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As Labor's numbers shrink, so does its political clout - rail workers unions - Watching Washington - Column
Gus Welty
Mac Fleming can count, and he didn't like the numbers he was adding up--or perhaps subtracting. The numbers showed the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes losing 3% of its membership each year, with the total number of dues payers down by about half from what in 1980.
So it was no surprise that Fleming looked favorably on a pitch for an affiliation from the Service Employees International Union. After all, SEIU has 1.1 million members, and the BMWE would be the lead union in a railroad division SEIU wants to set up. BMWE's president saw his shrinking union suddenly gaining a lot more influence in the Capitol and in the White House.
Opponents of affiliation argued that the two unions really have nothing in common. But both they and Fleming missed an important question regarding influence in Washington: Just how important are raw numbers? How important, that is, in comparison to the size of the check(s) you can write?
Yes, numbers can be impressive if you're talking about lobbying organizations such as Common Cause or the Christian Coalition. But they seem to be less and less relevant in considering the clout they bring for organized labor.
And it doesn't seem to matter which party controls the Administration and/or the Congress. Labor, to put it straight, has a real problem in trying to win the big ones. Rail labor? Its once-impressive numbers have shriveled up to the point where labor and carrier lobbyists probably cancel each other out.
As for the money game, only the United Transportation Union seems to show up with any regularity on lists of top labor contributors, with almost all of the dollars going to the Democrat side of the aisle.
So, it's understandable that the aggressive BMWE chief is impatient about increasing his union's (rail labor's) influence in Washington. But the question remains, how will Fleming do it?
Rail labor is as fractious as ever when it comes to laying aside old rivalries. Fleming was shot down, brutally, by his own people when he tried to couple the BMWE to the fastest-growing union in the AFL-CIO. And in the meantime, the AFL-CIO's creation of a Transportation Trades group doesn't appear to have made a lobbying powerhouse out of its transportation-union affiliates.
Labor's problem in the capital, maybe especially rail labor's problem, is that it seems to be less and less relevant (unless, of course, a work stoppage is threatened in which case rail labor quickly gets the attention of the President and the Congress and labor usually gets whacked).
The numbers are familiar. Despite recent recruiting drives, union membership has been sinking steadily as a percentage of non-farm employment. And despite expenditures of an estimated $35 million on "issue" advertising before the 1996 elections, "big" labor failed to return the Congress to Democratic control even as President Clinton was winning re-election rather comfortably. Just as discouraging for labor, perhaps, is the fact that some of its oldest friends on the Hill--not used to being part of the minority and not happy about it--are talking seriously about retirement.
With the support of all the lawyers in Congress, rail labor can probably win any battle over the Federal Employers' Liability Act. But as for anything else, well, consider that "big" labor threw all its might against NAFTA and for a ban on striker replacement. And it lost both those all-out battles. That's got to be pretty discouraging-something more for Mac Fleming to ponder if he tries again to increase his union's clout with the capitol crowd.
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