After a Life in Labor, a Union Leader Retires, Frustrated by the Movement’s Troubles

Reprints This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article. Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information. Order a reprint of this article now. September 4, 2010 After a Life in Labor, a Union Leader Retires, Frustrated by the Movement’s Troubles By STEVEN GREENHOUSE WASHINGTON — After 38 years as a gung ho trade unionist, Anna Burger is retiring — with unmistakable frustration — from her post as the highest-ranking woman in American labor movement history. Ms. Burger, 59, is frustrated because she has dedicated her adult life to building the labor movement, but it has nonetheless grown smaller and weaker. Beyond stepping down as chairwoman of Change to Win, a federation representing 5 million union members, she is also retiring from her job of 14 years as secretary-treasurer of the powerful Service Employees International Union, representing nearly 2 million janitors, hospital employees and others workers. Ms. Burger said many women still had far too hard a time balancing job and family. She is also frustrated that union membership continues to shrink even when workers should in theory be flocking into unions during this time of stagnating wages. And the labor-friendly Democratic majorities that unions fought so hard to elect in the House and the Senate could disappear in this November’s elections. “The labor movement gave me a chance for a better life,” said Ms. Burger, the daughter of a Teamsters truck driver. “I worry whether the labor movement will continue to be able do that for a lot of people.” Within labor, many critics say that Ms. Burger, like Andy Stern, the former service employees’ president, was a divisive figure. She, like Mr. Stern, is often faulted for fomenting the schism in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. five years ago and for often bragging that the S.E.I.U. is the fastest-growing union with the biggest political war chest. Ms. Burger, who first joined a union as a social worker in Pennsylvania, boasted, for instance, that were it not for the service employees’ multiyear push, the health care overhaul would never have been enacted. “We’re the most successful union out there,” she said. “There are times people resent us for that.” Ms. Burger had campaigned to succeed Mr. Stern after he announced his retirement in April. Viewing Ms. Burger as too top-down, many S.E.I.U. officials rallied behind a union executive vice president and the eventual winner, Mary Kay Henry. Ms. Burger quit the race, but stayed on as No. 2, although it seemed only a matter of time before she stepped down. Ms. Burger was hazy about her future. She dropped hints that she hoped to land a job that brought unions together with other groups to build a progressive political majority — a vision that clashes with the nation’s recent rightward shift. “For me,” she said, “there’s an urgency to try to make sure we take advantage of having the best president we’ve had in my lifetime to make this country and make the world work best for everyone.” Randel K. Johnson, senior vice president for labor policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce, said that Ms. Burger was not going to get her progressive majority, and that it was partly labor’s fault. “They certainly were successful in electing a more pro-union House and Senate,” Mr. Johnson said. “But their advocacy of the unpopular health care bill will mean losses this November for many House and Senate members who have traditionally supported unions.” Ms. Burger has been an outspoken member of the president’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. She has urged President Obama to appoint a jobs czar “who would focus on jobs, jobs, jobs” and to adopt an industrial policy to rebuild America’s sagging manufacturing base. She supports establishing a federal infrastructure bank that would spend hugely over the next decade to build roads, bridges and mass transit, creating millions of jobs. Ms. Burger offered an explanation of why American workers were not rushing to embrace unions despite the tough economic times. “They’ll flock to unions when they don’t feel so intimidated about supporting a union,” she said. “There’s still a total assault by corporations to stop workers from having unions.” Many union officials remain bitter that Ms. Burger helped lead the 2005 split in the A.F.L.-C.I.O., which many say embarrassed and weakened labor. Ms. Burger is unrepentant. “I don’t have any second thoughts,” she said, asserting that the A.F.L.-C.I.O. had lacked energy and vision. She said that forming the breakaway federation fueled more union organizing by the Teamsters, for instance, among port truck drivers in Los Angeles. She also said that without the creation of Change to Win, Mr. Obama would never have won the presidency. She said that federation’s endorsement of Mr. Obama in April 2008 was pivotal to his defeating Hillary Rodham Clinton in several crucial primaries. Change to Win has fallen far short of its proclaimed goal of organizing 750,000 workers annually. “There hasn’t been the big increase in union membership that they had called for,” said Peter Dreier, a labor expert at Occidental College. Ms. Burger has often championed women’s causes. She noted that while women were half the work force, they did far more than half the work because they not only work on the job, but do most of the cooking, cleaning and child-rearing at home. “We have not developed public policies that support working women the way we should,” she said. “When women can be forced to work mandatory overtime when they have children at home and don’t have access to child care, that’s a huge problem. “We’re still lacking a lot of support mechanisms for women,” she added. “We’re the only industrial nation that doesn’t have paid maternity leave. Many businesses haven’t stepped up, so the government needs to.”

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