Does the Change to Win Federation Represent U.S. Labor’s Third Moment? Evidence from National Labor Relations Board Certification Elections, 2003–2005

Estimating the Effect of “Change to Win” on Union Organizing

“…They concluded that change to Win overstated its abilities to change the landscape of organizing. Based on quantitative research, both chandler and gely (2007) and Devinatz (2010) analyzed presplit organizing data of each 1 UnITE and hERE later merged together to create UnITE hERE in 2004. 2 six of the seven change to Win unions disaffiliated from the Afl-cIO as a result of their desire to be part of change to Win, but one union-the United Brotherhood of carpenters (UBc)-had left the Afl-cIO in 2001. furthermore, four unions (UBc, UnITE hERE, the laborers' International Union of north America [lIUnA], and the United food and commercial Workers [UfcW]) have since disaffiliated from change to Win; lIUnA, UfcW, and UnITE hERE rejoined the Afl-cIO, although approximately one-third of UnITE hERE's members remained affiliated with change to Win as sEIU members.…”

“…They concluded that Change to Win overstated its abilities to change the landscape of organizing. Based on quantitative research, both Chandler and Gely (2007) and Devinatz (2010) analyzed presplit organizing data of each federation’s affiliated unions. Both articles analyzed organizing activity, with a particular emphasis on the industry in which the organizing occurred because Change to Win leaders argued that the future of labor required that more resources be spent on organizing workers in the service sector.…”

Struggling against U. S. Labor's Decline under Late Capitalism: Lessons for the Early 21st Century

“…Battista rejects the entrenched business unionism of the first two AFL-CIO administrations of George Meany and Lane Kirkland, preferring instead the model espoused by Walter Reuther, the former United Auto Workers (UAW) president and leading force of the short-lived, reform-minded Alliance for Labor Action (ALA), created in 1968 (Devinatz, 2006;Treckel, 1975). Using the ALA as a model, Battista places his faith in a progressive union bureaucracy in coalition with other sympathetic organizations.…”

“…Additional work stoppages throughout the 1990s went down to defeat: Staley, Caterpillar, (Devinatz, 2005;Cohen, 2002;Franklin, 2001) and Detroit Newspapersalthough the victorious 1997 UPS strike (Witt andWilson, 1999, 1998;Rothstein, 1997) Ashby and Hawking, who were activists in support of the locked-out workers, recount the events leading up to the dispute, the lockout itself and its aftermath in tremendous and colorful detail. The tactics and strategies used by the Staley workers before and during the lockout are uniformly applauded by union reformers and are indicative of a healthy rank-and-file union democracy and social movement unionism.…”

“…Moreover, in spite of the UFCW's major organizing victory at Smithfield Foods in North Carolina in 2008 (Workers Vanguard, 2009) the CTW's prospects as a whole are no better than that of the AFL-CIO, with the CTW appearing to be much more similar to the short-lived ALA than to the CIO during its halcyon days of the mid-1930s to mid-1940s (Devinatz, 2010).…”