Building Unions: Past, Present and Future, and: Building More Effective Unions (review)

Here are two very different books about the labor movement despite their very similar titles. Peter Kellman's Building Unions is really more a pamphlet, with thirty-six nicely illustrated pages. The title, however, does not prepare readers for its content, which is a legal history of the right to organize. There was interesting new information presented here for activists without much knowledge of American or labor history, notably the history of slavery and indentured servitude and the importance of constitutional law. Unfortunately the isolation of legal issues from other aspects of labor history and the pace of the survey of 500 years of history in this brief format is at times frustrating.

It is unclear who the intended audience is for Building Unions. It is written in a way that suggests it was intended to be accessible to a broad range of union activists. However, I am not sure what they would gain from the exercise of reading it, except possibly an interest in reading more on the subjects touched on by Kellman.

The second book, Building More Effective Unions, is an ambitious effort by Paul Clark, a professor of labor studies at Penn State University. Building More Effective Unions applies the insights and principles of behavioral science to the goal of strengthening unions. Clark makes a persuasive case that the field of behavioral science has applicable lessons to offer union leaders. His central argument is that in order to be more effective, unions need to increase member participation in all areas of their work, especially organizing, representation, and political action. He offers us a model from the organizational behaviorists which suggests that in order to increase member participation, unions need to influence members' attitudes towards the union and to create a positive organizational environment.

The remainder of the book looks at practical ways union leaders can do those things, drawing on research from the field of behavioral science as well as case studies from various unions. Clark touches on an impressive range of the activities, from grievance handling to organizing to communications. It is one of the few existing books about the current labor movement that deals with the day- to-day activities of stewards, local leaders, and staff representatives. It contains valuable advice for those front-line leaders on how to improve the image and presumably the effectiveness of their unions.

The model Clark offers boils down to the following formula: in order to increase member participation, we need to increase member commitment to the union. And in order to increase member commitment, we need to influence member attitudes through education and information. This seems sensible, and it properly places a high value on member participation. Sometimes, however, people have to have a positive experience with the union before they commit to build it. This would suggest a somewhat different formula—that in order to increase member commitment we need to increase member participation, and that in order to increase member participation, we need to listen to the concerns of our members and move them to action on those concerns. Although Clark acknowledges that the process is not linear, the advice offered throughout the book tends to focus on sometimes vague efforts to influence "the views members hold towards their unions."

Despite these quibbles, several of the chapters are exceptionally helpful. The chapter on political action makes a strong case for increased member involvement in this area of union work. The final chapter of the book deals with leadership and contains an excellent description of the differences between laissez faire, transactional, and transformational leadership. This chapter suggests a number of leadership development tools for unions attempting to change to organize and for union educators attempting to support that change.

Clark is...