Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky Recent documents in Jeffrey Grabelsky en-us Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:10:24 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/9 http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/9 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:10:20 PDT [Excerpt] The COMET (Construction Organizing Membership Education Training) is an educational program utilized by building trades unions to generate rank and file support for organizing new members. Since 1996, the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO has been sponsoring COMET training in multi-trade settings for its fifteen affiliates. Between 1997 and 1998, the Department undertook a systematic evaluation of its multi-trade COMET programs to determine their impact on attitudes toward organizing as well as on the nature and extent of organizing activities. This article summarizes the lessons the Department learned. Among other conclusions, the evaluation reaffirmed that COMET training is an effective way to build internal support for external organizing and that local unions using the COMET appear to be more deeply engaged in organizing than those not using this innovative labor education program. Jeffrey Grabelsky http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/8 http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/8 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:10:19 PDT Excerpt] But the immediate question I am addressing is how the practice of double-breasting undermines the stability of collective bargaining in the construction industry. The simple answer is that it is not exceedingly difficult for a unionized contractor to operate a double-breasted nonunion firm and, given the increasingly intense competitive pressures to cut labor costs (given rising land and material costs), employers have a strong incentive to double-breast. To the extent unionized contractors have pursued that business strategy, how has it impacted the system of collective bargaining in the construction industry? Jeffrey Grabelsky http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/7 http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/7 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:49:32 PDT [Excerpt] The building and construction trades have historically been one of the most stable and secure sectors of the American labor movement. In the period immediately after World War II, their power in the construction industry was legendary, controlling over 80 percent of the work and setting standards that were the envy of workers everywhere. How did the building trades' position devolve so dramatically that it is now commonly described as a crisis of survival? How has the construction industry evolved in ways that have undermined the strength and vitality of building trades unions? How have construction unionists responded to the changed circumstances of their industry and their weakened position in it? How has the larger context of a labor movement in crisis influenced the strategic options of building trades leaders on both sides of the national split? Jeffrey Grabelsky http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/6 http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/6 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:49:32 PDT Jeffrey Grabelsky http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/5 http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/5 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:49:31 PDT [Excerpt] Bill Fletcher and Rick Hurd have shined a critical light on a vital issue facing the labor movement. They have asked, but not yet answered, how the AFL-ClO's "Organizing for Change, Changing to Organize" program will help us build vibrant and democratic unions committed to inclusion and ready to grapple with the tough issues of race and gender. If their essay provides an excuse for some unions to avoid the challenge of organizing while debating these issues, it would be most unfortunate. But if their piece provokes a more serious and candid dialogue about external organizing and internal transformation, Fletcher and Hurd will have once again made an important contribution to revitalizing the labor movement. Jeffrey Grabelsky http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/4 http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/4 Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:08:29 PST [Excerpt] Like the bottom-up organizers who built the IBEW 100 years ago by traveling from city to city, working at their trade and preaching the union creed, Lucas has been around the block. From Florida to Oklahoma, Indiana to Tennessee, he worked from 1954 to 1959 as a member of the Laborers and Teamsters unions. He began his organizing career in the utility construction industry, and first volunteered his talents to the IBEW in 1960 by organizing the manufacturing workers at a new Studebaker plant in Bloomington, Indiana, which he had recently helped build as a union electrician. He served as a shop steward, local officer and international rep, before becoming IBEW Local 429 in Nashville, Tennessee. Jeff Grabelsky http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/3 http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/3 Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:08:26 PST [Excerpt] In the few years since the AFL-CIO consolidated 25 of the 31 central labor councils in New York State into five area labor federations (ALFs), local union affiliates have begun to transcend the narrow interests that long divided one union from another. ALFs have begun to embrace new and more diverse leaders, strengthen their functional capabilities, forge coalitions with community groups, and help elect politicians who are more responsive to the concerns of working families. Whether the restructured labor movement has a greater ability to affect organizing drives and contract negotiations is still unclear. Jeff Grabelsky http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/2 http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/2 Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:08:24 PST [Excerpt] The labor movement in New York State (NYS) has undergone a dramatic restructuring that is part of a national American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations program called the New Alliance. The purpose of the New Alliance is to build the capacity of local labor movements and to empower unions to help shape a region's political and economic agenda. The restructuring in NYS led to the consolidation of twenty-five central labor councils into five area labor federations, each of which is developing the resources, staff, and leadership to help grow labor's regional power across the state. This article describes the origins of the New Alliance, the nature of the restructuring process, the ways in which the capacity of local labor movements are expanding, the programmatic work the restructured central bodies have undertaken in the last five years, and the impact of the national split on local and regional central bodies across NYS. Jeff Grabelsky http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/1 http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey_grabelsky/1 Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:08:20 PST [Excerpt] The evidence of labor's declining power in the economic and political arenas is increasingly clear. Despite the tenacious efforts of talented leaders over the past ten years, the labor movement has still failed to turn the proverbial cornet. Some labor leaders now believe that a dramatic change in strategic direction may be necessary to revitalize labor's fortunes. The emerging debate about labor's future touches every sector of the movement. The building and construction trades are no exception. Jeff Grabelsky