A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy by Jane F. McAlevey

Chapter 1
Workers Can Still Win Big
AS A YOUNG TRADE UNION ORGANIZER, ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS I had to
prove to higher-ups was that I could recite our definition of a union at the
drop of a hat. The definition came from Bernie Minter, a rank-and-file
worker leader from the union that taught me the most important lessons not
just about unions, but also about how people can win against stiff odds.
From its founding in the 1940s until a merger in 1989, the union where I
trained and developed my organizing skills was national and independent. It
was referred to simply as District 1199, composed of health care workers.
This, from Bernie Minter’s typed notes, is its entire definition.
What is a union?
A collective effort by all employees who work for an employer
To stop the boss from doing what you don’t want him to do. Discharge, unfair layoff,
promotion, speed up, etc.
To make the boss do what you want him to do. More pay, vacation, holidays, health
coverage, pensions, etc.
And, to be used in any other way the members see fit.
That’s it. It really is that simple.
Unions had been around as long as the United States, but their
popularity skyrocketed in 1935, during the Great Depression—incidentally,
the last time the American billionaire class forced most Americans into a
massive crisis. To course-correct for bankrupting the American worker,
Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which
guaranteed workers the right to collective bargaining—the right to negotiate
wages and other terms of employment—and created one national legal
framework for unions in the private sector. Under the law, workers were
given the right to unionize by holding elections in their workplaces, which
were governed by a board called the National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB).
A union basically functions like a government, whether a town board, a
city council, or a rural grange. In the case of a union, however, the primary
—but importantly not sole—focus is on worker-related issues. (If your
workplace is a school, or a hospital, or any similar institution, however,
these same issues are also community issues.) Unlike corporations, faith-

based institutions, and nonprofits, both governments and unions rely on
democratic traditions like open meetings and elections. Some unions do live
up to the pejorative labels given to them by corporate media, but most do
not. People are flawed, and unions are made up of people, so unions, too,
can be flawed.
That said, it’s helpful to think of a union as a mechanism: nothing
makes it inherently good or bad, although its internal rules heavily
influence its effectiveness. As is also the case with a government, a union
can be good or bad based on the rules governing its respective elections,
including campaign financing, whether the bargaining unit of the workers is
fairly constructed or gerrymandered, and whether the people it represents
have open access to decision-making processes. If the governance systems
encourage participation by the best and most diverse workers, the union
will reflect the best and most diverse workers’ values. Conversely, if the
organization is a do-nothing union, it will reflect the least-good values
among the workforce, just like elected politicians and their constituents.
Unions often differ based on the culture of the employer and on the type of
workforce, no different from states, which differ based on the types of
people that make up its population. (Think Texas versus Massachusetts.)
Unions, then, are far from monolithic.
There is significant variation among the different branches of the same
union. That’s true worldwide in unions, and they’re commonly called locals
in the United States (and “branches” in many other countries). Let’s take
one example and break it down: Local 1107 of the Service Employees
International Union. The only international aspect of SEIU is a small
number of members in Canada (125,000 out of 2.1 million) and a few in
Puerto Rico (depending on how particular Puerto Ricans self-identify, this
can be suspect, and certainly flows from the movement for Puerto Rican
independence). The numbers 1-1-0-7 mean nothing in particular, or at least
nothing relevant. Members simply say, “I am a member of Local 1107.” It

A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy by Jane F. McAlevey