Combining the Anti-Classist Movement, the Anti-Racist Movement, and the Feminist Movement:
In recent years, the worker movement has participated in the combining process by incorporating feminism and anti-racism into its practices. This has been a crucial development within the worker movement because inequality in the workplace often occurs along gender and racial lines (Matthaei 23). Furthermore, the roots of capitalism lie squarely within a patriarchal, racist framework—white, male property owners competed among one another in Europe and European colonies (Matthaei 33).
AFL-CIO:
The strongest example of the workers movement in the United States is the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which encompasses most unions in the United States. Created in 1955, the organization represents 11.5 million members. The mission of the AFL-CIO is to “improve the lives of working families—to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation” (“AFL-CIO: About Us”). Intrinsically tied to their mission is the fight against sexism and racism. Their mission statement explicitly calls for “economic justice,” which one cannot achieve if women and people of color are denied equal wages on the basis of these longstanding prejudices. Given that people of color comprise 30 percent and women 43 percent of membership, there is a natural incentive for the AFL-CIO to align itself with feminist and anti-racist ideologies. As recently as 2005, studies conducted by the AFL-CIO found that “barriers of inclusion, participation and leadership opportunities” remained for women and people of color (“Power and Diversity” 1). As a result, the organization passed Resolution #2 to specifically address these issues with the following provisions:
In the years following the establishment of Resolution #2, the AFL-CIO held Diversity Dialogues to further understand the existing weaknesses in the organization along this front and how they can implement the goals of the resolution (“Power and Diversity” 2).
Here is a video from the AFL-CIO about diversity within the organization.
Combining the Anti-Classist Movement and the Environmental Movement:
SEIU:
One of the largest unions that operate independently of the AFL-CIO in the United States is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). This union has also utilized the combining process to advance the goals of the organization. SEIU has continually incorporated anti-sexist and anti-racist ideologies into their struggle for workers’ rights and has a more diverse population than the AFL-CIO. However, they have also begun to place a strong emphasis on ecological progressivism. The union views climate change as “an environmental crisis that will affect millions of workers’ communities and workplaces, potentially for generations to come” (“Our Union: Green Contract Provisions”).
To combat the effects of global warming, SEIU has encouraged members to seek “green” contract provisions—agreements reached via collective bargaining with the employers that give both a “direct financial or health benefit” to local members and an environmental benefit. Examples include using environmentally-friendly cleaning products, instituting safe recycling programs and utilizing alternative means of transportation (“Our Union: Green Contract Provisions”).
(http://www.seiu.org/images/recycling_200.jpg)
Here is SEIU's testimony to its green contract provisions.
A Final Quote on Combining:
"Negroes in the United States read the history of labor and find it mirrors their own experience. We are confronted by powerful forces telling us to rely on the good will and understanding of those who profit by exploiting us [...] They are shocked that action organizations, sit-ins, civil disobedience and protests are becoming our everyday tools, just as strikes, demonstrations and union organization became yours to insure that bargaining power genuinely existed on both sides of the table [...] Our needs are identical to labor's needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures [...] That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth."
-Dr. Martin Luther King (King 202-203)
References:
“About Us.” AFL-CIO : America’s Union Movement. http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/. Accessed 4 April 2010.
King, Dr. Martin Luther, “If the Negro Wins, Labor Wins.” A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr:1991, 202-203.
Matthaei, Julie. “Why Feminist, Marxist, and Anti-Racist Economics Should be Feminist.” Gender and Cooperative Behavior: 1996. 22-42.
“Our Union: Green Contract Provisions,” SEIU Service Employees International Union.
http://www.seiu.org/a/ourunion/green-contract-provisions.php. Accessed 3 April 2010.
“Power in Diversity: Make Resolution #2 Real.” AFL-CIO : America’s Union Movement:
2007. 1-9. http://www.aflcio.org/issues/civilrights/upload/ECdiversityreport.pdf. Accessed 4 April 2010.