The AFT is setting a new standard in labor organizing, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney told a gathering of over 300 higher education union leaders in San Francisco last week. And unions on college and university campuses are leading the way, he added.

Sweeney congratulated the AFT for a string of recent election victories, including those at Michigan State University, the University of Vermont, Temple (in Pennsylvania) and the University of New Mexico. These have brought more than 4,000 graduate employees, faculty and professional staff under the AFT banner in just one month's time. Sweeney also lauded AFT president Sandra Feldman for her support of the AFL-CIO program. No leader and no affiliate of the labor body has given more support and leadership, he asserted. "The AFT is a stand-up union, and Feldman is a stand-up leader."

Sweeney's keynote speech kicked off the annual meeting of the AFT national higher education issues conference, held April 20-22. While Sweeney started on a high note, in fact, the environment for labor and working families in America is not a good one, he added. President Bush is no friend to us and his first 100 days have made that clear. From backpedaling on the environment, rescinding ergonomic protections, dismantling public employee labor/management committees to interfering with good faith bargaining in the pilots' union negotiations, this administration has made it clear that its allegiance lies with business.

The labor movement's response must be stepped-up organizing, Sweeney emphasized. The bright spot for organizing is also AFT's strong suit: professionals. In addition to swelling labor's ranks, which have not grown in 44 years although the work force has doubled in size, labor must marshal its political forces to send Bush and his administration packing in four years. "If we choose to stand up and fight, we can turn the tide in four years," Sweeney said.

Other speakers at the conference warmed to the theme, "Gathering Steam: Advancing Academic Values, Quality and Professionalism." The most fascinating address was the Irwin Polishook Lecture, delivered by Elaine Bernard, executive director of the Trade Union Program at Harvard University.

Bernard first came to Harvard years ago, from Canada, as an expert machinist who was a high school dropout. She serviced the equipment in Harvard's science labs. This allowed her to take any course she wanted in the university. Many years later, Ph.D. in hand, she was invited back to head the academic Trade Union Program, created, she explained, because Harvard "wants to have a relationship with every institution in society that has power."

In her talk, Bernard focused on three current situations that challenge the academic values of educators: the Free Trade Area of the Americas talks (under way in late April in Quebec), the increasing use and exploitation of part-timers and contingent labor, and the living wage campaigns. On the day the AFT higher education meeting began, 50 Harvard students staged a sit-in to force the university to pay its lowest-paid workers a living wage.

Bernard noted that neoliberal ideas now current, which advocate privatization, deregulation and free trade, lack consideration of the public good. President Bush claims that the private sector creates wealth and the public sector consumes it. But in Bernard's view, that which the public holds in common has value in and of itself. It does not just acquire value when it is passed to the private sector. "That's theft."

Opposing the increasing use of contingent labor and demanding fair wages for workers have to do with professionalism, she maintained. Faculty and academic staff need to stand ready to protect academic and professional values by opposing these trends that are undermining work.

Other speakers talked about issues related to distance education, part-time organizing, legal challenges, political organizing and federal legislation. [Barbara McKenna]

April 26, 2001