Inclusive unionism: Strategies for retaining idealism in the Service Employees International Union (original) (raw)

Journal of Industrial Relations

Unions in general, and American unions in particular, have not always been beacons of progressivism-many have historically focused on relatively narrow economic interests and job control (Barbash, 1984; Kochan, Katz, & McKersie, 1986; Perlman, 1966). Early commentators observed that the American labor movement "has never been profoundly ideological, nor has it provided a particularly easy entry to a political career" (Bok & Dunlop, 1970: 55). But unions have once again become associated with social justice as recent efforts to revitalize have involved allying with community groups and anti-poverty organizations and incorporated social movement strategies (Clawson, 2003; Fantasia & Voss, 2004; Fantasia & Stepan-Norris, 2004). This has drawn into American unions, whose staff have historically been socially conservative and focused on 'bread-and-butter' issues (Barbash, 1967; 1984), new staff who associate union work fundamentally with social change and social justice (Rooks, 2004; Fantasia & Voss, 2004). Observations of the progressive reforms that have galvanized American unions have emphasized that professional staff in these unions led the radical innovations that have successfully revitalized these organizations and the labor movement (Fantasia & Voss, 2004; Milkman & Voss, 2004; Milkman, 2004; Rooks, 2004). Despite the vast amount of scholarship covering the progressive turn in unions in the US and in Europe (Clawson, 2003, Heery, Kelly,