Unions and the Left — Building a Better World

by Michael Yates

I am delighted to be here for this celebration for economic justice. I have been an advocate for the labor movement of this country for most of my adult life. I have been a union member, active in trying to organize my own workplace. I have participated in organizing campaigns for many other groups of workers, from custodians to librarians to glass workers. For the past 20 years I have been a labor educator, teaching a wide range of courses to working men and women throughout this region and beyond. I have written extensively about the labor movement, not just in professional journals but in books and articles aimed directly at workers.

During the 1980s when things were especially bleak for our unions, I struggled on knowing that things would change. And lo and behold it appears that they have. The new leadership of the AFL-CIO is taking major steps to rebuild our unions and our labor movement. This meeting tonight and Bill Fletcher’s presence here demonstrate that a new day has dawned for the labor movement. I applaud brother Fletcher and the New Voice leadership of the AFL-CIO. They have committed themselves to organizing; they have championed the cause of gender equality; they have developed progressive education programs; and they have stood solidly against the anti-labor globalization marked by NAFTA an d the WTO.

Yet much needs to be done. Union density is still falling. Insecurity on the job is rampant, and the government seems awfully insensitive to the needs of workers. Workers in the United States now lead the advanced capitalist nations in hours of work. Soon we will follow the Japanese and invent a word for death from overwork! Women remain woefully unrepresented by unions, and in unions, they are still in the minority when it comes to holding offices and wielding real power and influence. The same can be said, but to an even greater degree, for racial and ethnic minorities.

As I see it, what is most missing from the labor movement is a labor-based ideology, a worker-centered way of looking at the world which can serve as a guide to action both for labor leaders and members. A boldly egalitarian and democratic ideology, combined with aggressive organizing and politics based upon such an ideology will, in my opinion, pave the way for a labor resurgence. It will prove the best vehicle for organizing the unorganized, addressing the issues of racism and sexism, and building the bridges with other organizations and groups necessary for the development of a broad and progressive movement of working class men and women. Not just working families as the AFL-CIO has been stressing, but all working class persons, working or unemployed, homeless or imprisoned, solidly middle class or the wretched of the earth.

In a word, the labor movement belongs on the nonsectarian left. The left is where all labor movements are born and the left is where all labor movements see their best days. The left is where racism and sexism and homophobia are least tolerated, and the left is where independent politics can be found. The left is where democracy is most likely to be practiced. The left is where labor belongs. A centrist labor movement, a conservative labor movement, a labor movement whose only strategy is cooperation with employers — these are contradictions in terms.

Of course, I offer these remarks in a comradely spirit. I remain completely dedicated to the cause of organized labor, a union man to the end. I have always done and will continue to do whatever I can to organize the unorganized, to win better contracts for the organized, and to build a world of solidarity, equality, and democracy. Thank you.