Ken's Labor Book Reviews From The Archives

"Success While Others Fail: Social Movement Unionism and the Public Workplace." By Paul Johnstone. ILR Press. 1994. 272 pp. $45. $18.95 (paper).

This book compares the strategies of public sector unions in the San Francisco Bay area in the late '70s and early '80s, focusing on alliances between labor and community groups around public service issues. For example, a coalition of social service, library and health care workers took over the municipal local of the Service Employees. While frequent strikes initially turned public sentiment against the union, success came in a public housing strike in which the union forged strong alliances with community and tenant associations. The union even refused to settle until residents' demands were met. Next, interns and residents staged novel job actions against mismanagement in the city hospitals. They picketed at lunchtime and refused to process billing paperwork while on the job. Under the leadership of Maxine Jenkins, the local forged strong alliances with grassroots community groups. These were later pushed aside when the local leadership changed direction, pursuing an alliance with its former enemy, Mayor Dianne Feinstein, against even more conservative elements on the state and national level during the Reagan presidency. Both Johnstone and Jenkins lost their union positions during this move to the right by the local. During the same period, the AFSCME local in San Jose was invigorated by a struggle for comparable pay for women which received national attention. A similar alliance of mainly women human service workers phrased their demands in terms of social equality, forged links with grassroots community and feminist groups. They prevailed despite Proposition 13, budget cuts and the reactionary tide sweeping California. Private sector nurses in the surrounding Santa Clara Valley also took up the cause of pay equity. While this battle cry invigorated their ranks, they failed to reach out to other workers or to form community alliances. They were defeated despite a militant strike. At the same time the San Jose city custodians, relying on conventional strategies, lost ground to contracting out. Then the local union failed to organize the employees in the newly privatized sphere. On the other hand, private sector janitors in the Valley presented their demands as human and civil rights -- "Justice for Janitors" and "Jobs with Justice." They reached out to the community and achieved real gains. Johnstone makes a strong case for framing public debate in terms of social justice issues and for forming alliances with community groups. The original and secondary source material in this book is a gold mine for unions looking for direction in these difficult times. Unfortunately, many of the richest veins are buried in a ponderous academic style. --Ken Nash, DC 37 Ed Fund Library

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