Larry Cohen Replies to Veena Dubal
I agree with Veena that the organizing surge in the United States has been an inspiration, whether we are considering collective action or new workplace organizing. But the fact remains that this organizing has not moved the needle on collective bargaining coverage in our nation. The PRO Act faces bigger hurdles in the Senate than the Employee Free Choice Act in 2009, and it does not directly provide for bargaining rights based on majority sign-up. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Abruzzo’s August 12 memo to the five hundred NLRB lawyers, and the public, provides much hope, promising that the Board will pursue bargaining orders when employers violate the Act, invoking Board precedent from 1949 to 1969.
But neither the organizing surge, the political possibilities, nor likely the best NLRB General Counsel ever can fix the framework for U.S. workers and their rights to bargain. In fact, the United States does not have enterprise bargaining, but with few exceptions bargaining is splintered with multiple contracts at the same employer, usually with a minority of the workers at that employer and often with a significant part of the work performed by contractors through another employer or on their own.
. . . [N]either the organizing surge, the political possibilities, nor likely the best NLRB General Counsel ever can fix the framework for U.S. workers and their rights to bargain.
While for now, we should all focus legislatively on the PRO Act, we must aim higher. We must recognize that in most of the private sector, with shrinking percentages of the workforce covered, bargaining is defensive and workers who organize are too often workplace martyrs. Sectoral bargaining is much broader than a “European” model. When the African National Congress (ANC) triumphed over apartheid in1995, the new labor law passed in the first hundred days established sectoral bargaining. In Argentina, progressives would point to sectoral bargaining as the floor for workplace action that led to five general strikes against the right-wing Macri government in 2018 and 2019.
We can imagine, organize, and fight for a version of sectoral bargaining where workers are on offense raising living standards. We absolutely will fight all forms of company unions as we do that and create new possibilities and encouragement for organizing at the workplace and beyond.
Author Biography
Larry Cohen is the board chair of Our Revolution, the successor to Bernie 2016. From 2005 to 2015, he was the president of the Communications Workers of America and chair of the AFL-CIO organizing committee.