YSU Speaker seeks union equality

Racism and sexism are factors in some unions, the researcher said.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- It was the 1930s when leaders of the Congress of Industrial Organizations union embraced the notion of "workplace democracy."
And union leaders of the 21st century could learn a lot from those predecessors, according to Dorian T. Warren, a civil rights and labor union researcher who visited Youngstown State University on Wednesday.
"Citizenship shouldn't stop at the workplace door," he said. "It can't be only about better wages and better conditions, but it has to be framed much higher that that. It has to be framed as workplace democracy -- an extension of the rights of the civil rights movement, as well as the labor movement."
Warren visited YSU to discuss "The Relationship Between the Civil Rights and the Labor Movement: Connections, Contradictions and Contemporary Lessons," part of the YSU Center for Working Class Studies Lecture Series and the Black History Month events organized by YSU's Africana Studies Program.
Warren pointed to the 1930s as being years when unions had their most successful membership campaigns, doubling and even quadrupling numbers.
During that time, unions took on more than just workplace issues, to include political issues, voting rights for blacks and housing issues, Warren said. Membership began declining in the 1950s and 1960s when that broad focus ceased, he added.
Warren is a doctoral candidate in political science at Yale University, studying as an Erskine A. Peters Dissertation Fellow at the University of Notre Dame.
He said today's unions are a mixed bag when it comes to diversity.
What happens
Building, construction and trades unions "still have a long way to go" as far as accepting blacks, Latinos and women among their ranks.
In the 1990s, for example, 2 percent of the membership among 13 trades unions was female. The percentage of blacks and Latinos was a bit higher, but still very low, Warren said.
Such a lack of diversity can be attributed, in part, to nepotism and the power structure of the trade unions, Warren said. In these unions, workers are accepted through apprenticeship programs, and union leaders control who gets accepted in and who gets the jobs.
However, racism and sexism also come into play for some union members, he said.
"They don't see their women -- their wives and daughters -- or blacks and Latinos as being fit for the job," Warren said. "I think there's clearly racism and sexism involved."
The service sector -- including hospitality, hospital, janitorial and restaurant workers -- is a different story, in which most workers are minorities and women, Warren said.
This is attributed to another power structure. In these unions, union leaders have no control over the supply of labor; instead, workers are hired directly by employers.
"The main source of discrimination we're seeing now in those industries is anti-immigrant," Warren said, adding that union leadership is now starting to embrace immigrant workers and fight for their rights.
"I think unions play a crucial role in building solidarity between these different groups."