RI labor faces a turning point Energized by Carcieri’s challenge, the union movement fights to expand its membership and influence BY BRIAN C. JONES

HEALTH-CARE WORKERS crushed in an attempt to unionize the state’s second biggest hospital. The state’s largest teachers’ local gives up fully-paid health premiums. A judge stalls a union-organizing drive for 1300 home day-care providers. Based on such headlines in recent months, these would seem to be sad and discouraging times for Rhode Island’s labor movement. As in most states, union membership continues to atrophy, and labor is struggling to maintain its economic and political muscle.

But midway through what could be one of the most definitive years for labor in recent state history, many union advocates are decidedly upbeat.

Marcia Reback, president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, contends that a multi-pronged attack by Republican Governor Donald L. Carcieri against many things held dear by labor — state worker fringe benefits, unionized construction projects, clout in the General Assembly, a new casino in West Warwick — is galvanizing the union movement. "There’s nothing like being attacked to solidify your membership," Reback says. "We haven’t had this opportunity in a long time to really energize our membership."

Moreover, across the spectrum of labor in Rhode Island, advocates say the twin challenges of changing economics and shifting politics are forcing labor to work harder, to be more innovative, and to hang together.

As it stands, the win-loss record is not entirely grim for labor. Among the gains:

• State worker unions appeared to win a big round in their fight with Carcieri earlier this month. This came when the General Assembly-crafted budget ignored Carcieri’s drive to make 15,300 state workers pay a share of their health premiums – starting with non-union employees. Instead, the plan was left up in the air — to be negotiated between unions and the administration.

• The state’s two largest construction unions have signed agreements with Providence-based Gilbane Building Co., one of the country’s top five construction management companies. This provides for the use of union workers, at union rates, on upcoming Gilbane projects, capping the building trades’ multi-year effort to regain a major role in the Rhode Island construction industry.

• The ongoing and massive campaign mounted by the union trying to organize the home day-care providers probably played a decisive role on a related issue: turning back Carcieri’s efforts to cut millions in subsidies for hundreds of families whose children attend day-care centers.

• Finally, the often-fractious union movement pulled closer together, forming a coalition called Working Rhode Island, which claims 100,000 active and retired union workers, or about one out of 10 Rhode Islanders. Through this effort, labor and Democrats will try to stymie Carcieri’s drive to pick up Republican seats in the legislature.

Launched after newly elected Carcieri targeted state worker benefits as a cause of high state spending, Working Rhode Island recently spent $30,000 to run big ads in the state’s newspapers, attacking the governor’s image as a reformer and good-government advocate.

It remains to be seen how effective the ad campaign was or whether other initiatives by the $1 million coalition will make an impact. But the optimists say the labor movement, for the first time in years, is acting with more unity, and just as importantly, that rank-and-file members are paying attention. "There’s a very high level of interest in what’s going on with the contract and a higher level of interest," says Nancy R. Reed, citing some of those in her 1100-member Rhode Island Alliance of Social Service Employees, Local 580. Not only are more members turning out for meetings, says Reed, the local’s president, but the union is getting calls from non-union workers, exploring whether they can join.

For union leaders, having their members actively involved in labor and political issues increases their clout, because at its essence, the labor union movement thrives — or falters — on numbers. In Rhode Island, these numbers tell a mixed story. On one hand, membership is down over the past 20 years. On the other, Rhode Island remains a strong labor center — tied with Minnesota as the country’s eighth most unionized state.

Last year, 17 percent of Rhode Island’s workforce was composed of union members, compared to just 12.9 percent for the country, according to federal statistics compiled on the Web site www.unionstats.com. However, in 1983, Rhode Island unions’ share of the workforce was higher — 21.5 percent — while nationally, the union slice was 20.1 percent. The current tally estimates 83,990 union members in Rhode Island (labor leaders believe the number is 5000 higher), about 2000 fewer than in 1983.

While shrinking, the numbers show that Rhode Island unions remain an important factor in the state’s economy and politics. What’s at issue is whether this influence is on the rise, and, if so, what effect does labor really have? This year, with an unusual convergence of events — a combative governor, such hot-button issues as a casino and new initiatives by unions — could mark a turning point for labor.