Labor Unions Are Dying, by Q. Reyes – Artistic Warfare #3

December 28, 2008 Q. Reyes 10 Comments

Could Labor Union be a dying breed?  I recently attended a Holiday party for SEIU 721 in Los Angeles.  SEIU stands for the Service Employees International Union and it’s one of the most powerful labor organizations in the country, and it’s comprised of many county and state employees.

I didn’t have a problem with their Holiday celebrations to include much needed drinking, eating and dancing.  I enjoyed that quite nicely, actually; however, I did feel uncomfortable that night asking a Japanese bartender for Kamikazes, but that’s beyond the point.  Something was wrong, and I, as the self-proclaimed “examiner of wrongs” decided to get to the bottom of it.

My brain worked, finally, and I understood what felt unusual, as I will attempt to explain here.  First, I estimate the average age of the members present to be at about the forty to fifty year-old range.  Everything’s good.  Nothing’s wrong with growing up in the free-loving sixty’s and seventy’s.  It is obvious that there’s a lot of experience there.  The key word here is “most”.

The point of evolution and survival is for the older generations to teach the younger generations to take over one day.  The older generations are always at a decline, but when the younger generation numbers are diminishing faster than the older, then there’s a problem.

There’s a lot to be said about experience, and you can only earn it through “experiencing,” but there’s a balance that should be reached, as well.  Most Labor Unions in this Country don’t have, or have very dismal youth participation.  What does this mean? It means that young leaders are not being groomed to take over the leadership.

The experienced majority is shutting down the young minority, and new members are less likely, and less willing to fight for labor rights.   Corporate management, meanwhile, is getting younger and more idealistic, and this generational gap in the Labor Unions will be the eventual cause of it’s own demise.

It is unfortunate that experience has a hard time adjusting to new experience, and in an ever-changing political climate and technology-driven work environment, there will be a time where old experience will become a thing of the past, irrelevant and obsolete.

As more and more experienced Union members retire, there are less and less young members ready to take their place.  Eventually ALL experienced members will retire or even die, and at that time there will be no one left to continue fighting and maintaining the rights that were so hard earned.

What could be done? First, there needs to be a major youth outreach in the workplaces.  New employees and young employees need to value the Union for what its worth.

Currently, a lot of young Union Members feel they deserve the benefits they currently have, when the fact of the matter is that the generation before them fought for those benefits to even exist in the first place.  Young members need to understand and recognize that their rights were an uphill battle and they should be grateful to have benefits at all.  They must work hard to keep them, just like the previous generation fought hard to get them.

Second, new young leaders need to be selected and trained.  The Union’s values, mission, and history must be passed down and understood, while being careful that tradition does not interfere with much needed change.

Next, a merger of the minds must take place and experience and new ideas need to come together and compromise.  Both sides, young and old, must reach a point of maintaining fundamental integrity, while at the same time developing and planning for modernized ways of doing business and dealing with management.  Whether it’s through updating technology and communications to attaining new and innovative political influence, change needs to come about.

In this day and age it’s not about “strike, strike, strike” anymore.  Negotiations have gotten a lot more intricate and sophisticated, and there’s hardly a clear line between winning and losing.

Experienced members need not to be threatened by new young leaders, and, instead, they need to guide them and give them the tools to allow the Union to evolve and maintain it’s leverage.

Being that Unions are still a new concept, as compared to other organizations, there has never been a need for a transition.  This is the curse that plagues the Union and the reason they don’t see the forthcoming age-gap catastrophe coming their way.  Prompt action is necessary, and without it, Labor Union’s days are numbered.

Management has gotten a lot more astute, sly, slick and slippery, and are more organized and have a lot more resources than the Unions.  Unless the Unions can counter with better weapons than management, it is a matter of time until Unions are no longer are functional, and in turn, become a burden in the workplace.

Most thought-capable people know it is not 1980 or 1990 anymore.  The world, the government and the economy have changed vastly since then.  There is still time for young members to have a chance to learn, become motivated and fight for their rights.

Prior to Labor Unions the work place felt like a forced labor camp.  Many have forgotten, many don’t even know the feeling.  It would be devastating to be reminded the hard way.

As for SEIU 721’s Holiday party, I love good ‘ole 70’s soul music, so I don’t have a problem with their choice of music for their Holiday party. Everyone knows there’s no limit to how many times you can do the electric slide.

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Q. Reyes is a Puerto Rican aborigine who enjoys Christmas shopping at his local 7-Eleven.  Q. enjoys long walks on the beach, horseback riding, and stealing Wi-Fi Internet from his dumb neighbors.  Suckas!  Q. is also a creator of the Ceasar and Chuy program on LATV.