Book boosts broader role for unions, workers (A New New Deal)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09284/1004366-28.stm

Sunday, October 11, 2009
By Ann Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Labor unions are relearning a lesson that seems to have been forgotten: There's more to the power of labor than just representing workers to employers.

Amy Dean, who was the local president of the AFL-CIO in Silicon Valley from 1993 until 2003, wanted to put together a book of case studies on building regional power to create a primer that labor leaders could turn to the same way business leaders detail their lessons in business books.

The result is, "A New New Deal: How regional activism will reshape the American labor movement," being released by Cornell University Press this month.

Ms. Dean wrote the book with David B. Reynolds, a field organizer for Building Partnerships USA.

Pittsburgh residents will recognize the influence of Ms. Dean's work when they recall the haggling over the community benefits agreement on the new arena between Pittsburgh United (a coalition of community groups and labor) and the city and Allegheny County. The community benefits agreement, something Pittsburgh had never had regarding a new development, called for money to be put toward a new grocery store in the Hill District and for Hill District residents to get the first crack at jobs at the new arena.

Labor and community leaders in the Silicon Valley region of California have been working on community benefits agreements with developers on large projects and scored their first big win in 2001 when a 25,000-unit project included an agreement to develop 5,000 of those units for low and moderate income households to be sold below market prices.

FULL story at link. Ann Belser can be contacted at [email protected] or 412-263-1699.

[clear eye]

1. You can get it from the progressive online bookstore

A New New Deal @ Teaching for Change

Also recommended, We, The People, by Thom Hartmann.

Hartmann's We, The People talks about how we lost our democracy, but also explains what we need to do to get elected officials that represent us. He recommends public financing of campaigns, verifiable elections, and repeal of "corporate personhood" which allows corporations to inject their enormous resources into the political process as though they had the same rights to free speech as individuals.

I see direct pressure for the goals of A New New Deal and getting progressive elected officials using the ideas of We The People as the two sides of a vise-grip. Squeeze 'em til they make things fair.

Another book of Thom's, Screwed is available from the online Union Shop of the AFL-CIO. That talks about the importance of having a strong middle-class, and what policies have to be reversed to get it back.

[clear eye]

2. Seems the link I posted earlier doesn't work--here's another

The New New Deal from the Teaching for Change webstore.

[Omaha Steve]

3. Powell's books (unionized) has it too

http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780801448386-0

$29.95 ships free in hardcover.

[SavingUFCWLocal555]

4. We will follow her lead...

Ms. Dean offers us some true inspiration for labor leaders everywhere. Changing how unions operate can only come from increased rank-and-file involvement in concert with good leadership. We have begun a movement to discuss the old school ways currently being employed by our local union leadership.

At first blush, a blog called Second Guessing Local 555might seem to be the wrong way to go about change. But it is not. Our local leadership has chosen to take a wrong-headed approach to negotiations and this has forced our membership to work without a contract for over a year. The blog was intended to offer solid financial suggestions on how to approach the bargaining table. (I felt as though with my four books on finance and economics - published by McGraw-Hill 2004-2008, numerous websitesand financial blogs made me uniquely qualified to offer these suggestions and criticisms.)

This book would be a game-changer if it was employed by our local labor leaders and leaders around the country. And where we are concerned, it will be the game plan for the next local leader in a couple of years.