Say congradulations to the workers at Roncone’s Restaurant: they’ve just joined a union and they’re adding to the roles of a very important bloc of our nation’s workers. Union membership has steadily decreased over the decades, and in the last ten years, plummeted. But there’s a few more in Rochester, and that’s a good thing:
R News: As It Happens, Where It Happens
Labor leaders hope it will be the beginning of a trend to support workers and ultimately Rochester’s economy.Restaurant and hotel workers in Rochester really didn’t have an opportunity to organize until just over a year ago. That’s when the industrial union UNITE merged with HERE, the union that represents hotel and restaurant workers. Roncone?s is the first in Rochester to unionize. If labor leaders have their way, it won’t be the last.
Technorati Tags: Union, Organize, UNITE, HERE
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This is similar to events across the country over the past year or so.We have seen an agressive campaign to organize a number of Starbuck’s coffee shops on the west coast by none other than the I.W.W.! And they have met with some success. (I believe the wobblies are also trying to organize a chain of movie theatres (not sure what chain.) in Cal.,again with some success.)This victory at Roncone’s is a great example of the shift that organized labour must make towards helping those in the service sector.The service sector must be lifted up the same way the industrial sector was by unions in the 1930′s. If not then the great American Middle Class that so many of us have benefited from being apart of will continue to erode.Whether you are for unions or not I don’t think one would be to far off the mark in saying that a combination of the post W.W.II economic boom and men coming home from the war into good paying well proteced Union jobs literally gave birth to the American Middle Class that so many of us are a product of.Before the war and before the great organizing and Industrial battles of the latter part of the 19th centary and the first part of the 20th most factory workers and miners were POOR. But because of the struggles of Organized Labour they were lifted out of grinding poverty and placed into the Middle Class.I realise I’m painting with very basic and broad brushstrokes here, but what I’m trying to say is that this is becomeing a struggle to save the Americam Middlie Class as we know it! If this fight is lost the country as we know it and love it is lost.
This is spot-on commentary. I didn’t know about Starbucks and the IWW. Awesome to see that the IWW is still active and much more than just a museum piece.
As for unionizing the service sector, the SEIU has been attempting that for some time, though I’m not sure with what success. The last service industry job I remember having was working for Bells in Sodus, which was of course under the Textiles Worker’s Union. The tech industry is in sore need of Union reform, but so far, I don’t see much movement in this regard. I’m not sure, but I think that part of the problem is the uniqueness of each individual role in the tech industry.
One of the more interesting aspects of these recent successes is that were seeing a resergance (albiet small) of Industrial Unionism as opposed to Trade unionism. Victories by the I.W.W and UNITE bear this out.I think the harder govt. and employers clamp down and strip away the gains made by workers over the last 100 years workers won’t just turn to unions for help but the philosophy of Industial Unionism itself.
Well, particularly in the case of restaurant workers, it is difficult to make trade unionism really work. You need a much larger pool of members to really have the effectiveness that you’re looking for. I know I keep coming back to my industry, but this again is something that makes for a more effective unionization schema than industrial. . . .
Hmmm. . . . I can be a geek AND a wobbly? One Big, Pasty-White Union? Outstanding!