ILR conference topic: How can labor reinvent itself?

By Linda Myers

How to achieve a socially just global economy -- one in which workers worldwide enjoy safety, a fair wage and benefits -- was the central theme of an international conference held at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations Oct. 1-2.

"As globalization expands, reformist forces are joining in unusual coalitions that organize around human rights, a living wage and other issues," said ILR Professor Lowell Turner, co-organizer of the conference, "Strategies for Urban Labor Revitalization." He said: "While unions are often viewed as a declining force from an earlier era, it's hard to imagine reform in a global economy without them" in the mix.

Susan Christopherson, Cornell professor of city and regional planning, at the urban labor revitalization conference Oct. 1, held in the ILR Conference Center. Christopherson noted that social action in the United States is "more likely to be on the consumer side, not the union side." Robert Barker/University Photography

The conference, which was several years in the making, brought together its own unusual coalition: labor organizers such as Monica Russo of the Miami local of Service Employees International Union; practitioners such as Otto Jacobi from the European Trade Union Institute; theorists on global cities; labor researchers; and city and regional planners.

Saskia Sassen, a professor at the University of Chicago known internationally for her research on cities in a global economy, said: "As the formal political apparatus -- unions included -- accommodates less and less of the political, we're seeing the informal political -- social movements, the theatricalization of politics -- growing rapidly." She cited as examples the demonstrations and street theater taking place during the Republican National Convention in New York City and the social campaign known as Janitors for Justice, where "labor is entering the fray."

Susan Christopherson, Cornell professor of city and regional planning, who teaches the course The American City, said: "Social movements organizing to influence Wal-Mart's practices, for example, are likely to be on the consumer side, not the union side. In the U.S. there's almost no awareness of how the two could be brought together and no capacity for collective action. But in Sweden, media workers faced with unemployment have turned to unionization as a way to help them sustain careers." She made a plea for Americans to "not give up," but instead look to other countries and to corporate governance and investment rules for solutions to job losses and plant shutdowns brought about by globalization.

During a session titled "What Can Labor Do to Reinvent Itself," Dan Cornfeld, a professor at Vanderbilt University, and Bill Canak, a faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University, talked about Nashville as a globalizing city with a large, growing immigrant population from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. "Labor movements and immigration go hand in hand in the U.S.," Cornfeld said. But while Nashville is the state headquarters of the AFL-CIO and other key unions, including musicians' unions, coalitions between traditional union members and immigrants are hampered by prejudice. "Rather than viewing [immigrants] as potential union members, they view them as competition," said Canak.

Also involved in the conference were Cornell graduate students and recent graduates, some as discussants (Mark Anner, Brigid Beachler, Robert Hickey, Nathan Lillie) and some presenting papers (Heiwon Kwon and Ben Day, "In a Firing Mood: The Politics of Labor in Boston"; Marco Hauptmeier, "Between Solidarity and Fragmentation: Labor Coalitions in New York City and Los Angeles"; Julie Sadler, "The Bay Area: Transition, Transformation or Transfixed?"; and Ian Greer, "Union Vitality and the Politics of Job Retention in Seattle and Hamburg.")

Other ILR faculty members who took part were: Ron Applegate, Rosemary Batt, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Lance Compa, Maria Cook, Richard Hurd and Harry Katz. Faculty in City and Regional Planning included Lourdes Beneria and Barbara Lynch.