Eliminating The Line Between Unions and Communities: .

protecting the right to a voice@work

By Laureen Lazarovici

Union activists must be strategically savvy, patient and tenacious when helping workers form unions - and these same qualities they need when mobilising community support.

When the supervisors of the Mt Sinai/St Francis Nursing Home in Miami spied on workers giving out union leaflets during their organising campaign, it was an employer intimidation tactic familiar to union leaders. Management followed up by firing two workers and disciplining two others leading the effort - an illegal action 25% of employers take during union organising efforts, according to Kate Bronfenbrenner from Cornell University. In Miami and Milwaukee union and community activists have had to face a great deal of employer intimidation and lies in their building of union communities.

(America@work. June/July 2003)