The Relationship Between the International and the Local

Business unionism is an easier way to get into it. It's sort of defined by when the power gets taken away from the shop floor. When you go into a contract negotiation, for instance, nobody from the union participates in the negotiation. So what you get is a very complacent, unmotivated rank and file. They don't know what the fight is about. On the other hand, if you start from the base from the rank and file, in our case, we used our newsletter to do that. We held department meetings where if there was a racist chief steward, we called on people to come out and confront them at a department meeting. That's old school union