Social Unionism and the Framing of 'Fairness' in the Wisconsin Uprising

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Bradford Scholars The University of Bradford Institutional Repository http://bradscholars.brad.ac.uk This work is made available online in accordance with publisher policies. Please refer to the repository record for this item and our Policy Document available from the repository home page for further information. To see the final version of this work please visit the publisher’s website. Access to the published online version may require a subscription. Link to publisher’s version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269094216646995 Citation: Chesters GS (2016) Social Unionism and the Framing of Fairness in the Wisconsin Uprising. Local Economy. 31(4): 450-465. Copyright statement: © 2016 SAGE Publishing. Full-text reproduced in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Feature Local Economy 0(0) 1–16 Social unionism and the ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: framing of ‘fairness’ in sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0269094216646995 the Wisconsin uprising lec.sagepub.com Graeme Chesters University of Bradford, UK Abstract The concept of ‘fairness’ has been used to frame political struggles by politicians and activists across the political spectrum. This article looks at its use in the US State of Wisconsin during the ‘Uprising’ – a series of occupations, protests, recall elections and militant direct action that began in 2011. These events were a response to a ‘budget repair bill’ that sought to strip public sector union members of their collective bargaining rights and to apply severe austerity measures within the State. This article suggests that although ‘fairness’ has a certain broad-based and intuitive appeal, its mutability means that it is unlikely to be successful in framing a structural critique that can build and sustain social action. Instead, it argues that framing this conflict as an uprising suggested a more explicit form of resistance that enabled a wider mobilization, and this can best be understood as an example of social (movement) unionism – the extension of traditional work place rights approaches to include broader agendas of social justice, civil rights, immigrant rights and economic justice for non-unionized workers. Keywords Fairness, social movement, unions, Wisconsin, uprising Hall, Overpass Light Brigade, interviewed The common demand, says three-time 16 April 2015) Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, is ‘‘fairness,’’ a phrase broad enough to include collect- Introduction ive bargaining rights, resistance to cuts in education and public services, the steady This article addresses the ways in which the privatizing of the university, and deep concept of ‘fairness’ has been used to frame populist rage against Wall Street, corpor- political struggles at the local level by polit- ate power and particularly the billionaire Koch brothers, who are considered the icians from left and right, and it uses a deep pockets behind the Republican strat- period of contentious municipal politics in egy. (Hayden, 2011) the US to analyse the utility of this concept This is an extremely important symbolic Corresponding author: state, as this was where the union move- Graeme Chesters, Department of Peace Studies, ment was born... Wisconsin is the battle- University of Bradford, UK. ground, it wasn’t a random thing. (Lane Email: [email protected] Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at J B Priestley Library on October 12, 2016 2 Local Economy 0(0) as a means of framing appeals for more pro- have someone in their household in work gressive forms of politics. The intention is to (Living Wage Commission, 2014)? Is it fair bring a different lens to bear upon the con- for a typical CEO of a FTSE 100 company cept of fairness by examining how this idea to earn one hundred and sixty times the played out during what activists describe as income of their average worker (High Pay the ‘Wisconsin Uprising’. This was a series Centre, 2014)? Is it fair for private debt to of occupations, protests, recall elections and become socialized and should sovereign militant direct action during 2011, in debt always be repaid regardless of the response to a ‘budget repair bill’ that impacts on society (Lienau, 2014)? sought to strip public sector union members In the UK such questions of fairness and of their collective bargaining rights and their consideration by local state and civil apply severe austerity measures in the society partners in Fairness Commissions state. Arguably, ‘the uprising’ is still have led to some progressive outcomes, ongoing, and it has formed the basis for a including the spread of the living wage re-appraisal of the relationship between and on one occasion the reduction in pay trade unions and social movements and of a Council Chief Executive. However, how issues of ‘fairness’ or perhaps more these changes are often locally imple- appropriately ideas of social justice can be mented, piecemeal and can be self-limiting maintained in opposition to the implemen- due to the partnership approach that typi- tation of aggressive austerity measures by fies many local state – civil society initia- municipal government. tives. Indeed, Fairness Commissions can The concept of fairness has become inadvertently encourage the idea that pov- increasingly popular in the socio-political erty and inequality are a result of the local discourse of the liberal-left in the UK, context and might therefore only require from Fairness Commissions (Bunyan and action at this level. This echoes the strategic Diamond, 2014) to campaigns for a living mistake of some environmental organisa- wage, to permaculture activists and their tions during the 1990s, when faced with principle of ‘fair shares’ for all. It inhabits the ecological impacts of rapid globalisa- the intersection of state and civil society, tion, which was to exhort their supporters and transgresses the boundaries of local, to ‘think global, act local’ thereby ceding national and global. Fairness resonates the global to trans-national corporations with those driven by the desire to achieve and extra-national governance organisa- the ‘good society’, whether they are polit- tions. A mistake that was rectified by the icians, activists or academics. It also suc- emergence of the alter-global movement, ceeds in being both inoffensive and all most celebrated for its prominence as the encompassing. Fairness is a classic empty chief opposition to the corporate influenced signifier and as such can be invested with WTO trade discussions and economic a variety of meanings and put to work hegemony of the World Economic Forum politically in a range of contexts and to and G8 structures. The concern then is that varying ends. whilst Fairness Commissions enable some However, in a period where the social of those involved to signal their opposition costs of austerity economics become ever to the restructuring of the welfare state at a more visible, it is also perhaps no coinci- local level, they do so without necessarily dence that the idea of fairness, as intuitive contesting the worst impacts of the social a value as any, is increasingly mobilised to and economic restructuring that is taking ask deeply political questions. Is it fair that place under the conceptual framework of in the UK a majority of those in poverty neoliberal austerity. Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at J B Priestley Library on October 12, 2016 Chesters 3 In examining the concept of fairness that the potential of ‘social unionism’ or ‘social is underpinning such initiatives, this article movement unionism’ (Clawson, 2008; will attempt to draw some lessons from an Fairbrother, 2008; Moody, 1997). I use international context and to look instead at these terms interchangeably as I suggest an instance of conflict, rather than cooper- there is little difference between them for ation between the local state and civil soci- analytical purposes. However, I recognise ety. It will look specifically at the US State they tend to be representative of specific of Wisconsin and its checkered history as a forms of political and cultural expression. beacon of progressivism in the context of Social unionism is a term most familiar US public policy and labour relations. from Italian political theory whilst social From analysis of how the concept has con- movement unionism has its roots in the tributed to state–civil society relations his- UK/US tradition. In essence, both terms torically, to its role in animating forms describe the extension of traditional work of contentious politics that have emerged place rights approaches to include broader in recent years. I will discuss how the pre- agendas of social justice, civil rights, immi- sumption of ‘fairness’ as a basis for public grant rights and economic justice for non- policy has a long tradition in this state, unionised workers (Chesters and Welsh, under the auspices of what its citizens 2010: 156–157). It suggests that this refer to as the ‘Wisconsin idea’. A form of approach is evolving rapidly, as changes to ‘progressive’ politics that is closely asso- the law on both sides of the Atlantic ciated with the founding and emergence of increasingly diminish the opportunity for the State itself, and one that includes an more traditional repertoires of union emphasis upon progressive taxation, work- engagement and their capacity to exert col- ers rights, opposition to corporate power lective pressure through formal channels. and tight controls over political influence. Social unionism tends to be motivated by I will also describe how the ‘folk memory’ an analysis of the ideological and conflictual of this tradition played into the highly nature of the politics underpinning debates public struggle to defend and maintain col- about what is fair and therefore is oriented lective bargaining rights. These included to a more strategic and long-term commit- payments of ‘fair share’ fees by non-union ment to struggle.

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