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The OSEA News
January 19,1978
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Today ’s labor movement
is looking for charisma
By BENTLEY GILBERT
OSEA Publications Director
CHICAGO - The labor movement today in
America lacks an emotional appeal; there’s
little to rally around, and no charismatic leader,
to fill the void.
'Olis is the contention of Ed Sadlowski, a south
Chicago leader of the United Steelworkers Union
and, last year, an unsuccessful candidate for the
presidency of the giant industrial union.
Sadlowski, 39, was just a youngster during
what he considers the hey-day of the labor
movement in the ’30s and ’40s. Hanging on his
office wall is a photograph of John Llewellyn
Lewis, the autocratic but popular president of
the United Mine Workers from 1921 into the
1950s. Next to that is a photo of one of his own
campaign supporters with a flexed arm
surrounded by campaign literature, banners and
buttons. And beyond those walls lies the south
“There’s a certain degree of blanket ac-
ceptance by the American public when we look
at the lawyer, businessman, politician and used
car dealer and say that is the way the game
should be played,” he said when asked why a
similar poor image doesn’t accrue to them as a
result of their sins which have been exposed in
the past few years.
“Why was Nixon allowed to walk off into the
sunset?” he asked. “The guy should have been
prosecuted. Labor has to be above suspicion like
Caesar’s wife.”
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“There’s a lot of crap that our membership is
fat with speedboats and lots of cars,” he said.
The basic steelworker is the highest paid
member of the union, but, at that, he’s just above
the median income line as determined by the
federal government. “Most are up up to their
necks in hock,” Sadlowski said.
Unions today must become more concerned
with non-economic issues, Sadlowski believes.
“There niust be changes in industry’s attitude to
’Why did five million workers join the CIO over
night in the ’30s and ’40s? There was something
there emotional offering a degree of hope. Where
does labor project that today?.
Organized labor
must rally around social goals. You’ve got to have
something more than tangible goals. You have to
garner emotions.’
x Chicago-Gary steel industry, the scene of some
E of the most bloody organizing campaigns in the
j ’30s and ’40s.
x
“How did this guy do it?” asks Sadlowski,
x pointing to the photo of the bushy-browed UMW
E leader. “We’ll see a replay of the whole thing
x that will stimulate the ranks to join unions,” he
x predicts.
E Judging from his presidential campaign and
~ the statements he made in an interview with The
x OSEA News, Sadlowski blames the age, the'
E conservatism and the high-handedness of many
E current union leaders for the dropping mem-
x bership, the organizing problems and lack of
x interest on the part of younger union members
E today.
x “Why did five million workers join the CIO
x overnight in the ’30s and ’40s?” he asks. “There
E was something there emotional offering a degree
E of hope. Where does labor project that today?
x There’s (AFL-CIO president) George Meany,
x But what does he mean to the 19-year-old?”
E “Organized labor must rally around social
; goals,” Sadlowski says. “You’ve got to have
x something more than tangible goals. You have to
E garner emotions.”
•
He remains a steady believer in the labor
X union movement because it’s “the only viable
x institution in the country working for the people
E for social and economic change.”
E
However, he does use a broad definition of
x union to include organized groups such as
x welfare rights organizations.
E It can be said, however, that some younger
E folks of today have had a taste of that kind of
x moral certitude stemming from the civil rights
X movement and the peace movement. The
E women’s movement of today provides the same
x kind of emotional appeal.
x Perhaps'the women’s movement can be looked
E to as a movement with emotional appeal which
E emerged, died down and since has re-emerged.
x The women’s sufferage movement and an
E earlier equal rights amendment were issues
E around the turn of the century. Now ERA is back
x and women want a chance fully to participate in
E their affairs of their country, not just elect men
E to office.
x For the labor movement, it may be a little dry
E for a while.
E Sadlowski believes that labor’s poor image has
x contributed to the decline in the percentage of
E the labor force which is organized. It has an
E image of corruptible fat cats, guys out to bleed
X private industry and the taxpaying public,
x “Nothing could be further from the truth, but
E labor has that image,” he says.
the worker. There is no industrial democracy.
The rights we have on the street corner don’t go
into the plant. There’s more respect for property
rights than for human rights,” he said.
Sadlowski believes the same goals and the
same problems apply to public employes and to
public sector unions. “A worker is a worker is a
worker,” he says. He credits classroom teachers
and AFSCME president Jerry Wurf with leading
public employes to that point of view.
Sadlowski’s view, however, is not held by all
private sector labor leaders. An unidentified
industrial union leader was quoted in the Dec. 12,
1977, Newsweek magazine saying, “There’s no
longer the brotherhood of the oppressed.
Everybody wants his arid to hell with everybody
else. If the teachers and the cops and the firemen
and the street cleaners think the steelworkers
and the coal miners are going to support them
everytime they get a case of the gimmees,
they’re crazy. Who the hell do they think pays
their salaries?”
The same might be said of private sector
workers. There is a body of public opinion that
holds that high salaries in the private sector
contribute to the high prices we all have to pay.
Additionally, this person ignores the fact that
public employes pay taxes too.
Sadlowski had seen the quotation and had an
idea who the unidentified speaker might be. This
narrow-minded, Neanderthal view of the labor
movement was one of the problems Sadlowski
was trying to combat with his Steelworkers
presidency bid. When asked why this attitude
appeared and divided private sector unionists
from those in the public sector during the
municipal workers’ strike in San Francisco, he
laid the responsibility at the feet of public
management.
“Why should the honchos of the public sector
act any differently than honchos in the private
sector?” Answering his own question, he said,
“You don’t see many housewives, street
cleaners or bus drivers on public boards.”
Sadlowski started work and joined the
Steelworkers at 18. But his introduction to the.
labor movement came much earlier. He was
born and raised in south Chicago. His bedroom
window was across the street from the union
hall, which was just up the street from its
present location. He was immediately active in
the business of Steelworkers Local 65 at U.S.
Steel’s South Chicago Works. First as an
assistant grievance man and up through
secretary of the grievance committee, he was
elected local president and almost, but not quite,
president of the international union.
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e.
Ground rules set rights
for bargaining members
Collective bargaining ground
rules and established practice
set the rights of bargaining
team members which may, if
allowed by the ground rules,
permit a bargaining team
member to be away from his or
her work for bargaining
sessions and for research to
support
the
bargaining
proposals. For management to
deny this right could become an
unfair labor practice.
Doh Larson, a member of the
bargaining team of OSEA’s
affiliated
Marion
County
Employes
Association
(MCEA/OSEA), was charged
by his employer for being ab
sent without leave at a time
when he was doing research
relative to the contract neg
otiations which still are
under way. At the time, he had
informed his supervisor that he
would be out for most if not all
of the afternoon for the purpose
of negotiations.
When the county charged
Larson with being “AWOL” he
came to OSEA Employe
Representative Gordon Webb
for help. Webb informed the
county management that they
were courting an unfair labor
practice. He told them that he
had asked Larson to do some
research and to go over some
bargaining proposals after the
day’s negotiating session had
been cancelled. He had told the
rest of the committee to go back
to work because there was no
further need of them that day.
The county accepted Webb’s
rebuttal on Larson’s behalf and
the charge was withdrawn.
Meeting set to sort
class confusion
A Jan. 24 meeting has been
set to sort out the confusion
resulting from changes in
classification of some employes
in the Employment Division.
OSEA Employe Represen
tative Gordon Webb and
Classification Analyst Eleanor
Meyers, will meet with Anita
Leach, Division personnel of
ficer, to discuss interim
procedures lor promotion of
employes in interviewer aide
and
manpower
specialist
positions.
The problems surfaced after
Department
heads
management
PORTLAND - Academic
department heads at Portland
State
University
. are
management,
said
the
Employment Relations Board,
in a two to one decision
recently.
That decision came as a
result of a unit determination
hearing. The date for a
bargaining unit representation
election will be set Jan. 20 in a
pre-election conference. OSEA
will be on the ballot.
three new state classifications,
job services representative,
employment specialist and
employment adjudicator, were
established. The negotiated
effective date of the new classes
is Dec. 1,1977, but they will not
go into effect until approved by
the Legislative Emergency
Board. What happens, in the
meantime is the issue.
“The division’s current in
terpretation takes away ad
vances
that
have
been
earned
under
the
old
classification system,” ac
cording to Meyers.
Some employes who have
received promotions under the
old system have been told they
will be rescinded and that the
salary increase must be
returned. In other cases,
promotions that would have
been granted under the old
system have been denied.
Meyers said persons who may
be affected should contact their
OSEA job representative or
employe representative. An
update on the situation will be
printed in the Feb. 9 issue of the
OSEA News.
Labor firsts
The first complete wage scale
was presented by the Franklin
Typographical Society of New
York City in 1799.
New automobile?
Boats?
Trailers, Recreation Vehicles?
Vacations?
Home improvement?
Savings?
All are good reasons to look to your credit union
MULTNOMAH STATE EMPLOYEES
CREDIT UNION
1220 S.W. Columbia Street
Portland, Oregon 97201
Telephone: 227-4132
EACH MEMBER SHARE ACCOUNT INSURED TO $40,000 BY
ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL CREDIT UNION ADMINISTRATION
Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.