As part of acquiring his Bachelor of Arts in Construction Management from the National Labor College, Stan Lesniewicz researched and wrote a paper examining factors which contribute to the decline of union membership, ways membership can be grown and examine the public’s view of unions.

Portions of his paper will be published in installments in the Fox Valley Labor News, the first of which begins today.

“Over time, union’s reputations has been declining in the public’s favor. Building Trades workers have seen work that has been traditionally built using skilled union craft workers now being completed with unskilled or semi-skilled non-union workers. With this decline, union construction workers and the contractors who employ them need to figure out what led to this loss of market share versus the open-shop segment.

“Certain negative stereotypes and perspectives on unions promoted by politicians pandering for votes or the communications media looking to create an agenda for their followers have been allowed to develop in the U.S. to the extent that even union members tend to believe in their truth.

“There is a perception among the public the main purpose of labor unions is to selfishly pursue the interests of their members and a general ignorance of their purpose and power. In modern trade unions, older members educated younger workers about struggles that were fought to win higher standards of living. Back then, trade unionism was as much an advocate of social responsibility as economic justice. However, while the labor movement continues to press for social responsibility on the part of corporations, the success of the business union model has led to the abdication of the unions’ necessary role as an advocate for social change.

“In the past, where the labor movement offered its members a sense of family and a passion for bettering society and themselves, it now presents itself as little more than another anonymous bureaucracy and another complication to an already complex life. Enabling union members to be more articulate advocates for goals of organized labor, public opinions of the usefulness of unions will change to the positive. They will begin to see the current negativity created towards unions is unwarranted.

“In addition to the public misunderstanding the role of unions, unions need to work with capitalism and the established employment relations system. Unionism in the United States has become conservative, even reactionary. Rather than growing its memberships by organizing the unorganized workers that were increasingly encroaching on their historical territory, the building trades unions have grown more insular and fight among themselves over jurisdiction of the available projects.

“By using jurisdictional claims to grow their memberships at the expense of another building trades union, they are ignoring the larger problem of the non-union contractor taking this work out of the union sector. Infighting led to a change in attitude among clients, contractors and the public, which included the establishment of several policies that led to the loss of union construction market share and the growth of the non-union “merit shop” segment.

“On the political front, state government efforts to repeal the “little Davis-Bacon Acts,” became a popular tactic among politicians go after voters who were eager to blame unions for government’s economic problems. By individual unions using jurisdictional disputes to grow their power, they have lost the greater power inherent in a unified and cohesive building trades organization.

“By adopting an “us against them” mentality, the building trades have alienated the very contractors that are essential to the growth of the union construction sector. By creating roadblocks and difficulties for fair union contractors whom employ their members, trade unions have unwittingly given the non-union builders a back door pass to come in and take away projects. By building on historical labor-management groups, such as joint apprenticeship committees and creating new organizations to address the common problems faced by labor and management in the construction industry, contractors and unions have been able to identify and implement win-win solutions to their mutual problems.

Stan Lesniewicz is a second generation Sheet Metal Worker with Local 73. He has been a proud union member for the last 14 years. Lesniewicz decided to go back to school when the economy went bad, attending the National Labor College from 2010 to 2013 where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Construction Management.