"The unfortunate flaw in from the telegraph to the internet is its title which suggests a highly specialized account of an industry when in fact it is a deeply moving narrative of a committed labor leader who has written a compelling autobiography about what it means to fill various roles labor leader visionary father politician and negotiator at a time of tumultuous change in american technology and corporate restructuring this book should be required reading in education programs at labor institutes universities and especially business schools so that its readers may gain insight into the present day struggles tactics and organizing purposes of a us labor union morton bahr president of the communications workers of america discusses how the union coped when at t was broken apart by court order and how the cwa which had its origins in a company union that had virtually no role or say in the changes that affected hundreds of thousands of workers was militant enough to elbow its way into sufficiently protecting workers benefits and status then the union began the difficult job of creating a vibrant new entity for information service workers who would fit into new patterns of competitive business while reinforcing the principle that the cwa was an international union what bahr has sought with some success is to find a way of cooperating with business while maintaining labor s separate and distinct voice this is no easy matter and one that requires great subtlety in advancing the cause of workers in labor corporate relations whatever unions hope to achieve for their members and society they must expand their base through organizing and identifying the causes of the labor movement with community interests now bahr has a new job as at t seeks communications hegemony like the mythological snake that is cut apart but then reforms itself the quot re merging quot and new acquisitions of at t are intended in the words of the may 6 new york times to achieve dominance in quot the communications landscape unmatched by any company since the old american telephone and telegraph broke up under government pressure in 1984 quot the inclusion of the cable tv industry is intended to integrate various communications services to consumers but where is organized labor in this story is it a partner antagonist or bystander as bahr points out organized labor is already marginalized unless it responds by building bigger unions workers will be reduced to commodities without voice in the brave new world of the twenty first century the cwa has expanded to public service workers technical workers and professional workers in governmenrt but its success will stand or fall on the basis of how it is able to adjust to and cause changes in the communications industry quot contracts covering the vast majority of our membership quot bahr points out quot now provide for joint discussion of the impact of new technology as well as training and retraining opportunities quot rather than wait for collective bargaining agreements to expire unions and companies should have the capacity to adjust wages and profit sharing during the life of a collective bargaining agreement an idea predicated on the actual strength of the union at the grass roots the cwa already tested that in 1992 when it called for an quot electronic picket line quot against at t it urged its members to switch carriers and organized other unions to boycott at t services as well as immensely profitable caller id and call waiting services at the local level an effective strategy in a competitive market can the cwa now have any say in the production allocation of resources and likely layoffs as at t seeks efficiencies will any vision be large enough and conscious enough of itself and the national community to offer alternatives to be heard above the din of clich s regarding quot competition quot as i read bahr s account i could not help but wonder where labor leaders fit into the folklore of american life for americans outside the labor movement labor leaders are thought of as square pegs in round holes not quite fitting the story of capitalist realism namely that the nation s gains and prosperity came from the immaculate conception of the founding fathers who anointed businessmen as their disciples to doubt this story is to enter into a far more densely textured view of american history one integrally tied to organized labor and its leaders this view requires consideration of the struggles of freestanding labor unions which in turn raises deep questions about social and economic organization capitalism class conflict class collaboration versus business labor cooperation the role of government electoral politics and the courage and charisma of labor leaders these questions have not been easy for the labor movement to confront internally torn as it has been at different times between the industrial and craft unions the left and right issues of international solidarity versus patriotism and shrinking memberships within the shift to a service economy in the us context such issues have not been made easy given the lack of a major political party to present the needs of workers consistently even the most na ve among us cannot fail to notice that the two political parties adhere to one business ideology the personal ambitions of republicans and democrats may not coincide but the views of the parties have been virtually consonant in limiting labor s rights keeping its role as sotto voce as possible thus in recent years the democratic party of carter and clinton has been supportive of blatantly business oriented ideas such as bipartisan agreements on export capitalism the quot early quot bill clinton took a leaf from the anti union stance of ronald reagan coming from an anti union right to work state clinton kept the story of capitalist realism going emphasizing world trade and global competition fueled by individual consumer desire in the marketplace with workers left virtually without protection in this framework labor unions retained the aura of illegitimacy not to be mentioned in speeches and ill considered in polite company or where major policy questions were to be thrashed out bahr makes this point in a telling way by gently upbraiding former labor secretary robert reich who by the estimate of many was a progressive minded secretary it took reich three years to mention the word quot union quot in public and then only at a meeting in geneva of the international labor organization as bahr notes more out of sorrow than controlled anger quot every other cabinet secretary can advance the cause of their constituencies it is perfectly all right for the department of commerce to carry water for corporate america the secretary of veteran affairs is unashamedly pro veteran the secretary of education is never blamed for being pro education but for some reason the labor department cannot be seen as being pro labor quot the cultural reasons for this require some explanation one of the interesting aspects of the american working class is that it is not known as a working class instead it is nominated as middle class even by its leaders or in the case of those in the secondary labor market referred to as working poor the working class is not an acceptable american category perhaps because it reflects group or social solidarity in a nation that prides itself on individualism and quot making it on your own quot a very silly self deception indeed thus the term quot middle class quot conjures a certain economic independence while it prizes individualism the reality is different in that this quot middle class quot is insecure often overworked and greatly in hock it is a debtor class a labor leadership that seeks to point out this reality can hardly be expected to receive much praise in the quot free press quot indeed as bahr points out the new york times no longer bothers to have a labor beat reporter similarly the washington post gave up such notions of quot specialized quot coverage long ago as its business and sports pages expanded one should not be surprised that under the catechism of capitalist realism labor leaders are depicted as greedy and self interested even those who are moderate and community minded thus bahr points out that the legendary leader of the afl samuel gompers is fixed in the minds of millions of schoolchildren as the labor leader who was asked what labor unions wanted he is reputed to have said in an answer like that of a wall street yuppie quot more quot what was created in the minds of generations of americans was that no essential difference existed between capital and labor both wanted quot more quot but what gompers said was far different quot what does labor want we want more schoolhouses and less jails more books and less arsenals more learning and less vice more constant work and less crime more leisure and less greed more justice and less revenge quot in other words gompers had a social democratic conception like other labor leaders whether eugene debs walter reuther the dobbs brothers or bahr gompers had a clear vision of the role of labor and the individual the liberation of the worker and the liberation of society go hand in hand yet this social vision could not compete with the romance of the american individualist in the popular culture we have created loner archetypes heroes and antiheroes self made and unconnected to the social forces around them the american cowboy for instance independent uses force when necessary can be counted on in a fight etc there is a tragic quality about the cowboy as well for he is also a failure in financial terms lacking that magic of commercial entrepreneurialism that the economist joseph schumpeter writes of as the spark of capitalist innovation the paradox of course is that a worker s individuality and dignity can be best protected through his or her organization the labor union the institution in which personal and community interests are brought together this fact is something that bahr understands for he knows that individuality needs safeguarding big time hundreds of thousands of people are now employed in management and public relations offices to mask this need by discouraging workers from joining unions what is at stake under the banner of quot productivity quot is control over workers time and space bahr tells of a worker being treated for an illness with a medication that caused her go to the lavatory several times a day each trip was announced on the plant loudspeaker by management such corporate control over the worker s life is no sideshow it defines albeit in extreme form the situation of millions of people this brings us to labor leaders where do they fit into the pantheon of heroes and villains we ve seen them drawn out in ray ginger s biography of debs the bending cross mary jones s the autobiography of mother jones harold livesay s samuel gompers and organized labour in america melvyn dubofsky and warner van tine s biography of john l lewis victor reuther s the brothers reuther and the story of the u a w and elsewhere they are part of the romance of america but the question is whether they will be rendered irrelevant when labor movements don t organize and lose membership or moral purpose one of the tasks of the antihero of modern capitalism the corporate gunslinger is to turn the labor leader into a dying breed without relevance who must fall before the wonders of changing technology and social organization cultural stereotype celebrates business as the innovator and the entrepreneur as the heartbeat of america as president coolidge put it quot the business of america is business quot with its prerogatives business becomes the locomotive of american life and in countless texts us entrepreneurs are presented as folk heroes who through determination and innovation keep society going in a progressive direction this is an old story even john d rockefeller thanks to the massaging of the press by his public relations experts ended his days less as the villain of the ludlow massacre than as a grand paternal figure whose largesse along with that of andrew carnegie guided education and science never mind that henry ford was almost overwhelmed by his own anti semitic ravings and undermined by a brutal internal police force aimed at destroying an independent labor union ruthlessness is forgiven because us economic ideology claims to be serving a greater good the project of production which has received intellectual blessing through modern economic ideas from left to right in the popular culture the question became one of whether there was a counter to these men among leaders of labor the quot disinterested quot needed a picture of what labor leaders were there are two prevailing composite perceptions of the labor leader one comes to us through the corporation and the media the other through literature and folklore that oftentimes does not find its way into middle class or quot mainstream quot literature and consciousness in hollywood the labor leader is commonly depicted as selfish brutal and uneducated a villain invariably on the take from a businessman or from crime bosses who remain the shadowy string pullers the clich of the arrogant and parochial but cunning labor leader who cares nothing about local communities is almost perversely the inverse of the extraordinary sophistication that labor leaders organizers tend to possess concerning their workers irrespective of the industry involved indeed just like ceos at major corporations national union heads for good or ill commonly depend on highly trained staffs and while some labor leaders undeniably have been corrupt they have hardly been a match for the likes of the senior annenberg or even of hollywood moguls the second and more sympathetic account of labor leaders is that an overwhelming number of them were cut from a different mold they were organizers who at great personal risk and undeniable suffering built the movement in the united states joe hill told his comrades not to mourn for him but instead to organize such great labor leaders of the twentieth century as a philip randolph eugene debs john l lewis harry bridges and walter reuther were powerful organizers who saw no contradiction between the demands and needs of the larger community and those of workers as a class this deep understanding of the role of organized labor continues into the twenty first century its organization does not represent capital it represents the community that is people in terms of their everyday needs this can be seen in the extraordinary work of morton bahr the cwa represents 630 000 workers from diverse industries quot all of whom have common concerns quot bahr envisions his union as a broad social and economic movement as he sees it the labor organizer must not only win recognition for the union but organize the basis of material benefits both inside and outside the workplace unions must fight for the rights of the unorganized so they can become citizens of the political nation like other of his forebears bahr believes that organizers are teachers with two objectives one is serving notice that workers are more than extensions of a machine or marginal disposable as used kleenex second that workers dignity is the key element in this nation s drive for its humane identity while the two major political parties supported by their corporate sponsors are concerned about quot competitiveness quot workers know that human dignity is the purpose of work and where that is not present union leaders must reshape industry indeed the nation to that purpose bahr believes that unions have moral as well as financial capital in their pension funds which the nation and business has been trading on throughout the twentieth century so what does a modern labor folk hero look like he or she seeks a moral vision grounded in sophistication about law business government and politics as well as technology he or she knows the difference between selling out and business labor cooperation and seeks ways to insure that technology is understood as a tool of workers and society rather than an instrument to which people must refashion themselves as in a procrustean bed and he or she is not afraid of being either on picket lines or in boardrooms when necessary nor is that leader passive about investment of pension capital in the regeneration of society it would appear that bahr qualifies as a modern labor folk hero
Keep on reading: On the Virtual Picket Line
Keep on reading: On the Virtual Picket Line