Viva la Union
(Page 4 of 4)
Utne Reader March / April 2007
Hannah Lobel, Utne Reader
Some unions, like Local 1161 in Worthington, have started to catch on, and it's time that the rest of Americans did, too. That will mean communities and unions recognizing the plight of immigrant workers as the plight of neighbors and coworkers. And it will no doubt take new models for a labor movement of the 21st century. As Mariano Espinoza points out, fewer than 10 percent of private sector workers are represented by unions. Even with unions and worker centers stepping up to the plate, it's just not enough to give all workers a fair shake. 'We need a new formula,' he says.
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New formulas are in the works. Janice Fine, assistant professor at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations and an activist who has worked extensively on worker centers, wants to see a reimagination of the craft guild, her idea being that a union would follow an employee from job to job, providing benefits, training, and services. Stephen Lerner, the mastermind behind the SEIU Justice for Janitors campaign, thinks it's time for unions to follow the multinationals and go global. The ideas are out there: Unions are talking about them, and immigrants are talking about them. It's time that we listen, for all our sakes.
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