Introduction

Last April, "Building a Strong Grass Roots Union Movement: Member Mobilization, Political Action and Organizing" was the focus of presentations, papers, and community-based events at the 2003 United Association for Labor Education (UALE) Conference in Miami, Florida. Over the course of three days, labor educators and activists discussed and debated strategies that can revitalize the union movement, starting from the local- member level. This issue of the Labor Studies Journal features four outstanding case studies from the conference. Each addresses the roles of strategic campaigns in achieving the difficult but critical goals of new-member organizing, collective bargaining, or broader social-policy agendas. All of these articles highlight the contributions of local union members to the campaigns, but especially emphasize coalition building with allies inside and outside the labor movement.

In the first article of this series, Robert Hickey analyzes multi-faceted strategies launched by the Paper, Allied-Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) in their five-year campaign to block Crown Central Petroleum's union-busting and industry bargaining pattern-busting strategies. Hickey adds to the growing case-study literature by documenting the role of corporate research, international solidarity, membership mobilization in communities, activities beyond plant-gate picketing, and coalition-building.

Two of Hickey's significant conclusions are echoed in other papers in this volume. First, the success PACE workers achieved in this campaign did not result from any one tactic; instead, pressure on multiple leverage points produced a greater impact than any one action could have. Second, Hickey concludes that the labor movement may achieve much more in comprehensive campaigns if they extend themselves beyond fighting defensively for union contracts to undertaking a full range of political, economic, and social issues. In this way, they will contribute not only to union survival but also to union revival.

The next paper, by Edwin L. Brown and Tracy Chang, is likewise a case study of a PACE strategic campaign. PACE used corporate research, regulatory challenges, and transnational labor solidarity to bolster a traditional organizing campaign of central Alabama Imerys Group facilities, a campaign stalled by a hostile community environment and limited worker militancy. Chang and Brown advance the case-study literature on strategic campaigns by testing the analytical structure posed by Perry (1987) that identifies successful campaigns as those that pursue conflict escalation both horizontally (coalition building, regulatory agency and consumer pressure) and vertically (corporate power structure).

The authors note that this campaign (which occurred at about the same time as the Crown Central battle) highlights the importance of a multi-dimensional strategy in defeating the company's union-busting campaign. The study documents particularly well the innovative educational tactics (including a video of union-busting tactics used in Alabama and a website describing the campaign in French and English) that PACE members used to convey their message to international partners. The authors analyze the advantages and challenges of collaboration with European unions whose labor-relations traditions are significantly different from U.S. practices, and show potential limits to international solidarity.

The third paper focuses on the formation and activities of the Coalition for Healthy Communities—a 65-member coalition created in Los Angeles County in 2002 to save the area's public-health system from paralyzing budget cuts. In their case study, authors Amy Hall and Dan Schaefer describe how their organization, the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR)/SEIU, joined with other unions, community and consumer advocacy groups, and legal services organizations, to avoid the loss of community-based health clinics in the face of a funding crisis. As do the authors of the previous articles, Hall and Schaefer identify multiple approaches used to secure resources—educational forums, legal challenges, one-on-one canvassing for a ballot measure, and pressure on state and federal agencies.

Among the lessons learned in this campaign, the authors emphasize the importance of trust-building among coalition partners and the need to embrace groups that are not typically union allies. They also note the value of allowing coalition partners with expertise in particular areas...