Duane Campbell
by Duane Campbell
On November 11, 2014, the California Nurses Association ( AFL-CIO) goes on strike while SEIU ( CTW) sends its members into work across the picket lines.
The ILWU prepares for a possible West Coast strike that could close the ports. What will other unions do?
I recognize the arguments about strategic plans and contract obligations for an advance notice for a strike.
But, when unions members are encouraged to cross picket lines – what do you have? While critics write essays about the internal conflicts in national union offices and new directions, if union members are not organized and led to not cross picket lines then all the rest is B.S.
In campaigns we call for international solidarity with workers across the globe ( a worthy goal) but many union leaders do not encourage solidarity with the worker down the street.
When national union leaders act as if union solidarity is of little importance, not much more than office politics, then it is no wonder that unions can’t win a contract nor an election in Tennessee. These unions are not demonstrating that solidarity works and workers in non union plants and non union states learn from their example.
Filed under: Organizing, Solidarity, Strikes and work action | Tagged: Associated Press, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, Ebola virus disease, Kaiser Permanente, National Nurses United, Northern California, Nursing, Personal protective equipment, Strike action, Washington DC |
Talking Union 
[…] idle many other union employees at the ports and in the logistics industry. Both are examples that “union solidarity” is not a union reality, but an organizing rallying […]
[…] idle many other union employees at the ports and in the logistics industry. Both are examples that “union solidarity” is not a union reality, but an organizing rallying […]