Help me welcome professor Richard Freeman, who holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in economics at Harvard University. He currently serves as faculty director of the Labor and Worklife Program at the Harvard Law School and is senior research fellow in Labour Markets at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance. Here, Freeman describes a workshop at Harvard last fall where the focus was on our unique membership organization, Working America, and how Working America's outreach is making a big difference in boosting the strength of the union movement.

In 2007, union density rose for the first time in decades. Membership increased by 311,000, the proportion of organized wage and salary workers went from 12.0 percent to 12.1 percent, and private-sector density went from 7.4 percent to 7.5 percent. A skeptic may say because the 0.1 increase is so small, it could be a sampling error or mis-measurement. Or, if true, that means it would take 100 years for an annual 0.1 rise to bring union density to what it was in the days of Ronald Reagan.

But the official statistics, which measure traditional collective bargaining unionism, miss the most important gain in union strength in the new millennium. This is the 2 million people who joined Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate. Add 2 million to the number calculated by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and unionization rises by 1.5 percentage points. Given the rate at which Working America is signing up members, membership will increase between 500,000 and 1 million annually in the foreseeable future. Working America will be the largest labor organization in the country. 

What has Working America done to enlist so many members when past efforts to organize workers outside of collective bargaining have failed?

To find out, the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program held a two-day conference with Working America in November 2007. We invited Working America leaders, canvassers and staff, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and AFL-CIO General Counsel Jon Hiatt; the leaders of the New Mexico and Oregon state federations; British and Dutch experts and labor scholars to discuss what Working America was doing and where it was headed. Unlike most recent meetings on unionism, which turn into wakes or gripe sessions about the declining fortunes of unions, this conference was as energizing as the best of any jazzed rally I've attended.

The story of Working America is the one of the greatest success in reaching workers outside of collective bargaining since the Knights of Labor in the 1880s. Its primary mode of enlisting members is through community canvassing, where bright young activists go door to door in potentially union-friendly neighborhoods. At the same time, Working America's strong online program has resulted in 60,000 new members signing up through its website.

There is good reason to expect that many workers will join a union-affiliated organization that avoids employer opposition. National surveys that showed that more than half of non-union workers want unions to represent them—the highest proportion in history—and that 75 percent wanted a committee of workers to discuss workplace issues with management.

Yet when Working America began, there was also good reason to fear that it would fail. The organization is not the workplace-type organization that workers surveyed say they want. It represents workers outside the workplace. Previous AFL-CIO efforts to enroll members outside of collective bargaining through discounts on consumer goods has not been as successful.

In summer 2003, Working America piloted its canvassing operation in Seattle and Cleveland, Ohio and learned that people indeed would join an organization that asked them to come together to press for workers’ interests in the public arena, even if it could not represent them at work. The following summer, Working America then embarked on major canvassing efforts.  People joined in droves and continue to do so. Some 67 percent of those contacted—Democrats, Republicans, fundamentalists, gun owners, you name them—join. Today, 89 percent give their telephone numbers and one-third give their e-mail addresses when asked by Working America canvassers or when joining online. Twenty percent show their commitment by writing a letter on an issue important to them, which the canvasser picks up and mails to the public official or agency. 

Those who sign up at the website have turned out to be especially active in campaigns.  Recruitment has been so successful that it costs just $8 to enlist a new member compared with the $1,000–$2,000 spent per new member in campaigns for bargaining unions.

At our two-day event, Working America field reps and staffers told about their experiences recruiting members and shared their enthusiasm in campaigning on issues beneficial to workers and their families. Working America members have been active on campaigns to enact the Employee Free Choice  Act, to expand the state children's health insurance program and more. In election after election, Working America members vote for candidates the organization endorses as being favorable to workers in similar proportions as do members of  unions. Thousands visit the Working America website daily for information and many participate in its online activities. Working America has successfully tapped the desire of workers participate in the labor movement.

No one at our conference viewed Working America as a finished product. It is a work-in-progress. To maintain growth and viability and fulfill its promise to help resurrect union strength and restore shared prosperity to America, Working America has to deal with many issues, with little history or experience to guide it.  

One problem is that Working America is not self-financing. Much funding comes from the AFL-CIO and thus from workers in collective bargaining unions. Grants and donations provide additional financial support. Some 15 percent of Working America members contribute voluntary dues, and the percentage is growing. Working America is experimenting with ways to increase the proportion who pay dues. While funding is always a problem, some of Working America's programmatic costs are supported by grants to the Working America Education Fund. Another problem is that Working America is not member run. Members vote via the Internet, phone and mail about the public issues on which the organization should concentrate. But they do not elect the leadership which makes key decisions.

Participants at the conference suggested several options which Working America could adapt to increase member involvement and stimulate local leadership and activism. The United Kingdom representative described the website of the Trades Union Congress (the UK equivalent of the AFL-CIO), which offers bulletin boards for local union activists to exchange views and ideas. The leaders of state federations told how they worked locally with Working America on issues in their states. The Oregon AFL-CIO worked with Working America in local and state elections in 2006, with considerable success.

The biggest issue is to keep members engaged and deliver useful services outside of collective bargaining. Working America provides information about workplace rights on its website, including an Ask a Lawyer feature, but needs to develop more options to help workers deal with their employers. In fact, membership information Working America compiles includes work sectors but not specific employers. Will Working America eventually provide assistance with workplace problems to keep its members involved, and if so, how will it do so? Will its members help collective bargaining unions organize workers?
 
Working America is not the sole future of U.S. unionism. Workers want greater representation at their workplace beyond what the organization provides.

What Working America is, is part of the future of unionism—a potentially large part. It can create a more friendly public environment for collective bargaining unions. It can provide a non-collective bargaining home for millions. If it finds ways to represent workers at their workplace without collective bargaining, it will be the biggest thing since...since sliced bread. 

Knock, knock. Who’s there?  Working America. Come on in.  America needs you.