Labor leaders and staff from the Children's Defense Fund met recently for a lively and informative meeting titled "Building Labor and Community Alliances." The event took place March 21 and was hosted by Cornell's Institute for Women and Work (IWW) at its offices at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. Included were representatives from the AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers (UAW), the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Coalition of Labor Union Women.
Francine Moccio, director of the IWW, explained that the idea for the meeting came up during a conversation with Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman at the IWW's recent international conference on work-family balance in Bellagio, Italy. "We saw an urgent need for closer cooperation between labor and community-based organizations," said Moccio. "We felt that strong labor-community alliances had the potential to reap enormous benefits for all of society."
Edelman echoed Moccio's remarks, saying that she hoped the meeting would enable unions and community groups "to understand each other better and to identify areas of convergence at the federal, state and local levels. We must build bridges and move ahead." Edelman described the CDF's latest project, an omnibus 12-part bill that, she said, "outlines what we think this great nation should be doing for its children." She singled out the health and child-care sections of the bill as those holding the most promise for labor-community coalitions.
After her remarks, Bill Fletcher, special assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, gave a presentation on "Black Workers and the Organizing of the CIO." He told the group that based on historical research and his experience in the labor movement, he has identified several "ground rules" for labor-community alliances. For example, he said, "Don't make assumptions; agendas on both sides must be clear." Fletcher said that community-labor alliances historically have been difficult, because unions are often internally divided due to a diverse membership with widely varying agendas.
Priscilla Murolo, professor of history at Sarah Lawrence College, spoke on "Bridging the Community/Labor Divide: The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) and American Labor." According to Murolo, the WTUL, an alliance of unionists and settlement house workers that began in the late 19th century, "would never have called themselves a 'community-labor alliance,' because they didn't see those two groups as divided. It would have been like speaking about your right leg and left leg alliance." Murolo argued that "the historical example of the WTUL can serve as a key to reconceiving what we think of as labor issues."
Following Murolo's talk, participants engaged in a frank and illuminating exchange about the rewards of labor-community alliances and the obstacles in the way of building and sustaining them. Karen Nussbaum, director of the Working Women's Department of the AFL-CIO, said that one problem is "an underestimation of the membership generally throughout the union movement. Too often, the leadership has not encouraged creativity or diversity." Nussbaum argued that educating the members is crucial. "People are very receptive if you give them the information and the tools and you engage them."
Fletcher described himself as "very optimistic" about community-labor alliances. While he feels the labor movement is "headed in the right direction," he cautioned: "To organize on the scale we need, there needs to be a social movement, and that's not just the union."
Julie Kushner, subregional director of the New York/Connecticut area UAW, spoke about her union's recent successful drive to organize child-care workers in Stamford, Conn. "Developing relationships with the community was key to our success," she said, and noted that black churches were particularly supportive. She pointed out that for the child-care issue in particular, community-labor alliances are essential for both sides. "We cannot raise the wages and standards for child-care workers until we get more resources for child care from the federal government, just as we cannot get more child care unless we do that," she said.
Replied Edelman: "But my question is, how do we get there? The issue for me is where will we build the biggest base and how, in non-self-interested terms, we define our priorities."
Edelman and the labor leaders all expressed a strong interest in continuing to dialogue and work with one another. And at the meeting's conclusion, Moccio emphasized that "the institute is very committed to continuing these public debates to identify new forms of leadership and alliances for the new economy. These public forums also provide an excellent educational experience for Cornell students, such as the ILR credit interns in Washington, D.C., who aspire to workplace and policy leadership."
| Cornell Chronicle Front Page | | Table of Contents | | Cornell News Service Home Page |