21st Century Solutions

I spoke to a group of SEIU organizers who are learning to become trainers and mentors of newer staff. It was such a joy. This group of activists - mostly women and people of color - are on the front line of the effort to change our country. They are our future.

But unfortunately these "lead organizers" are trying to help workers improve their lives under a relic from the 1930s - America's industrial-era labor law called the National Labor Relations Act. And last week, President Bush's appointees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) further weakened the law for working people by promoting partisanship over citizenship. The board further undermined the freedom of American workers to change their lives through unions when it stripped many nurses of their right to have a strong voice on the job and to speak up for their patients.

On the flimsiest of grounds, the board declared large numbers of RNs "supervisors," thereby eliminating their legal protection under current labor law to form a union (the latest in a series of rulings stripping American workers of the right to join unions). That means nurses who want to speak up about hospital conditions and procedures or have ideas on how to improve patient care will no longer be protected. I don't know about you, but the last person I want to keep quiet for fear of losing their job is the nurse at my bedside.

Unions are one of the few non-governmental ways workers change their lives. Unions are the way we all share in the wealth of a growing economy, not just executives and shareholders. To turn America around, we need MORE workers in unions, not rulings that limit their freedom to unite.

In my book, A Country That Works, I acknowledge that unions need to transform as well. With the world changing at unprecedented speed, we cannot drive into the future looking in the rear view mirror. I outline how a series of principles can change unions from organizations that too often are seen as creating problems, to organizations that solve problems in the modern, global economy. I talk to workers all over this country, and one theme that emerges over and over is the desire of workers to yes, earn a decent living and take care of their families, but also to have work they can be proud of, that adds value to their communities.

Unions need to build new relationships with employers that can benefit all of us. Employees and employers need to work together to get America back on track. The Bush administration and the NLRB should be promoting this type of approach, not demonizing new 21st century unions and stripping Americans of their freedom to have a voice on their job.

America needs a plan, and unions - and especially those hard-working lead organizers who are so energized to change our country - need to be part of the solution.