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Workers Communications:
Three International Examples
Union for Democratic Communications
October 1989
Jon Bekken
Institute of Communications Research
University of Illinois, 222B Armory
Champaign, IL 61820 217/333-1549
In 1985, members of the Zentai Omori branch of the Japanese
Postal Workers Union addressed an appeal for international
solidarity to U.S. rank-and-file union activists, noting that in a
recent meeting they had been "surprised to learn how similar our
problems are":
For example, the current eagerness of corporations to
bust militant unions; the introduction of new
technologies to displace workers, "de-skill" jobs, and
increase management's control over work processes and
workplaces; and the expansion of part-time, low-wage and
service sectors of the economy are our problems too.
...Even the system of dividing workers into small groups
to control them more rigorously, which you label the
"Japanese management plan," is known as the "American
labor control system" over here...
There is another important similarity between us. We,
rank-and-file workers, fight against those abuses in
various ways; but until now, regrettably we have had no
opportunity to hear your voice directly.
Zentai Omori went on to suggest that rank-and-file workers from
both countries arrange to meet and discuss their common problems,
and to exchange publications and information, without the
intercession of union bureaucrats.
One way in which they attempted to do this was by publishing
and distributing a quarterly English-language journal, Rank-and-
File, sent to several U.S. union locals and activists as a means of
providing first-hand knowledge of the situation and struggles of
Japanese workers. This is but a single example of recent
initiatives by workers in all parts of the world to develop
communications and information systems to enable them to meet the
challenges of an increasingly global economy, and to match the
resources of transnational corporations that can move production
halfway across the globe with comparative ease.
Other examples include the Asia Workers Solidarity Link
network; regular international conferences and exchanges among IBM,
Ford and GM workers throughout the world (mostly involving local,
rather than national, union representatives) to share information
and discuss their struggles against their common employer; and the
revived interest in, and activity from, International Trade
Secretariats in recent years. In several cases these efforts
have yielded practical results--providing unions with information
on company policies, international activities, etc.; bringing
pressure to bear against employers or governments; facilitating
financial support; and impeding employers' ability to transfer
struck work across national boundaries. Independent labor
networks and research centers have generally taken the lead in
these initiatives. An example is a conference organized by
Transnationals Information Exchange which brought together
unionists from 14 Asian, North and South American and European
countries to discuss the ongoing restructuring of the
telecommunications industry, and attacks on jobs and union
organization that have resulted.
Computerizing the Labor Movement
Four years ago the Spanish dock-workers union, Coordinadora,
proposed an international computerized information center making
data on working conditions, wages, contracts, ongoing labor
disputes and other relevant data accessible to rank-and-file
portworkers and union activists. The proposal was originally
presented to the International Alternative Ports and Coasts
Conference's workshop on port labour and new technology, but was
not discussed or incorporated into the conference declaration.
Coordinadora presented it again the next year to an international
conference of revolutionary labor unions and rank-and-file groups,
which "agreed that this was a desirable goal to work toward but was
beyond the scope of current resources."
Coordinadora's newspaper, La Estiba, demonstrates the union's
concern for international developments--which the union has learned
through bitter experience will, sooner rather than later, have a
direct impact on their members' working conditions. The union
has long been part of a European informal network of port unions
which regularly hold conferences, exchange information about
ongoing labor disputes, and arrange solidarity actions with each
other's struggles. Such networks are increasingly common in the
labor movement, but computerization has for many remained an
elusive dream, raising organizational difficulties which has
limited their use by those organizations (such as International
Trade Secretariats) best situated to make the necessary investments
in equipment and training.
Three International Trade Secretariats (grouping unions along
broad industrial lines, and loosely aligned with the International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions) are going on-line and
encouraging their major affiliates to do the same. Yet most
efforts to take advantage of the new computer and communications
technologies have been by independent workers' and rank-and-file
groups at the grass roots level--engaged in a process that Kim
Scipes refers to as "building the new shop floor internationalism."
These groups combine information exchanges with rank-and-file
action ranging from solidarity strikes to financial
contributions.
Several independent labor research and resource centres--in
Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America--have already gone on line,
taking advantage of low-cost personal computers and
telecommunications networkes to speed appeals for solidarity,
requests for information, draft documents and other material to
interested organizations around the world. An example of the
potential power of these informal networks occurred in October of
1987, when the Malaysian government arrested many unionists and
other activists. Within hours, scores of international groups in
seventeen countries (including some in Malaysia itself) using the
same electronic mail system had full information of the arrests,
and could keep instantly appraised of subsequent developments.
South African unionists have made similar use of such networks to
disseminate news of their struggles and of government
repression.
Yet many problems have surfaced with such networks as well.
Many parts of the world simply do not have the necessary
communications infrastructure--outside of systems available only to
the military or the largest corporations--for effective electronic
data transfers. In other countries where connection is technically
possible, artificially-high prices or government restrictions limit
(not always successfully) access. Many other labor organizations,
particularly those representing the most impoverished workers, lack
even the relatively modest resources necessary for equipment,
training, and communications costs and are thus excluded. And as
these networks become more widespread, organizations with limited
resources run the risk of being submerged under a pile of urgent
messages. In short, the new technology makes possible more rapid
communication and exchange of information, but has thus far not
resulted in the new era for international solidarity between
workers' organizations that many had hoped for.
Elsewhere, unions have established low-technology information
systems on a national and regional basis that offer many of the
same services as do the emerging computerized systems, if not so
rapidly. The Union Research Group brings together more than a
hundred unions in the Bombay and Poona areas, gathering data from
its affiliates and from other sources on wages and working
conditions, management initiatives towards `rationalisation' or
`modernization,' plant closings, job classifications, women
workers, and occupational safety and health. This information is
made available through English and Marathi-language publications,
inter-union workshops, and through assistance to individual unions
(particularly during negotiations). The scope of these activities
requires a vast data base, but the lack of resources has required
a cumbersome process of manual computations and physical transfer
of documents. Thus the Research Group has been attempting to
secure funding to computerize its data and make it readily accesible.
Shop-Floor Internationalism
Increasingly, unions in impoverished countries have come to
rely upon international solidarity, whether to ensure their
survival or to assist them in winning labor struggles against
transnational employers. Mexico's `19th of September' Garment
Workers Union, for example, publishes a bilingual International
Bulletin publicizing the union's activities, appealling for
solidarity against government repression, and requesting support
for the union's organizing and strike funds. The union has also
organized North American tours (of union officers, a documentary
film, and an art exhibit depicting the union's history) to
publicize its struggles and build links for mutual solidarity, and
is organizing a November, 1989 conference of North American women
workers to discuss common concerns.
Following one such tour, a member of the union's National
Executive Committee reported that
We found people in almost the same situation as
ourselves. They are also organizing. Many Mexicans
believe that they'll go to the states, get rich and live
well, but it's not that easy. That's why it's so
important to exchange exeriences, talk with other workers
from whatever sector, get to know their problems and
express our own. It was important to find out that
others don't let themselves be exploited...
The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Kilusang Mayo Uno
in the Philippines, and the Brazilian Central Unica dos
Trabalhadores are examples of other unions that have placed strong
emphasis on building international networks.
All of these efforts share a committment to building an
international labor movement, a movement in which solidarity is a
living ideal--not just an empty slogan to be inscribed on union
letterheads and resolutions. And by and large these efforts have
been the product of rank-and-file workers and union locals.
National and international union centers, with some notable
exceptions, have played a distinctly secondary role. While this
has restricted the resources available to support these networks,
and the numbers able to participate in them, it has also freed
participants of many of the bureaucratic and political constraints
in which many union centres have become enmeshed.
In short, the need--and potential--for the emerging grassroots
international labor communication networks has never been clearer.
As the premier issue of the GM Workers' Voice put it:
GM is powerful because it is global. It can use national
divisions between trade unionists to get them to compete
for jobs. While GM controls information on its worldwide
operations, building unity within the workforce is
impossible.
GM WORKERS' VOICE is an alternative source of
information... We hope that it will help build a new
solidarity between those working in GM. But its
usefullness depends on you! GM WORKERS' VOICE is not
produced for you, it is produced by you.... The time has
never been more urgent to exchange information and build
international unity.