The Changing of the Guard: the New American Labor Leader
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The Changing of the Guard: The New American Labor Leader By ARTHUR R. SCHWARTZ and MICHELE M. HOYMAN ABSTRACT: This article analyzes recent changes in the leadership of international unions. There has been a trend toward leaders who are lifetime bureaucrats rather than rank-and-file members with charisma. This change toward more technocratic leadership is due to the different environment and new challenges that labor currently faces. The United Mine Workers is a good example of a union that has had many changes in the type of person who has become president, from the labor giant John L. Lewis to the 33-year-old lawyer Richard Trumka. The United Auto Workers is an example of a union whose leadership has been consistently drawn from the union hierarchy. The AFL-CIO has made a change in leadership from George Meany to the labor bureaucrat Lane Kirkland. There will probably be an increase in the number of women and minorities in top leadership positions in unions, but this will be a gradual increase. Arthur R. Schwartz is an assistant research scientist at the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Michigan. His research interests include the economic impact and changing nature of collective bargaining. He received his Ph. D. in economics from the University of Michigan. Michele M. Hoyman is an assistant professor at the University of Missouri—St. Louis. Her research interests include the impact of government regulation on unions as well as women’sparticipation in unions. She received her Ph. D. in political science from the University of Michigan. 64 65 any organization the leader has a and sport an undergraduate or profes- I Ngreat impact on overall direction sional degree. In other words, the mod- and policy. This is especially true of ern labor leader may look less like their labor unions. Many labor leaders have rank-and-file members than like their put their stamp on a union that lasts counterparts on the management side of beyond their lifetime. For example, the the table. The labor leaders of the past adherence of the AFL-CIO to the politi- had less education. They started out cal philosophy of Samuel Gompers is working on the shop floor of the plant or one reason there never has been a suc- the mill and had a strong ideological cessful labor party in the United States.’I commitment. The new breed of union In this article we attempt to look at leader has more formal education and the new breed of labor leader. In doing fewer direct roots in the working class. so, we examine the old labor leader and The new labor leader may be less pugi- the changing role of unions in society. listic, less rough and ready, and more The emphasis is on international union sophisticated and accommodating. presidents, although there is also some One of the major changes in the discussion of lower-level officers and union presidency is the road to the top. union staff. We examine briefly the job Historically there was only one road, of a union president and union election and that was up from the rank and file. procedures. We then present case stu- Today there are three primary paths: the dies of presidential succession in three traditional rank-and-file road, the rise unions, followed by a look at the inroads from within the union bureaucracy, and that women and minorities have made the route of the outside professional into union leadership positions. Finally, who moves directly into union leader- we conclude with some thoughts about ship. Most of the old leaders provide the labor leader of the 1990s. Although examples of the first way. Lane Kirk- our comments apply generally to the land is one leader who used the second entire labor movement, they are most route, since his power came from &dquo;his applicable to the large industrial unions, mastery of the skills needed to run a and we thus focus most of our attention large organization and from his absorp- on those unions. tion in the details of labor relations and social policy.&dquo;2 Richard Trumka, the LABOR LEADERS newly elected president of the United YESTERDAY AND TODAY Mine Workers (UMW) represents the third route: the professional-here, a The great leaders have either died or lawyer-who moves to the presidency retired, and a new generation of labor on the basis of expertise, not all of which leader has come to power. The present- is gained directly from the labor move- day union leader is likely to carry a ment. briefcase, look like a business executive, One essential difference between the new and old guard in the labor move- 1. See for example, Michael J. Piore, "Can ment is of the American Labor Movement Survive Re-Gom- the position organized labor perization?" in Proceedings of the Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Re- search Association (Madison, WI: IRRA, 1983), 2. Joel Denker, Unions and Universities vol. 30. (Montclair, NJ: Allanheld, Osmun, 1981), p. 105. 66 in society. Many of the earlier leaders of their union, and the other members of were in power during the formative a national political elite. years of the labor movement in the Uni- Today’s union leader must also be a ted States. Harry Bridges began his term technocrat-with responsibilities for in 1937 and John L. Lewis in 1919; Wal- compliance with federal and state law ter Reuther was active in the United on union elections, pensions, equal em- Auto Workers in the 1930s. These were ployment, and occupational safety and years in which labor was fighting for health as well as to the numerous labor simple recognition. laws that have historically regulated the In the 1980s the threats to labor come organizing and collective bargaining from different directions, since unions activities of unions. The contemporary are now a fact of life in the United labor leader is also a manager, since States, protected by law. The modern union bureaucracies have grown very day threats come from firms that peddle large in the last 30 years. The union union-free environments; from the leader manages a large permanent staff changing demographic characteristics and must solve all the internal problems of the work force, which pose challenges that arise in supervising that staff, in- to unions’ organizing efforts; and from cluding, in recent years, even bargaining the changing industrial structure in the with staff unions that have been formed. United States. Leading a union in a There are other aspects of a union period when overall union growth has president’s job. The modern labor leader slowed and many traditional, smoke- is an important actor on the national stack industries are facing a long-run political scene. In addition, the union decline in employment requires a differ- president still serves for the most part as ent type of labor leader, one that is the chief bargainer for the union. In skilled in the technical aspects of unions short, the many demands on a contem- as well as the details of organizing. porary union leader may resemble those experienced by local union leaders that JOB OF THE Sayles and Strauss described nearly two UNION LEADER decades ago.3 International unions vary greatly in CHOOSING A LEADER their structure, their history, and their size, so it is difficult to make a single and Theoretically, union leaders are sel- universally applicable statement about ected democratically. The procedures the job of a union president. The mod- for selecting union leaders are regulated ern labor leader, as its top elected offi- by the government in the United States cial, must still represent the membership through the Landrum-Griffin or Labor- of the union. However, there are multi- ple constituencies for the contemporary labor leader, making a substantial 3. Leonard Sayles and George Strauss, The amount of role conflict inherent in the Local Union, Its Place in the Industrial Plant the office. These constituencies include (New York: Harper, 1953); and Martin Estey, The members of the union; other interna- Unions: Structure, Development and Manage- tional union leaders, such as the AFL- ment (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, CIO Executive Board; the staff members 1981). 67 Management Reporting and Disclosure was somewhat higher, at approximately Act of 1959.4 25 percent8 The methods that individual unions One implication of the relatively small of use to elect their presidents vary. A few turnover union presidents is that the tenure tends unions, such as the United Mine Workers in office to be quite long. and the United Steelworkers, have direct For example, Harry Bridges was presi- dent of election of their presidents by the mem- the Longshoremen from 1937 to bership. One union, the International 1977; John L. Lewis headed the UMW for 41 Typographical Union, actually has a years; and the AFL has had only four from two-party system.5 The most common presidents 1886 to 1983.9 method of choosing a president is by convention. In most cases there is only PATHS TO THE PRESIDENCY one slate of candidates that is endorsed What follow are three case studies the executive board. That slate is by that illustrate various routes taken to almost always elected, although incum- union leadership. bents have been defeated on occasion.6 Turnover among union leaders tends to be rather low. Between 1948 and The United Mine Workers the turnover rate for union 1967, average The UMW is a good example of the presidents was approximately 20 per- trend of leadership change that has cent per year. Most of the turnover was developed in the labor movement.