Page 8 Portland Observer SEPTEMBER 21,1989
THE STATE OF
THE TRADE
UNIONS
by N o rm a n H ill
In 1989 the trade union move­
ment finds itself embattled once again,
as it has been so often during the
1980s. In recent months, it has been
engaged in four hard-fought strikes
whose outcome may affect the future
shape of collective bargaining: the
six-month-old strike against regional
Bell companies by over 150,000 mem­
bers of Communications Workers of
America and the International Broth­
erhood of Electrical Workers; the
United Mine W orkers’ strike against
the Pittston Company; and the Ameri­
can Federation of Musicians’ strike
against 5 Las Vegas hotels that want
to replace live music with taped music.
In each strike, management is trying
to erode basic gains in such areas as
job security and health benefits. In
the cases of Lorenzo and the Las
Vegas hotels, management’s goal is
to destroy not only the benefits of
union membership but the unions
themselves.
Demands for givebacks do not
apply only to these strikes. They have
become part of the basic negotiating
strategy of management across the
nation, which has decided that it is
open season on labor unions and the
workers they represent. To make
matters worse, a growing number of
corporations are owned by financial
manipulators rather than rational
business managers. They aren’t con­
cerned not with the long-term well­
being of the company but only with
today’s bottom line. They shutdown
plants without a second thought, and
without even a first thought about the
workers and communities they leave
behind.
The battles are not restricted to
the bargaining table and the picket
line. While we in the labor move­
ment have been hoping that the Bush
Administration would be an improve­
ment over its predecessor, so far it
has been atagonistic to the interests
of working men and women. Presi­
dent Bush refused to intervene to
prevent the Eastern strike. He re­
jected Congress’s $4.55 minimum
wage as too high, while pressing
Congress to pass a cut in the capital
gains tax that would give the wealthy
a huge windfall.
Finally, we come to the Reagan
Supreme Court. In a series of rulings
earlier this year, the Court eroded
both affirmative action and what or-
tute, we believe that the answer is a
resounding “ No!” For one thing, the
trade union movement has been scor­
ing important victories. Four AFL-
CIO unions in the expanding fields
of teaching, health care, public serv­
ice, and communications have grown
by an average of 200,000 members
in the past decade. At the bargaining
table, unions at AT&T, Harvard Uni­
versity, and other organizations have
won innovative child care provisions.
Meanwhile, the Communications
Workers, the United Steelworkers,
and the United Food and Commer­
cial Workers have successfully re­
sisted efforts by management to shift
medical care costs to workers.
In the political realm, candidates
friendly to labor have continued, with
labor’s help, to do well in Congres­
sional, state, and local elections
throughout the 1980s. In the 100th
Congress, which met in 1987 and
1988, many important labor-backed
bills were passed. They included
legislation providing for 60-day plant
closing notification, banning random
polygraph testing of employees or
job applicants by private employers,
strengthening the 1968 Fair Housing
Act, and encouraging employers to
give educational and legal fringe
benefits to their employees. This year,
the House rejected an attempt to gut
the Davis-Bacon Act’s prevailing
wage requirements for defense proj­
ects. And the outlook is good for
early passage of labor-backed legis­
lation for affordable, quality child
care, for family and medical leave,
and for Hatch Actreform. Also, there
will be a major effort in both houses
of Congress to adopt legislation that
would overturn the retrogressive Su­
preme Court decisions that I’ve al­
ready mentioned.
There is no question that the labor
movement is being challenged. And
it is also true that our adversaries
across the bargaining table and the
political divide have far more mate­
rial resources than we do. But at the
Randolph Institute we know that truth
and commitment can overcome
wealth. In 1925 our founder, A. Philip
Randolph, formed the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters. But estab­
lishing the Brotherhood and winning
a contract from the Pullman Car
Company were two different things.
The Company had millions of dol­
lars at its disposal, while the Brother­
hood had to throw rent parties at the
end of the month to avoid being
evicted from its Harlem headquar­
ters. And the Pullman Company was
not scrupulous about the tactics it
employed. Loyal company porters
were used as stool pigeons, so in
many cities Brotherhood meetings
had to be held in secret. Porters who
supported the union were often sus­
pended or fired, and retired porters
who backed the Brotherhood some­
times had their pensions cut off. The
Company also used the black church
and the black press, which were mostly
conservative back then,against the
Brotherhood. And Randolph had no
political clout at all. When he estab­
lished the Brotherhood, he didn’t have
a single prominent politician in his
comer. Yet 12 years later, in 1937,
the union won its first collective bar­
gaining agreement.
Many things accounted for the
Brotherhood’s victory. But key among
them were Randolph’s integrity, con­
viction, and determination. Decades
ago, a journalist described Randolph
as follows; “ They say he is abso­
lutely to be trusted, that he cannot be
influenced unduly. He stands four­
square to all the winds, he stoops to
no wiles or artifices to attain his
goals. He is steeped in principle, and
he has the complete certainty of a
true reformer in the eventual triumph
of his cause. He adopts none until he
is certain it is morally right and that
it will result in advantage to the en­
tire community.
Anheuser-Busch, Inc., recently sa­
luted the nation’s African-American
police chiefs with the unveiling of a
new brochure honoring these out­
standing individuals. The four-color
pictorial includes biographical infor­
mation and career highlights on the
police commanders in 17 major cit­
ies across the country.
“ These men may answer to dif­
ferent nam es-chief, commissioner,
director or superintendent-but two
common threads bind them all,” said
Henry Brown, vice president, mar­
keting development and affairs, Anhe­
user-Busch, Inc. “ They all serve as
commanders o f police forces, and all
of them are super achievers with an
African-American cultural heritage.
“ Anheuser-Busch has been a long­
standing supporter of Atncan-Amen-
can law enforcement through the Na­
tional Organization o f Black Law
E n forcem ent
E xecutives
(N.O.B.L.E.). Each of these outstand­
ing individuals has been on the cut­
ting edge o f change, and we take
great pride in chronicling the supe­
rior achievements of these 17 police
chiefs,” continued Brown.
©
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Participating churches of Albina Ministerial Alliance hosted Black United Fund Sunday on September
17,1989, a national event, in support of the Black United Fund of Oregon and its annual charitable
campaign, which is scheduled to begin October 2, 1989.
We encourage your generous support of the Black United Fund of Oregon during their annual
campaign at your workplace because our communities are only as strong as we strive to make them.
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