American Federation of School Administrators

Leadership Conference

March 17, 2002

Remarks of Paul E. Almeida, President

Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO

Thank you President Green from inviting me here to today to speak with you about “Unionism for Professionals.” I would like to touch on three areas today, a brief description of the Department for Professional Employees, the present landscape of the workforce and the attitudes of professionals about unions and unionism.

The Department for Professional Employees is a coalition of 22 national unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO which represent over four million highly skilled, white-collar employees. AFSA is one of those affiliates. DPE unions include professionals in over three hundred separate and distinct occupations. The occupations represented by DPE break down into five major areas health care, education, science and engineering, arts and entertainment and public administration. The DPE is the largest association of professional, technical and administrative support workers in the United States.

The mission of DPE is to:

·         Unite those AFL-CIO unions that represent professional workers and which  have similar interests and goals;

·         Create a forum for affiliated unions to discuss and cooperate on issues of mutual concern,

·         Promote the unionization of professional, technical and administrative support workers and support the efforts of DPE affiliates to organize and represent them;

·         Provide research, education, training, and other assistance to affiliated unions supporting their organizing, bargaining and servicing objectives;

·         Advance a public policy agenda in federal and state government that enhances the economic security, well-being and status of professionals;

·         Educate pre-professionals, the public and the media about the prominent role of union professionals within our nation and the labor movement;

·         Build alliances with non-union associations and societies that also promote the interests of these workers;

·        Enhance the profile and visibility of professionals within the labor movement.

In 1997 AFL-CIO President Sweeney addressed the convention of the DPE and stated “If the labor movement is to grow as it should – and as it must – it will be organizing millions more professional, technical and administrative support workers.  Make no mistake about it. That is one of the highest priorities of the Federation.”

The proliferation of professional and technical workers in the last quarter of the 20^th century, as well as the growth of contingent and other non-traditional work arrangements has caused major shifts within the American labor movement.  As implied commitments by companies to workers evaporate, so do the loyalties of professional employees to the organizations that employ them.

The changing character and conditions of work and the resulting turbulence have brought larger numbers of professional and technical workers into the labor movement since President Sweeney addressed the DPE convention five years ago.  Today the workforce is 60% white collar and the labor movement is 50% white collar. In fact for the last quarter of 2001, 60% of the organizing wins reported by the AFL-CIO and 68% of the new members were white collar. Yet the labor movement is still perceived as a haven for blue collar and low wage workers. They need good union contracts more than ever but so do white collar workers. During the past two years, teachers and school administrators, engineers and technicians, nurses and doctors, university researchers, professors and graduate teaching assistants, psychologists, customer service representatives, as well as a host of others, have joined the millions who already find a voice for themselves and their professions within the unions of the DPE.

So why don’t we hear more about the white collar workforce?

There are two parts to this answer an internal and an external. On the internal side is the feeling within labor that if we focus on the issues of white collar workers we are not concerned about lower wage workers or the social issues that the movement has always stood for. Nothing could be further from the truth. What does every blue collar worker or lower wage worker want for their children? They want them to go to college and become a white collar worker. Our strength as a movement will only be realized when all workers speak with one voice. We have a long way to go.

On the external part is the problem with the media and how to convey the issues of the white collar workforce on issues of importance to them. In the past every newspaper had a labor reporter today you would be hard press to give me the name of five such individuals. Today the story always goes back to the issue, the worker wants more money. While money is important to the white collar worker, issues of importance go well past money. Today reporters are incapable of translating to their readers in one hundred words or less the issues related to the education and training that a pilot of a Boeing 777 must go through, the responsibility of having 300 people’s lives at your finger tips and at the same time the working conditions that pilots must endure in a deregulated market to maintain the seven or eight figure salary of the CEO. Try to explain in 100 words or less the cost factors involved in a local school district that a charter school will have on that city’s budget. The same is true with nursing and their issues, and goes across the board with all white collar workers. I am not criticizing reporters after all they are members of DPE unions as well. They are undergoing there own compression of work by the mega mergers in their industries.

The news isn’t all bad. I would like to touch on the attitudes of professionals and their view toward unionism. Research done by the DPE has shown that among professional and technical workers there is a high level of job satisfaction. Nearly 83% reported high job satisfaction because of the type of work they performed. Additionally 73% reported that they had been in their current occupation for the past ten years and 74% expected to be in that occupation in the next five years. The commitment to the work they do does not imply approval of employer actions. Top management was given negative rating by 56% in our study.

We used the term employee organization in our research before we tested the word union. For professional and technical workers, the key attraction of employee organizations is that they give workers a voice. The key reason cited for not joining any employee organization is that they may create conflict at work. Eighty-one percent of the workers surveyed believe that employee organizations should seek to develop a cooperative relationship with the employer. Among different types of employee organizations, the top pick is a union by 36% and the second is a “professional association’ by 30%. Only about 12% opposed any form of organization. Professional are joiners.

Conflict and a loss of individual freedoms top the list of reasons for not joining any employee organizations.

Conflict equals confrontation to many of these workers. As I have pointed out these workers are committed to their occupation and will be slow to put their career on the line. Management knows this only to well. They know that an aggressive anti-union campaign will cause fear and conflict, which will often lead to a no vote for unionization.

Unions of professional and technical workers will need to allay these concerns by vigorously demonstrating a willingness and capability to provide a campaign that lowers the level of conflict created by management and at the same time works to give a voice and vehicle for workers’ concerns.  And thus help them solve problems by bargaining as equals with management.