Union Stories

Unions: A Professional Choice
by Lauren Lazarovici, AFL-CIO

The doctors and nurses who want the best for their patients, the lawyers who protect the public’s health and the engineers who ensure passengers’ safety on airplanes are all professionals who seek to contribute to society through their work while looking for opportunities to be creative and excel at their jobs. And more and more, these professionals are seeking a voice at work to help them achieve their goals.

For more than 100 years, artists and teachers have come together in unions, and other professionals have followed their lead. Already, professional workers are represented by unions at a higher rate (23 percent) than the workforce at large (about 15 percent), according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. And they make up the fastest-growing occupational category in the workforce: Professionals will account for almost 27 percent of all employment growth between 1998 and 2008, according to the BLS. Listening to the needs of professionals and enabling them to gain a voice at work is a key part of activists’ efforts to strengthen the union movement.

Professionals are finding that new economic pressures–managed health care, corporate mergers, threats of privatization and outsourcing–are reducing the influence they have at their jobs and hurting their ability to maintain the quality of services, according to two new studies. "The Professional and Technical Workforce: A New Frontier for Unions," a recent report by the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees, finds these economic forces "threaten to undermine their professional autonomy, working conditions and dignity."

"Changes in corporate structure have professionals looking for a vehicle to protect their professional dignity, advance their training and provide them with a voice in the workplace," says DPE President Paul E. Almeida. "More and more, these professionals are looking for a union that will ensure these rights." Actors, artists and other performers long have recognized the value of unions for professionals. During recent high-profile contract negotiations, Hollywood’s best-known actors and actresses, such as Tom Hanks, have talked about the importance of their unions to them and to the thousands of professional entertainers who don’t make six- or seven-figure salaries.

Professionals say it’s getting harder to serve the best interests of their customers, clients and patients–and they no longer can count on stable employment, secure benefits, regular pay increases or upward job mobility, according to Finding Their Voices: Professionals and Workplace Representation, by the Albert Shanker Institute, a nonprofit organization founded by union leaders and named after the former president of AFT.

"Professionals feel their ability to make decisions and exercise professional judgment is diminishing and they are frustrated with their reduced control," says Richard Hurd, professor of industrial and labor relations at Cornell University.

"The challenge for unions is to show that their role will be to bring these workers a voice and to show that the union will be under the professionals’ control." As in any organizing campaign, says Hurd, the key to success is "to listen to the workers." Here’s what six professional employees have to say about why they want unions.

Treating asthma, fractures, burns, ear infections–and even child abuse–are all part of a routine day for Alice Faye Singleton, M.D., director of pediatric clinics at King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Half of the babies in the neonatal intensive care unit in the medical center are born to drug-addicted mothers, while the medical center’s trauma unit is filled with victims of drug-related violence. The doctors and other professionals at King/Drew, which serves low-income clients south of downtown, are dedicated to channeling their professional skills to help heal their community–and Singleton says her union is essential for keeping it that way.

Yet only a few years ago, supervisors treated doctors with "a basic lack of respect," she says. They ignored doctors’ contributions to the medical center and were not open to solving problems. Many policies weren’t in writing and doctors received widely divergent pay and workloads. Singleton wanted to craft a fair solution, so in 1999 she became involved in a successful unionization drive with the Union of American Physicians and Dentists/AFSCME. Now she’s on the contract negotiations committee.

"There is more fairness since the union is here," says Singleton. "Managers know unions can hold them accountable. A union is a mechanism to make management listen and communicate with doctors."

Her union helps her thrive in a career she began working toward as a teenager growing up with nine brothers and sisters in Harlem. Even more, the advantages of union membership extend beyond the center. "The community benefits because doctors will stay here and work for the community," she says. "They have a sense of mission to take care of patients who are poor."

Recognizing student concern over issues ranging from campus safety to the hours the recreation center pool is open, West Lincoln High School teacher Dave Thurau harnessed that enthusiasm, assigning students a project to write letters to the mayor and other elected officials. The Cleveland students buzzed with excitement when they received responses, emblazoned with official government seals, which Thurau displayed on a classroom bulletin board.

Thurau, a government and world history teacher and member of the Cleveland Teachers Union/AFT, came up with the innovative teaching technique after earning a certification in social studies last year from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. The board–endorsed by AFT, the National Education Association, foundations and business groups–awards the certificates to top teachers who complete rigorous exams that measure mastery of a subject and ability to inspire students. CTU partially funds the Cleveland Teachers Academy, which sponsors coaches to help teachers prepare for the exams.

"The certificate helps bring professionalism to teaching and sets high standards," says Thurau. "It helps teachers improve our teaching by making us examine how effective we are in the classroom." Since taking the certificate course, he’s infused his classes with other innovative strategies, like assigning students to write editorials for the school newspaper on current events. "The kids are learning more, enjoying it more and are being more cooperative," he says.

The lanky father of three also regularly takes part in seminars sponsored by his union on leadership training and such professional issues as behavior management for classrooms.

Thurau is pleased that the latest contract negotiated by the union includes improved wages and health benefits and a procedure to remove disruptive students from the classroom. "Teacher unions such as AFT and NEA push to improve teacher quality," he says. "They are about better education."

Tom McCarty, who designs radar and other communications equipment for Boeing Co. aircraft in Seattle, is among thousands of professionals helping transform an airplane from a tangle of blueprints to a dynamic, graceful tube of aluminum gliding through the sky.

"People believe in the company and take pride in their work," says McCarty. While watching successful test flights, McCarty says he’s seen "grown men with tears running down their cheeks. There’s a lot of pride in seeing that plane take off."

But like many professionals at the company, McCarty, 57, grew concerned when Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, bought divisions of other technology companies and stopped treating engineers as allies in creating quality aircraft. Then Boeing began laying the groundwork to cut engineers’ health and pension benefits. "When the company started to treat us as a ‘cost,’ not a partner, people took great offense."

McCarty supported the drive of his independent union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, to affiliate with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers in the fall of 1999. In January 2000, McCarty–along with a large majority of Boeing’s 20,000 workers–walked off the job in what became the largest private-sector, white-collar strike in U.S. history. During the successful six-week strike, McCarty, a father of six who is married to his high school sweetheart, used the same engineering skills that make him a successful radar designer: He built environmentally friendly burn barrels to keep picketers warm.

Ultimately, the contract that workers and Boeing negotiated included pay increases and no benefit cutbacks. McCarty also points to another crucial clause: a labor-management "partnership" agreement that gives SPEEA/IFPTE members a voice in the company’s decisions. "Having a union is a tool for making our voice heard," he says. "We want to have a role in determining our destiny."

When food stamp recipients call the customer service center in Houston where Communications Workers of America Local 6186 member Arnulfo "Samm" Almaguer works as an assistant supervisor, they often need immediate assistance.

If there’s a new child in the family, or some other circumstance requires more food, they need Almaguer and his co-workers to increase their benefits quickly. "When your pantry is empty, a week is a long time," he says.

If the call center is short-staffed–which it often is because low salaries lead to high turnover–clients will suffer. "Staffing levels impact our clients," says Almaguer. "They affect whether people get their food stamps in a day–or in a week."

Members of CWA Local 6186, the Texas State Employees Union, are working to boost salaries and benefits for workers at the state’s Department of Human Services. Almaguer knows that means building the union so it has more clout with state lawmakers who fund the department. "The legislature responds to big numbers," he says. "I joined the union because with numbers comes strength."

Almaguer signs up new union members when workers first arrive at the call center for training. He approaches them in the lunchroom during breaks, telling them about the importance of joining the union. He knows a strong union movement in Texas means better service for low-income people who rely on him and his co-workers for food stamps, Medicaid and other government assistance. "The legislature responds to voters," says Almaguer. "And with the union, we have people power."