The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has earmarked $60-million for a campaign to unionize 70,000 workers and to register 280,000 to vote. This is an effort by the largest union in the AFL-CIO to assert itself as the most militant by launching a highly aggressive and well-financed organizing campaign. If any evidence were needed that unions are on the march and intend to reverse their decades-old decline, this is it.
The union’s president, Gerald McEntee, intends to increase his members’ dues each year for the next three years: by $12-million in 2007, by $36-million in 2008, and by $60-million in 2009. That’s a considerable war chest, which can be used to buy a great deal of political support. In fact, he intends to increase the number of union members who can vote in general elections, so that the 1.4 million members of the AFL-CIO can elect union friendly representatives in the fall elections.
If this movement is to succeed, it only requires complacency on the part of corporate America, political leaders, and opinion makers. If management will work to establish effective programs that eliminate the often adversarial relations that exist between management and workers, much of the steam can be taken out of a new union movement that is rapidly heating up.
