Organizing to Win: Introduction

Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University
Sheldon Friedman, AFL-CIO
Richard W. Hurd, Cornell University
Rudolph A. Oswald, George Meany Center for Labor Studies
Ronald L. Seeber, Cornell University

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Suggested Citation
Bronfenbrenner, K., Friedman, S., Hurd, R. W., Oswald, R. A., & Seeber, R. L. (1998). Introduction [Electronic version]. In K. Bronfenbrenner, S. Friedman, R. W. Hurd, R. A. Oswald, & R. L Seeber (Eds.), Organizing to win: New research on union strategies (pp. 1-15). Ithaca, NY: ILR Press. http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/188/

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Copyright by Cornell University.

Abstract

[Excerpt] The American labor movement is at a watershed. For the first time since the early years of industrial unionism sixty years ago, there is near-universal agreement among union leaders that the future of the movement depends on massive new organizing. In October 1995, John Sweeney, Richard Trumka, and Linda Chavez-Thompson were swept into the top offices of the AFL-CIO, following a campaign that promised organizing "at an unprecedented pace and scale." Since taking office, the new AFL-CIO leadership team has created a separate organizing department and has committed $20 million to support coordinated large-scale industry-based organizing drives. In addition, in the summer of 1996, the AFL-CIO launched the "Union Summer" program, which placed more than a thousand college students and young workers in organizing campaigns across the country.