Joe Alvarez, Northeast regional director for the AFL-CIO, makes a point during an ILR School pre-Labor Day panel discussion Aug. 27 in the Biotechnology Building. Charles Harrington/University Photography
The recent United Parcel Service strike and settlement mark the revival of the labor movement in the United States, declared an AFL-CIO official who addressed a campus audience last week.
"The UPS strike resonated across America because the picture started looking familiar to all people," Joseph Alvarez, Northeast regional director for the AFL-CIO, told students and faculty of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at a pre-Labor Day celebration Aug. 27 in Room G10 of the Biotechnology Building.
"Here is a company, UPS, doing great, over $1 billion in profits, dominating the industry and they are not hiring full-time workers or giving pay hikes," he said.
The biggest blunder for UPS in dealing with the Teamsters was that it "underestimated the public; the strike concerned issues all American workers understand and face," Alvarez said, noting the strong support strikers received from the public.
The labor movement revival, spawned by the strike settlement, is "significant for everyone in society," especially given the fact that living standards are declining for a significant part of the population, Alvarez said.
"The economy is in the seventh year of a recovery, profits are up, CEO salaries are skyrocketing, productivity is high and the stock market is up," Alvarez said. "Everything is great except for about 80 percent of the public whose living standards have declined."
Alvarez said income inequality is the next issue that labor must tackle, especially because it speaks to so many workers.
Also participating in the labor forum on "Organized Labor in 1997" from Cornell were Harry Katz, the Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining; James Rundle, ILR extension associate; and Risa Lieberwitz, associate professor of labor law.