The
Association for Union Democracy: union democracy for a strong labor movement
104 Montgomery
Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11225; USA; 718-564-1114; info@uniondemocracy.org
Welcome to AUD.
There is a lot of material here, please explore it. If you need
help or advice with a union democracy problem please start
here.
AUD and our message of union democracy are
more relevant today than ever. Within
the last year, a broad discussion on the future of the labor movement
and the role of union democracy (there has been nothing like it
for decades) has erupted out of the labor movement itself. With
more than 40 years of campaigning for democratic rights, with
our board members who are experts in union democracy, with our
Union Democracy Review, with our website, with guidance we provide
for hundreds of unionists each year, AUD can contribute to that
discussion as no others can. But we need your help. Please
give generously.
The Association for Union Democracy (AUD) is a pro-labor, non-profit
organization dedicated to advancing the principles and practices of
democratic trade unionism in the North American labor movement. It is
the premise of AUD
that internal democracy makes unions stronger and better able to fight
for the rights and interests of working people. No other organization
is dedicated solely to advancing the democratic rights of union members.
AUD
is a non-partisan organization. We do not support or endorse candidates
for union office or particular policies within unions. Rather,
AUD supports actions which strengthen
the democratic process, promoting membership participation, free speech
and fair elections, so that union members can transform and lead their
unions.AUD
depends on contributions and has limited resources. We provide educational
assistance and guidance as to legal rights and organizing to union members
fighting for greater control of their unions...(more about
AUD, a definition of union
democracy, to contribute
to AUD)
PRESS RELEASE -- Association for Union Democracy,
Inc.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 3, 2008
Media Contacts: Herman Benson, Kurt Richwerger (718) 564-1114 (AUD) info@uniondemocracy.org ------- AUD Proposes Democracy as a Weapon Against Corruption
In today's New York Times, the Service Employees
International Union announced plans for an internal ethics commission to
address recent corruption charges facing several top union leaders. The
union indicated that it would consult the Association for Union Democracy
as part of its efforts.
The Association for Union Democracy is very willing to bring our forty years
of experience to bear in assisting the SEIU, but what the SEIU faces is
a moral crisis involving both democracy and corruption.
We believe it is essential to ensure protection for democracy and dissent
within unions. Our experience shows that democracy is the linchpin for preventing
corruption.
An internal panel of the kind proposed by SEIU President Andrew Stern would
simply mull over the niceties of still another code and would be more than
a waste of time; it would be an evasion. What the SEIU needs now is to establish
a board composed of respected individuals, independent and completely outside
the union power structure - a kind of supreme court endowed with the power,
in defense of member rights, to overrule decisions of the international
president and the international executive board in those circumstances in
which members' democratic rights could be endangered.
The need is not to devise a code of ethics, the need is the genuine practice
of democracy. The basic code of ethics was delivered on Mount Sinai in the
commandment "Thou shall not steal." Everything else is a refinement.
If the SEIU feels it needs an amplification of its own code to remind its
officials of that commandment, it need only copy one of the many excellent
codes already available. The problem in the SEIU is not that it lacks an
ethical code, but that it has evolved a bureaucratic system of organization
and, despite any code, has created an atmosphere of authoritarianism that
obviously spawns corruption.
---------
Andy Stern is slipping off the pedestal. "By
imposing a trusteeship and a monitorship over two mega West Coast locals,
Andy Stern, SEIU international president, subjects twenty percent of the entire
international membership to his disciplinary domination. They make up almost
half the union's membership in health care, the SEIU's most important area
of concentration. Two locals, but how different their stories! In one, Stern
initiates action against a rival and critic. In the other, he is forced to
act against one of his own key supporters who stands accused of defrauding
his local of around a million dollars. Disruption on this scale might normally
reveal an international administration in disarray. Ironically, however, just
three months before, Stern emerged from the union's convention with his program
overwhelmingly endorsed and his presidential powers expanded..." Read
more on Benson's Union Democracy Blog. (9/3/08)
SEIU needs a Public Review Board.
"It was already clear before the recent SEIU convention. It obvious now...The
SEIU does not have to invent the wheel. The United Auto Workers has had a
public review board for fifty years. The board is a kind of Supreme Court
within the union to guarantee due process. It has the authority to overturn
disciplinary decisions of the union's top international executive board and
president. Most important of all, it is composed of independent persons, pro-labor,
civil libertarians, eminent in their own right in their own professions. And
because they are independent and outside the union power structure, not beholden
to the union establishment, the board and its members serve as an important
deterrent to arbitrary authoritarianism..." Read
more on Benson's Union Democracy Blog. (9/3/08)
Reflections on the SEIU Convention in Puerto Rico. "At
the June convention, climaxing President Andy Stern's twelve years in office,
a big majority of the 1,900 convention delegates endorsed his program and
endowed him with increased power amounting to presidential authoritarianism
couched in democratic verbiage...The union administration's rhetorical call
for "justice for all" has enabled Stern to rally round him a troop
of social idealists in whose eyes the SEIU has become an extension of civil
rights campaigning and community organizing. On the other hand, its trend
toward bureaucratic central control, and its justification of a kind of defanged
hybrid unionism to be built in cooperation with big domestic and global corporations,
has alienated a whole other cadre of social idealists who want the labor movement
to be a democratic movement of workers, a movement that, they feel, can only
be built in confrontation with big capital. Two conceptions of the labor movement are
counterposed. At some point even Stern's own followers are bound to ask, "What
kind of labor movement are we building?" This is no crude battle for
power. It is no conflict between so-called "business" and "social"
unionism. Nor between a conservative "right" and a militant "left."
Nor between crooks and honest unionists. It is a dispute over the meaning
and nature of democracy in the labor movement..." Read
(9/3/08)
Action and inaction in the Operating Engineers. "Think
of a town that's plagued by deaths, arson, and robberies, and yet the mayor
and police don't seem to have the time or inclination to do anything about
it because they are preoccupied by a campaign to stop residents from cluttering
up the streets by passing out unauthorized handbills. That act of imagination
could prepare you for these events in the International Union of Operating
Engineers..." Read
(9/3/08)
AUD's SHORTS: In each issue
of Union Democracy Review we publish "shorts" -- stories that are
too short for a feature, but too important to leave out. We put this issue's
shorts online to give you a sample: ATU 1181, CWA 1034, release time, AFSCME
372, Legal Momentum, Interfaith Worker Justice. Read
(9/3/08)
Contribute to AUD. We've
updated the page where supporters can contribute money to AUD. Please look
it over, try it out and let us know if you have any suggestions to make
it easier to use. (7/26/08)
"Sisters in the Brotherhoods:
Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City." Jane
LaTour, journalist, labor activist, and former director of AUD Women's Project,
has a new book based on her long time support and study of women in so-called
"non-traditional" jobs. For more
information.
Office of Labor-Management Standards Makes Contracts
Available Online."The Office of Labor-Management
Standards (OLMS) announces the availability of the Department of Labor Collective
Bargaining Agreement (CBA) File in the Online Public Disclosure Room. Collective
bargaining agreements...are now available to be viewed and printed."
With two exceptions: contracts covering fewer than 1,000 workers, and contracts
covering railroad and airline workers. See the Online
Public Disclosure Room. (11/12/07)
To end the employers' arbitrary "right to reject"
-- Electricians press IBEW to defend union hiring halls.In
response to calls from electricians frustrated by the international union's
failure to act to end the "right to reject," AUD offers four proposals
for action. See
the proposals here. (1/19/07)
"Request Help" page.
For unionists seeking information or advice with a union democracy problem.
With a new "Request Help" form that will help AUD better assist
you. An important resource for union members, please bookmark and link directly
to this page. See the page here. We have
also reworked the Contact AUD page.
Volunteer for AUD.
Work with AUD staff on online projects: translation into Spanish, indexing
and database entry, graphic/web design, web surfing and other skills needed.
See our volunteer page.
Spread Union Democracy:
get a bundle of 20 copies of Union Democracy Review for $20.00 to hand out
to coworkers. Order here.
If you find this
website helpful, send AUD a generous contribution. We cannot continue
to provide this service without support from unionists and civil libertarians
like you. You may need us. We certainly depend upon you.
Donations to AUD are tax-deductible.
Disclaimer:
the information presented on this website is general and intended for
educational purposes. It is not a substitute for practical legal advice
on any specific situation.
Use
the following credit line on the materials you use: "From the
website of the Association for Union Democracy. www.uniondemocracy.org. Email:
info@uniondemocracy.org. 104 Montgomery Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11225; USA;
718-564-1114"
