After a Life in Labor, a Union Leader Retires, Frustrated by the Movement’s Troubles

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NY Times


Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Anna Burger at an economic meeting during President Obama’s campaign. Ms. Burger is retiring as chairwoman of Change to Win and secretary-treasurer of the service employees’ union.

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: September 4, 2010

WASHINGTON — After 38 years as a gung ho trade unionist, Anna Burger is retiring — with unmistakable frustration — from her post as the highest-ranking woman in American labor movement history.

Ms. Burger, 59, is frustrated because she has dedicated her adult life to building the labor movement, but it has nonetheless grown smaller and weaker. Beyond stepping down as chairwoman of Change to Win, a federation representing 5 million union members, she is also retiring from her job of 14 years as secretary-treasurer of the powerful Service Employees International Union, representing nearly 2 million janitors, hospital employees and others workers.

Ms. Burger said many women still had far too hard a time balancing job and family. She is also frustrated that union membership continues to shrink even when workers should in theory be flocking into unions during this time of stagnating wages. And the labor-friendly Democratic majorities that unions fought so hard to elect in the House and the Senate could disappear in this November’s elections.

“The labor movement gave me a chance for a better life,” said Ms. Burger, the daughter of a Teamsters truck driver. “I worry whether the labor movement will continue to be able do that for a lot of people.”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/us/05labor.html

[provis99]

1. yeah, I quite my efforts at organizing quite early.

I realized that most of the workers thought of unions as their enemies; gangsters out to extort money from them, and making their lovely capitalist bosses feel bad about oppressing them. When I quit, I pretty much said fuck you to the Glenn Beck-loving welders I was trying to organize. I'll never waste my time beating my head against that wall again. Some people just deserve poverty and oppression.

[Proletariatprincess]

3. wow. Do I understand that sentiment, Provis99.

I too was a local labor leader. I became a steward and activist because I really cared about the people I worked with and wanted to advance the cause. But at the end of my career, I realized that most of the membership saw the union as a service organization paid for with their dues and not a movement to make the world a better place. There was no solidarity and the members didn't want to participate but rather wanted the union to make things better....never understanding that they are the union.
I am not alone in my belief that the red scare of the fifties that expelled the socialists and communists from the union movement forever prevented any real progress toward fairness and justice for the working class. We continue to see the damage that legacy has done to our politics when any effort to solve social problems is branded as socialism and dismissed out of hand. Even the most modest proposals from our politically moderate president has labeled him socialist/communist.
The failure of the Labor movement...the refusal of working people to do something for themselves...is the doom of the US republic.

[RATM435]

15. understanding the concept of we the people.

"never understanding that they are the union"

Just like with government people don't understand the
concept of we the people.

[mike_c]

16. I'm struggling with that now....

When we have all-chapter meetings, we're lucky if a dozen people show up, out of several hundred. And it's always the same dozen or so. I agree with your comment that most members seem to view the union as a service organization that works on their behalf and fail to understand their own roles in that organization.

[Wilms]

2. Now there's a curious term. What do you think the NYT means when they write...

"labor-friendly Democratic majorities"? :shrug:

And why is Rubin at a table with a sign that says "Economic Security for American Families"?

[snot]

4. Conditions now are more ideal for unions than they've been for decades. Union leadership seem

to have responded so inadequately that one has to wonder whether they were somehow hand-picked by our corp. masters.

For starters, where have these leaders been on all the xtreme-negative p.r. re- unions, for the last few decades? Why hasn't media reform been on their horizon since years ago?

[old mark]

10. Union leadership in many cases was more concerned about their own jobs and

perks - and getting along with the company with no troublesome labor problems. I was a steward in AFSCME for some years, and I have seen things done by the union staffers that really depressed me. I went for my Steward training to a huge new marble faced building, and wondered why so much money was spent on it...I was pretty proud of the things my local tried to do, but we got almost no support from the regional office and never heard anything from the national union.

mark

[Citizen Worker]

5. Things will not get any better for the working class until Labor concludes their future does not

reside with the democrats or republicans.

[bread_and_roses]

12. Exatcly (n/t)

[boppers]

6. Do robots have unions? Do they need them?

The world has changed. There are vastly less "workers" than before.

That being said, the remaining "workers" still need cohesive representation.

[Hannah Bell]

7. there are more workers than ever before. they just think they're "professionals".

but they're just workers.

[boppers]

9. plz explain/expand upon that thought?

I like your thoughts, Hannah Bell, they make me shut up and think, so what do you mean?

[jsmithsen]

8. Organization is subtle and the better-organized win

It would be interesting for a Labor Economist to analyze the relationship between inequality and organization/power (relative to more commonly noted factors such as education, skill, or work dangerousness).

I'm not (only) referring to the differences between labor and management, but between different groups of workers.

In some cases this is due to unions. The better compensated members of the "creative class" are highly organized into unions.

In some cases this is due to professional associations (e.g. the AMA or the ABA).

In some cases this is due to subtle use of regulations. Accounting on Wall Street is not outsourced to anywhere near the same degree as IT. Why - "we need US accountants to directly interact with US regulators - it is the law". Similarly for other countries.

In some cases it is due to groups of Mafia-like gangs. Many economists have noted the power of employees at Wall Street companies. Wall Street is filled to the brim with gangs of (mostly) men who exploit the consumers of financial products, run circles around the regulators and throw spitballs at upper management. There are many "strikes" on Wall Street, as when a group of 100 people threaten to leave from one firm to another the day after a key project goes into production. "People's capitalism" was a cruel trick resulting in the theft of the savings of the American worker by Wall Street.

And is some cases it is due to the market and/or political power of the companies themselves, as in those companies which are tied into one "X-industrial complex" or another; and/or are "too big to fail".

The American meritocracy is a game which most workers are designed to lose.

[xchrom]

11. what a sad read this is. -- and to echo another duer --

what the fuck is rubin doing there?

you just can't say you're concerned about the economic welfare of americans and then have someone there who leveraged against us.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Look at the photo in the OP and you will see where the problem lies

Hint: they are wearing ties.

[Historic NY]

14. You do realize many these jobs are being filled by people ....that..

well don't have green cards. Many places are just hiring undocumented workers to clean their offices, hotels, etc. I don't think these workers want the attention belonging to a union would bring.