It is often said there are only two certainties in life: Death and Taxes. Everything else is not, “human conflicts were not, the conflicts of society were not, boom and bust were not. In the end, there was only the clock…”[1]. But one certainty the Association for Union Democracy holds fast to is the centrality of union democracy to the sustaining of a strong and viable labor movement.
[1] Stephen King, Pet Sematary
In spite of a worldwide pandemic and seismic shifts in the labor world (around organizing and contract negotiation especially), AUD has done the hard work of fielding inquiries from laborites seeking their full democratic rights as union members. This is important both as a good in and of itself and its function as furthering the main goals of organized labor.
As unionists, it is essential that we hold fast to both values of solidarity and individual democratic rights because one is not possible (particularly in the context of organized labor) without the other. The trade union movement’s greatest achievement is the promise of extending the values of democracy to the economic sphere, wherein the worker has a greater measure of autonomy over their shopfloor, their company, etc. and thus, their lives. Collective action is necessary to achieve this goal, but never at the expense of the workers’ individual rights as union members. We at AUD have been stalwart advocates of these rights for over half a century and, with your help, will continue to provide guidance and counsel to those union members who require it. In the words of AUD co-founder and law professor Clyde Summers “…for collective bargaining serves vital social and political purposes. First, it serves economic justice by creating a collective labor market with more equal bargaining power between employers and employees. Second, it thereby serves to reduce the need for government intervention to protect employees from their economic vulnerability, leaving regulation to market forces in that collective market. Third, it serves to bring a measure of due process and democracy to the workplace (and to the union itself).”
To serve this grand (if occasionally grinding) function for the labor movement, AUD needs your help. We’ve been involved this year with advising many unionists seeking to exercise their democratic rights.
-A union member was denied work in an orchestra he helped to organize, by a local President whose membership allegedly took the work by agreeing to wages below what their contract specified. The member also claimed allegations of mismanagement of pension contributions. AUD referred the member to a labor attorney, and to a reform caucus inside the union.
-A union member is attempting to fight his union’s nepotism and refusal to be transparent with their members about contract negotiations, and is pushing for a review period before the next contract vote. AUD helped the unionist get in contact with a sympathetic labor attorney, and supplied the member with hundreds of brochures on members’ democratic rights, which are being distributed in hopes of raising membership awareness of those rights. .
-A union member was physically assaulted by another union member after reporting the latter for employing non-union labor and nepotism. AUD guided him through the process of reporting this violent retaliation to the Dept. of Labor’s Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), and to his international union.
-A group of unionists fought an attempt to disband their union’s election committee by incumbent officers and the mishandling of voter rolls by the president of the local. AUD advised the group on how to file an election protest, which they won. The previous president has since been defeated in his attempt at re-election.
-A union member is challenging the local leadership’s assertion that only 6 members of the over 300-member union are qualified to run in an upcoming officer election, according to a meeting attendance rule in the bylaws. The unionist is leading an effort to repeal the bylaw, but the officers are attempting to hold the election before any internal recourse can be taken by the member. AUD has provided him with our“meeting attendance rule information packet” which includes court decisions, examples of when such rules were declared illegal, and guidance in filing a complaint about the rule with the Dept. of Labor.
To continue to sustain an office, a bookstore and library of union democracy literature, a website, and a staff that can field requests for help like those above, we ask that you contribute to our Association for Union Democracy. We are always grateful for the help you give and honored to be joined in the cause by contributors like yourself. Thank you!
