What did the National Labor Union win on behalf of its workers?

NUHW planning raid on AFSCME Local 3299.  Wild conspiracy theory or crazy plan to build the next SEIU?

• Staffers have leaked emails showing inappropriate, unethical behavior in a recent executive officer election campaign, many of whom were formerly NUHW employees and volunteers.  The emails also show association with attorney Jonathan Siegel, who coached staff on how to slander opposing officers to win the election.  Jonathand Siegel also defended NUHW against SEIU in their raid and later lost when they sued him. New management has acted recklessly in managing the takeover of the union and have jeopardized an upcoming contract battle for many UC employees, some say purposely to making it ripe for takeover by NUHW.   Further, dedicated long time staff have left in droves.  AFSCME 3299 has changed from political powerhouse and a strong voice for workers to a joke of the labor movement overnight.  http://www.dirty299.com

• Answer:

  My comment is on the premise of this question. It does not offer an answer. Under US law, workers select the union they want to represent them. That union receives a monopoly right to bargain for employees. The only group that can revoke that right are the workers themselves -- and then only for a brief period near the close of a union contract. Unions explicitly try to prevent workers from changing unions thorough their own labor federations -- the union of unions. The AFL-CIO Article XX prohibits affiliated unions from competing with each other. Unions refer to competition as "raiding" as if workers were some prize to be carried off by hordes on horseback. Once upon a time, unions competed fiercely with each other. Craft workers who formed the American Federation of Labor fought each other and industrial workers formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations. They fought like hell, and employers were terrified. Indeed, the reason that the Machinists Union, where I was a leader in the 1980s, represents workers in the US aerospace industry is that employers sought them out as a benign alternative to the more militant UAW (auto workers). Thus did an AFL union happily compete with a CIO union. Until December of 1955, when the AFL and the CIO merged and passed Article XX. The following chart illustrates precisely how well that worked out: union membership in the United States as a share of all workers peaked in, wait for it, December, 1955. This illustrates what we all know: competition strengthens and the lack of it weakens teams, companies, or countries.  I have no idea whether the two unions mentioned in the question are competing. But I hope they are.