American Association of University Professors
December 7, 2002
Remarks of Paul E. Almeida, President
Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO

The Department for Professional Employees is a coalition of 23 national unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO which represent over four million highly skilled, white-collar employees. DPE is one of six autonomous constitutional departments of the AFL-CIO. 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.

I would like to touch on three areas today, a brief description of the Department, the present landscape of the workforce and the attitudes of professionals about unions and unionism.

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;

Research and Publications

The Department focuses its resources on activities that assist its affiliates in relating to and organizing the professional, technical and administrative work force.  The extensive research and publications work of the DPE supports this objective, as well as its lobbying and other public policy activities. In the last two years, the Department issued a total of ten publications.

Organizing and Collective Bargaining Support

The Department initiated new efforts to provide key assistance to affiliates during organizing campaigns and contract disputes: 

DPE helped raise funds for the internal organizing effort by SPEEA/IFPTE among Boeing engineers after the AFL-CIO had declined to lend financial support from the organizing fund. The early support of the DPE network helped SPEEA’s membership grow from its pre-affiliation number of 10,000 to its current membership of over 20,000. Since SPEEA’s affiliation with IFPTE, they have successfully organized another 4,000 IT and technical workers at Boeing’s Wichita, Kansas plant. Another SPEEA/IFPTE organizing drive is currently underway in St. Louis at the former McDonnell-Douglass (now Boeing) facility where the target is 5,000 more engineers.

During the subsequent six-week Boeing strike that followed the SPEEA-IFPTE affiliation, DPE facilitated support from the AFL-CIO Strategic Campaigns Committee and AFL-CIO affiliates in general. The Federation lent both financial and staffing support that was critical to the success of this strike by over 17,000 Boeing engineers.

During the six-month commercial advertising strike by SAG/AFTRA, the Department was directly involved in strategy discussions between the unions and the AFL-CIO. DPE also advised AFL-CIO leadership and corporate campaign staff, who was assigned to assist with the strike, regarding appropriate support measures throughout the dispute.

The DPE also facilitated early roundtable discussions with AFL-CIO President Sweeney and Secretary Treasurer Trumka and the Hollywood unions prior to contract bargaining in 2001 which concluded successfully in early June with a contract settlement.

The Department provided boycott support assistance directly and through the AFL-CIO to Actors Equity against the non-union, travelling theatrical productions of Sound of Music and Music Man.

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

From late 1999 through mid-year 2002, the Department has been involved in nearly 30 different legislative, regulatory and other policy matters. The DPE provides legislative, research, strategy and agency liaison support to affiliates and advises the AFL-CIO on policy matters that are unique to DPE affiliates. Among the major issues of concern were:

Telecommunications rules, labor law reforms, tax issues, and immigration matters.

            Telecommunications

Lobbying the FCC and Congress to preserve certain broadcast regulations including restrictions on newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership.

Stopping legislative efforts by right-wing religious broadcasters to end run the FCC’s broadcast license renewal process for non-commercial, educational public broadcasting TV licenses.

Securing labor-backed protections enhancing consumers programming choices in satellite broadcasting legislation through “must carry” and retransmission consent requirements related to the rebroadcast of local TV programming.

Joining other affiliates in filing comments with the FCC in support of adoption of the American standard for High Definition TV.

             Labor Law

The DPE, AFL-CIO and affiliated unions have thus far been successful in warding off efforts to further erode FLSA overtime protections for certain classifications of computer-IT professionals.

Supporting affiliates on House-passed legislation to enact a limited anti-trust exemption for certain health care professionals so that they could bargain with managed care plans.

Backing legislation to address the problem of employer mis-classification by simplifying and reforming the legal definition of independent contractors.

            Tax Issues

Supporting 2001 legislation to make permanent the extension of Section 127 of the IRS code that allows workers to exclude from taxable income employer-provided educational tuition benefits. The legislation, which was later included in the Bush tax package, extended the exclusion to graduate level training.

Pushing the Congress to amend the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) to end discriminatory tax treatment against middle income performers.

Opposing legislation to extend the Congressional moratorium disallowing the states from collecting sales taxes on Internet commodity transactions without provisions enabling state and local jurisdictions from eventually collecting billions in lost revenue. DPE established a task force of affiliate lobbyists to work on this issue.

            Immigration

Despite the opposition of DPE, the AFL-CIO and affiliated unions, the Congress overwhelmingly approved and President Clinton signed legislation to massively expand the H-1B guest worker program less than two years after it had passed legislation nearly doubling the H-1B cap.

Opposed an INS proposal to implement a so-called “grace period” to allow dislocated H-1Bs to stay in the U.S. and compete against U.S. workers for high tech jobs.

            Intellectual Property

Convincing Congress to successfully restore copyright protections for recording artists.

Lobbying Congress to forestall the publishing industry efforts to reverse the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Tasini v. New York Times et. al. that sustained the right of free-lance writers to be compensated for the re-publication of their works on the Internet.  

            Other Issues

                Successfully lobbied for additional funds for National Endowment for the Arts.

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

COLLEGE OUTREACH PROGRAMS

College students are important for the future of the labor movement.  Over 16 million students are enrolled in community colleges, four-year institutions and universities.  Most of them are preparing for employment in the various professional and technical fields.

The DPE Education Task Force recommended a College Outreach Program.  It would: 1) Reach out to students on college campuses.

The program creates a discipline-based, student organization that met periodically throughout the school year under the guidance of a - designated faculty advisor.  Students engaged in activities that introduced them to the value of union representation within their disciplines. They connected with union members active in the professions they seek to enter.  They learned how unions support them in their careers.  With this new understanding of unions and the work they do, students come to appreciate the difference made by unions.

At Eastern Illinois University (in journalism, media and communications) and at the Berklee College of Music, a series of programs have been held to promote an understanding of the role that unions play on behalf of professionals in these occupations.  Activities have included workshops, lectures, small gatherings, lunches, and class presentations all involving representatives from the affiliates. 

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

The DPE assists affiliates in building relationships with non-union professional organizations and their members by establishing a presence whenever and wherever possible at professionally-oriented conferences and meetings. Two examples of this interaction are with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Public Health Association (APHA).  For the last several years the DPE has collaborated with IEEE to lobby Congress against increases in the H-1b guest worker program. The DPE also continues to work with the APHA’s Labor Caucus to expand its membership and sponsor workshops and other activities.

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

Communicating to professionals and the general public the message that today’s unions serve all professionals, including those at the highest levels, is another outreach strategy of the DPE.  The DPE has held a series of well-publicized public events featuring prominent professionals in the arts, journalism and the media; science and technology; education, and health care who are union members and who understand and reflect the values and traditions of the labor movement. In October the Department joined the TNG-CWA, and AFT by sponsoring a one-day meeting called “The Corporate State (of Mind) and Free Expression,”on the threats to freedom of the press and academic independence posed by growing commercial and ideological intrusion into these areas. The event featured two panels of union-member press and academic experts and launched a new web site called the Professional Rights and Opportunities Network (www.dpe-pro.net). The site will house reports and information on this and other free expression topics.  

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 and technical 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 third quarter of 2002, 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 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 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 to the public. 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.