich in history, but they 
must also be rich in the present—and even richer in the promise 
of the future. 
The union is an agent of social change. The union is a mini 
United Nations. These are the models we need to promote if we 
are to grow. The union movement can show the way in a multi-
cultural America and in an ever-shrinking world. We must show 
the way. • 


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