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| Andy Stern and David Cote, CEO of Honeywell |
Jay Youngdahl, a labor and civil rights
lawyer, is part of a growing chorus of voices attacking Andy Stern for his latest
sellout of US workers.
Youngdahl’s
piece, entitled “In
the Fantasy Land of Labor Theorists: Andy Stern’s Latest Contribution,” was
published by In These Times on January 19, 2017.
In it, Youngdahl describes
Stern’s proposal to allow states to replace federal labor laws with rules
of their own choosing as “outlandish,” “ridiculous,” “make-believe,” and “anti-union.”
The article
was published a day before protesters barricaded the San
Francisco headquarters of one of Stern’s newest corporate patrons, Uber.
Protesters targeted the tech
company due to the Uber CEO’s decision to serve on Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum along with Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase, Stephen Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group, and
other corporate fatcats. One protester told USA
Today: "We came out today to tell the CEO of Uber that we don't agree
with him collaborating with the Trump Administration on labor practices."
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| S,F, protested Uber's collaboration with Trump |
Bloomberg recently reported that Stern is
working as a highly paid consultant for Handy,
Airbnb, Uber, and other tech
companies to help them pass new laws to fend off workers’
class-action lawsuits and to loosen labor laws and government oversight.
Here are
some excerpts from Youngdahl’s piece. The full text is available here.
Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), now works for gig economy “platform” companies and is lobbying for a New York law to refuse employee protections for workers at Handy and other such companies. He recently penned an article in National Affairs, along with right-wing think tanker Eli Lehrer of the R Street Institute.
Stern has been talking about the future of the labor movement for years, with a dazzling variety of solutions and approaches. Remember his claim, and $14 million of SEIU money, that call centers were essential to “high-quality member representation?”
It is important to note that Stern’s ideas are similar to those of anti-union think tanks like the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which produced F. Vincent Vernuccio, now a member of Trump’s transition team at the Department of Labor. Vernuccio co-wrote a piece entitled “Right-to-Work Strengthens Unions.” In their article, Stern and Lehrer similarly embrace right-to-work, as it is, in their words, “unfair to force representation on workers who don’t want it.”
…[T]hose in Stern’s make-believe world preach that all can be harmonious between labor and capital, ignoring American history and the explosive growth of income inequality. Collective bargaining and workers’ struggle are not only discounted; they are often ridiculed.
No one disputes that unions are in deep, deep trouble. But the advice of those who profit off their “expert” opinions… suffers from a separation from the actual lives of workers. New ideas arise out of struggle, not from foundations, corporate shills or right-wing think tanks… As inequality and its consequences mount, even more struggles and progressive formations will emerge. They are likely to be imperfect and messy, but from them useful ideas as to the future of collective worker action will become clearer. One thing is sure, though: Such a vision will not come from Stern.
