New Math Pt. 2

How can someone work like this?

I keep going into our office, thinking that if I walk into it that someone will say something or do something that will change my mind or change the world. I walk in, avoid the coffee, sit down at my desk, and read through the news. Our union, for some reason, keeps making the news. SEIU this, SEIU that... I say that with some level of astonishment because I can't figure out why people are surprised at the events that have unfolded.

The New Unity Partnership, which birthed Change to Win, was designed to build partnerships with management from the beginning. The unions within it, all early adopters of the strict model of funding organizing first and the rest second, were already superstars of the organization they broke away from (AFLCIO) but were not treated that way. AFLCIO prez John Sweeney took a real disliking to the attitudes expressed by many of the CTW's leaders because of the assertions made about the political ties to Dems and the shunning of real organizing plans. The upstarts, after all, were really right (the data shows it even to this day,) but they touched on something that rang true to the negative: are you really talking about organizing? Or are we really talking about negotiating with the threat of organizing looming on the horizon? When asked this question in the beginning, CTW leaders would often mention (particularly SEIU prez Andy Stern) the amount of money spent on politics in the AFLCIO (even though we turned right around and threw every cent into supporting Barack Obama in 2008, we haven't exactly changed our mission statement.) Haven't heard much of that lately...

These partnerships did happen though, although they often occurred outside of discussions with members, sometimes even organizing entire units with no one knowing outside of top management in both the union and the company:

On May 10, Kris Maher reported that the SEIU and UNITE/HERE (Change to Win allies) had entered into secret agreements with two global employers of service workers, Sodexho and the Compass Group. "The old ways aren't working," Stern told Maher, "and we're trying to find different relationships with employers that guarantee workers a voice." And so, unions are formed behind the backs of workers and with the permission and cooperation of the employers. Not just the terms of the agreements, but their very existence is not to be disclosed, not even to the lucky new union members. Of the several hundred thousand workers employed in North America, the union will be permitted to organize a limited number at designated sites; the companies will cooperate by providing lists of the employees and permitting union access to their work sites. The unions agree to be barred from attempting to organize the others; and they will not post derogatory remarks about the companies anywhere in the world.

Why then wouldn't you expect a union that was forced to adopt pro-corporate tactics and policies to suddenly, seemingly without warning, turn into a corporation?

I already know my answer: Because regardless of your changing tactics, you are still union. Telling the truth is a labor value.