July’s breakup of the AFL-CIO, subsequent to the Change to Win Coalition’s (Coalition) split from the Federation, has led to the raiding of various bargaining units by the Coalition and the implementation of a novel organizing strategy.

The Coalition, which presently consists of 7 former AFL-CIO affiliates, includes the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Teamsters, the Laborers International Union of North America, UNITE HERE, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and the United Farm Workers of America. Having made substantial gains, the Coalition now numbers over 6 million members, almost half of what the AFL-CIO had before the breakup.

However, the Coalition’s key organizing strategy seems to consist of taking away public sector and service sector members from the AFL-CIO. In July 28, 2005’s The Nation, David Moberg reported that the Coalition is going after the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees’ (AFSCME) representation of homecare workers in Riverside County, CA. This AFSCME local represents about 60,000 low-income in-home health care workers in the public and service sectors. For its part, AFSCME has tried to negotiate a no-raid agreement with the SEIU but failed. Now, it’s said to be considering raiding SEIU bargaining units.

As I recently opined in my blog (July 20 and July 27), I don’t think these efforts will accomplish much. The labor movement cannot survive on the U.S. public sector alone. In order to survive beyond 2050 (or thereabouts), the movement needs to expand further into the domestic private sector as well as Asia, India and Latin America. 2050 is not based on any statistical or empirical evidence. I say 2050 simply because I believe that the U.S. labor movement is dying a slow death, and the attrition of private sector union members via retirement, relocation, layoff, decertification and outsourcing is a very slow process.

To its credit, the UFCW realizes that it needs to pursue the private sector. As reported by Steven Greenhouse in the September 6, 2005 New York Times, the UFCW is trying to improve its private sector organizing efforts by attempting to “build deep community support among local houses of worship, political leaders and immigrant groups.” This is happening at Koch Foods, a poultry plant in Morristown, Tennessee. According to Kim Miller of the Tennessee Independent Media Center, groups like Jobs with Justice and Interfaith Worker Justice have been aggressively supporting the organizing efforts by holding rallies and speeches (here and here). Unfortunately, for the UFCW, and the labor movement, these groups generally have little money to lend to union organizing campaigns. Money equals influence and power. Therefore, as long as Koch implements a reasonably effective union prevention strategy at this southern U.S. plant (the south is historically anti-union), or its employees reject UFCW representation, then management should win the election.

This community based strategy has further been adopted by Wal-Mart employees. Wal-Mart employees at approximately 30 central Florida stores have formed the Wal-Mart Workers Association (reported by Mark Albright in the St. Petersburg Times and the New York Times and Steven Greenhouse for the NYT. Depending on the source, the Wal-Mart Workers Association (WMWA) has 100-200 members. The goal of the WMWA is to address and resolve issues concerning wages, reduction in hours and insurance issues. What’s really interesting is that the WMWA is receiving support, including funding, from the following community organizations: ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), which is a low income family and community advocacy organization; the Marguerite Casey Foundation, a grant giving organization for groups representing the interests of low income communities and families; and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, named after the founder of the Sara Lee Corporation, and which funds and supports social justice causes. Moreover, the WMWA is receiving financial and strategic support from Coalition members, the SEIU and UFCW. However, as Wal-Mart has a long history of successful union avoidance, and this anti-Wal-Mart management effort is occurring in the southern U.S., I don’t expect the WMWA to amount to much. In any case, this collaboration of community organizations and unions is an interesting and noteworthy development. The lessons for management are simple.

Savvy employers will pay close attention to local religious and community organizations to gage pro and anti-union sentiment. I’m not advocating spying or anything surreptitious. The goal shouldn’t be to influence these organizations to undermine positive and proactive human resources practices. Rather, employers should utilize these organizations for the improvement of their employees by involving these organizations in the company’s overall human capital development strategy. Such a strategy invests in the improvement of front line employees and management via education and training. Companies can incorporate these organizations’ programs to provide employee assistance program related services, classes in literacy, money management, healthcare and other areas. This strategy may prove to be the most effective union prevention plan. Actually, this strategy could be effective for both union and nonunion companies.