Labor needs
innovators
to survive

The nation's unions have
seen a sharp decline in
membership and influence

In the fantasy world of Las Vegas, the AFL-CIO -- labor's largest representative body -- faced up to some harsh realities earlier this month. The labor federation's Executive Council meeting held March 1-3 at Bally's included marathon meetings, intense negotiation, some very heated discussion and, most important, signs of a renewed vitality.

About the author: Jacob Waxman was born and raised on Maui. He is currently based in San Francisco, directing organizing efforts for the American Ingenuity Alliance.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney described the meeting as "one of the most important" in labor's history. Fifty years after its landmark merger into one federation, organized labor is fighting for its life and the leaders of our nation's unions are engaged in vigorous and at times vitriolic debate over what to do about it.

The AFL-CIO's internal debate made national news last November when Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern threatened to take his union and leave if serious changes aren't enacted by this July's quadrennial AFL-CIO convention. Stern's ultimatum sparked a contentious dispute about how to reverse organized labor's slide.

CNN anchor Lou Dobbs summarized the situation in a recent U.S. News & World Report op/ed distributed at the Vegas meeting:

"Organized labor has never been less influential, at a time when corporate America possesses unprecedented political power and overwhelming influence in both parties and the White House. After fighting for decades to improve the quality of lives of our nation's working men and women, organized labor is no longer the countervailing influence to the dominant power of corporate America."

The fact that Lou Dobbs' editorial was included as part of the AFL-CIO's press packet in Vegas certainly demonstrates that the labor movement is opening itself up to constructive criticism and concrete ideas for improvement. Rather than insulate itself in a time of crisis, organized labor appears to be listening to and attempting to incorporate ideas from the broader community.

As many observers correctly noted, in a democratic organization internal tensions, even contradictions, are a sign of vitality. One thing is clear: The current debate within the labor movement, though intense, is a healthy one.

What's more, not all issues were sources of discord. Important core principles provided shared values for bridge building. No one denied that the labor movement is facing a crisis. This recognition led to a general consensus that the only way to counteract organized labor's decline is a multi-pronged effort that includes a greater commitment to workplace organizing and political action. The question is whether labor leaders can negotiate the thin line between productive debate and internecine squabbling. The answer will go a long way toward determining whether working peoples' voices will be heard or ignored.

Why we should care

The labor movement within the United States is in dire straits, but not many outside of the ever-shrinking AFL-CIO circle seem to be taking notice. Membership has declined steadily over the past several decades, reaching a 50-year low of 12.9 million members (about 13 percent of the labor force) in 2004. Organized labor's precipitous decline from representing more than one-third of American workers at its post-Word War II height to just one in eight today has rendered unions increasingly marginal in the national discussions that affect working people's lives. This wasn't always the case. In the past, unions had the strength to fight and win battles to bring all of us the eight-hour workday and 40-hour workweek, health-care coverage, vacation time, retirement benefits, child labor laws and workplace safety standards.

But now, Americans are working harder for less. This refrain was heard over and over in Vegas as labor leaders underscored the need to incorporate new tools into their toolbox. These tools must provide unions with real leverage in their fight on behalf of working families.

Where does Hawaii fit?

The labor movement's national struggle to rebuild strength is relevant to all of us who call Hawaii home.

Though we often take the workplace benefits won by unions for granted, it is vital to recognize that without a strong force to counterbalance corporate power, many of these standards that have come to define middle-class life in Hawaii and our nation will be whittled away.

Many of the basic assumptions about work and life that we grew up with are rapidly becoming illusions. How many of Hawaii's citizens can now get by on just 40 hours of work a week? With so many working multiple jobs, how many have enough "pau hana time" left over to enjoy life with their friends and family?

Significantly, Hawaii's advancements in protecting working families coincided with the AFL-CIO's 1955 merger when the "greatest generation" took control of both houses of Hawaii's Legislature. As national unions work hard to reverse their decline, the gains of Hawaii's "revolution of '54" are also being undermined. Union or nonunion, the betterment of working people's lives in Hawaii and across the country have been, and likely will continue to be, inextricably linked to the strength of their representative voice: labor unions.

As was the case 50 years ago, Hawaii is positioned to play a significant role in helping working families prosper in the new century. First launched in Hawaii, a new national initiative known as the American Ingenuity Alliance -- which I am helping to organize --Êis currently engaged in a strategic effort to combine the legal leverage of intellectual property creators with the organizing power of labor unions. The purpose of this alliance is to protect the fruits of American ingenuity so that inventors can fully exercise their constitutional intellectual property rights and in turn these rights can be utilized to forge an anchor for good jobs in the United States.

For the uninitiated, intellectual property (IP) can be seen as the intangible products of our thoughts and imagination that receive the legal protection of a property right. The major legal mechanisms for defining the "boundaries" of intellectual property are patents, copyrights and trademarks. Protecting a creators' claim to his or her intellectual property is akin to preventing trespassers from freely using one's home without permission.

Abraham Lincoln, the only U.S. president to hold a patent, in a speech on "Discoveries and Inventions" declared that the institution of intellectual property rights "secured to the inventor, for a limited time, the exclusive use of his invention; and thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and useful things."

Although the link between inventors and working people is not necessarily intuitive, both are currently undermined by a global economy where capital mobility trumps political sovereignty, making it increasingly difficult for them to receive fair compensation for the fruits of their labor.

Meeting two needs

The exclusivity rights afforded to intellectual property creators are constitutionally granted (Article 1, section 8, clause 8) but are generally only enforceable for those who have the necessary resources, leaving individual intellectual property creators with little to no recourse.

Similarly, the organizing rights of labor unions are afforded some legal protection in the United States, but increasing capital mobility is significantly undermining labor's bargaining position. By incorporating the protection of the property rights of intellectual property creators into labor's overall strategy, unions can gain a new source of leverage and inventors a much-needed champion of their interests.

In essence, as intellectual property becomes increasingly critical in today's economy, the American Ingenuity Alliance is working to take this new economic reality into account and make it work for both labor unions and intellectual property creators. One critical step in this effort is the provision of "pooled risk" legal protection for inventors or, more simply, IP insurance.

Depending on the responsiveness of our state government, Hawaii could soon be home to the first intellectual property insurance carrier in the nation. The purpose of this type of insurance is to protect the fruits of American ingenuity from infringement so that inventors can fully exercise their constitutional intellectual property rights. These IP rights can then be utilized to create innovative new enterprises and to forge an anchor for good jobs in the communities in which we live and raise our families.

Ultimately, when unions help to ensure that American ingenuity is once again respected and protected; when the fruits of our ingenuity are utilized to create and keep good jobs in our communities; when we as a community and as fellow citizens commit to invest in our common good; then we can echo that refrain from the old labor song "solidarity forever," which must have been on the minds of so many of Hawaii's workers 50 years ago when the AFL merged with the CIO and a new generation took control of both houses of the Hawaii Legislature.

The union makes us strong.