What Is Union Success?

Within the US labor movement there have been a number of debates and conflicts over the last few years. These arguments have hoped to find a way to turn the tide of a dwindling movement. They hoped to shape a “successful” labor movement. To me, these conversations have often left the idea of success lacking a thorough definition. The movement’s success seems to be a matter of membership numbers.

Is a large membership itself successful? The All-China Federation of Trade Unions has an absolutely huge membership. Although most of its members would say that the government union doesn’t actually represent them in any sense. Historically there has been a great deal of unions with large membership that most in the labor movement would not classify as successful unions. These unions have often been corrupt constructions that acted in favor of particular governments of businesses.

Maybe the politics or ideology of the union is the more important element to make a successful union. If the ACFTU wasn’t a tool at the disposal of the state, it wouldn’t be nearly as bad. It’s conceivable that it may even represent its members. There are hundreds of unions in the world that focus much of their attention on forming the “correct” ideology for the worker movement. However, very few of these have enough of a base to be considered anything other than irrelevant.

The conflict between these two tendencies misses, or rather assumes, a point that may seem to obvious to mention. The goal of any union should be the empowerment of its members to take a greater degree of control over their lives. But, empowerment may be an even more difficult concept to measure than success. A balance between the perfect politics and a real focus on building a membership is an important task set before a union that wants to empower its members. There are a few other traits that I believe a union must have to actually empower its members.

· The union must be run democratically. Rank and file members should be the final authority in union decisions. Leadership or even non-elected staff should not be in a position to force a decision upon members.
· Members should be as involved as possible in all areas of union work. Work should be done to ensure that the rank and file is active in organizing, contract negotiation, mobilizing efforts, campaign planning, and any other areas of work the union does. It’s possible that training would be needed to do this. In that case a clear system of leadership development should be established.
· Unions should be willing to represent an entire person rather than only the part of them that goes to a job. In doing this, members should feel that they can use their union as a tool to take on other fights in their lives. Universal health care, education reform, housing reform, immigrant rights, and many other areas become potential targets of the union.
· Of course, a growing membership is essential. Serious organizing drives are critical to all unions. These drives should be well-publicized and well-planned. Most importantly they should be ambitious. Our capacity to organize will grow when we feel it must. New members must be organized and their union membership should have a significant impact on their lives.

Member empowerment becomes both the goal of a union and the tool to further that goal. Helping to create that sense of power should lead to other victories that many in the union movement today are demanding. While I look to different unions in Argentina, these are some of the traits that I am hoping to find. Any union that actively maintains these traits is a union that I hope to learn from.