Sweeney’s leadership

‘I am a product of the social compact that lifted America out of the Great Depression and working Americans into the middle class.’ Speaking in 1996 at Columbia University’s  - ‘Teach-In with the labor movement’ AFL-CIO president John Sweeney was recalling post-World War II accommodation of labor as a ‘formula for the strongest’ economy, the largest middle class and the most successful society this world has ever known.

The obvious question is are those days gone? Will the labor take its foothold in the economy? Many saw in Sweeney the best hope for a turnaround since assuming the leadership at the AFL-CIO however the decline of labor was during his leadership. Especially shrinking in numbers of unions there was the sudden appearance of low-wage, nonunion competitors and bitter struggles to protect the wages and working conditions of unionized workers.

You can say Sweeney’s leadership did not have the top down pressure like many union leaders had however he had a high profile. He was unable to challenge the management and therefore reorganized the workplace on new principles that challenged the union’s very own claim to speak for workers.

Sweeney championed that the union forget its principle as a necessary ‘counterweight to the management‘ and to enter into cooperation. Many now point fingers to the Sweeney leadership style which reigned from October, 1995 till September, 2009 that saw right-to-work law states flourish, Ohio lost 10,400 union jobs from 1998 to 2008, while Texas gained 1,615,000 as per The Wall Street Journal editorial in 2008 which sparked disaffiliations.

You as a member of TWU Local 100 which is better, for us to be counterweight or cooperating with management?