Types of Unions

Earlier today I had a conversation that raised in my mind an issue I've noticed before: The extent to which different unions feel rooted in their community as opposed to their occupation. I gew up in a union family, and IIRC, whenever contract negotations came up the talk I heard was about how much we needed to live, the rising cost of living, and how much other people in the city made. In the current labor negotiations, however, the graduate assistants compare themselves primarily to graduate assistants in other places, with the implicit assumption that our skills are worth a certain amount set by a national educational marketplace. A teachers' strike I heard about recently was similar. Graduate assistants, of course, also have another unique characteristic: Our wages are not merely salary in the conventional sense, but also elements of a financial aid package which is a key aspect of recruitment. Many of those prospectively striking will finish their degrees in May and never earn the wages they are fighting for.

I'm not sure if one style is better than another, but it does have interesting implications for the future of labor solidarity. I feel like many of the TAA rank-and-file would be more energized by a threat to tenure in Alaska than an attempt by Madison grocery workers to win higher wages. This in turn raises the issue of possible changes in the national labor structure, as the line between professional associations and labor unions becomes fuzzier.