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Trade unions in America
美國工會組織
Chattanooga shoo-shoo
噓~查特奴加
The union movement misses a big opportunity to halt its decline
汽車工會運動丟失阻止汽車行業(yè)衰落的大機會
VOLKSWAGEN'S factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was supposed to be the spot where decades of decline ended for the United Auto Workers and for America's industrial unions in general.
田納西州查特奴加市的大眾工廠曾一度被認為，結束了全美汽車工人聯合會和全體美國工業(yè)工會數十年的衰落遭遇。
Instead, workers dealt the movement a crushing blow on February 14th, voting against unionising by 712 to 626.
然而，2月14日對工會入駐大眾的選票中，反對712票，贊成626票，工人的選票結果對工會的入駐行動來說是一次巨大的打擊。
The UAW has been campaigning for years to organise workers at foreign-owned carmakers in the South, and had good reason to be optimistic that the VW vote would be a breakthrough.
近年來，UAW一直在南方汽車制造外企組織工人發(fā)起各種活動，因此它有充分理由對大眾的選舉活動將大獲成功持樂觀態(tài)度。
Perhaps out of deference to its powerful unions back home in Germany, the company let the UAW campaign inside its plant—a courtesy that it denied to anti-union activists.
也許出于無視德國本土強大的工會，大眾使UAW入駐其工廠的行動成為對非反工會積極分子的一種謙遜表達。
Both VW and the UAW had supported the creation of a German-style works council, a committee of managers and workers that makes some decisions on how a plant is run.
大眾和UAW都支持德國工作委員會的模式，即委員會的管理者和工人對工廠的運行做決定。
It will be small consolation to the UAW that the company says it will still pursue this—although it is unclear whether, under American law, a factory can have a works council without an outside trade union to represent the employees.
但是工廠不清楚，在美國法律下，沒有外部工會為工人做代表的工廠是否可以擁有工作委員會。所以對UAW來說工廠宣稱將繼續(xù)追尋德國工作委員會模式的做法不能讓人感到安慰。
The defeat means that the UAW's membership, having fallen from over1.5min 1979 to less than 400,000 today, is set to continue its declining trend. American-owned car firms have recently been rehiring at their unionised plants, as sales of vehicles have picked up, but as at other manufacturers, automation will continue reducing the need for human workers.
選舉失敗意味著UAW的成員數正從1979年的150萬人銳減到現今的不足40萬人，而這注定了UAW成員減少的趨勢。
Although union membership has held steady in America's public sector, in private businesses it has fallen sharply since official figures were first kept in the early 1980s.
盡管美國公共部門的工會成員數一直很穩(wěn)定，自80年代早期首次記錄的官方數據以來私人部門的工會成員數卻一直大幅下降。
Last year the number of union members grew and the overall rate of unionisation held steady at 11.3% of America's workforce thanks to job growth at unionised manufacturers and construction firms.
由于加入工會的制造商和建設公司的就業(yè)崗位增加，去年工會成員有所增加同時總體的非工會成員占美國工人比例穩(wěn)定在11.3%。
But it was noticeable that in one fast-growing industry—mining, oil and gas—the rate of unionisation fell from 7.2% to 5.4%: most new jobs were non-union.
但只在一個快速發(fā)展的行業(yè)—煤礦、石油和天然氣—顯而易見，該行業(yè)非工會成員占比由7.2%%下降到5.4%，這意味著大多數新就職者是非工會成員。
Despite last year's upturn in membership, modern manufacturing is not fertile ground for union recruiters.
雖然去年工會成員有上升趨勢，但現代制造業(yè)不是吸納工會成員的地方。
The remaining jobs in factories are typically skilled and well-paid.
工廠其他的員工都是高薪有專長熟練工，
Employees struggle to see what more they will get in return for paying union dues.
雇員很難看到他們付出工會費得來的回報。
Production and maintenance workers at VW's Chattanooga plant earn $20-30 an hour, plus bonuses and other benefits, making it one of the most rewarding places to work in a state where the cost of living is low.
大眾查特奴加工廠的汽車生產工和保養(yǎng)工每小時工資20-30美元，外加獎金和其他福利，這使大眾成為在低生活成本州中工作的理想去處之一。
To make things tougher still for the unions, employment is growing fastest in parts of the country that have not traditionally been bastions of trade unionism.
仍讓工會感到更艱難的是，沒有工會基礎傳統(tǒng)的一些國家中雇員數量一直快速增加，甚至在UAW的核心基地密歇根州，
Even in the UAW's heartland, Michigan, the rate of union membership in all types of workplace fell from 16.6% to 16.3% last year, despite overall job growth.
盡管全行業(yè)就業(yè)率上漲，但去年各行業(yè)工會成員率從16.6%下降到16.3%。
Richard Freeman, a labour economist at Harvard, has found that union membership tends to grow in short, sharp spurts; otherwise it tends to wither.
哈佛的一位勞動經濟學家理查德弗里曼研究得出，工會成員增長率以短暫、沖刺的趨勢發(fā)展，也就是說工會衰退以趨勢發(fā)展。
Mr Freeman says this means that unions must therefore “l(fā)atch on to a crisis period when people are upset”.
弗里曼說，這意味著工會必須從此“在人們失望時抓住危機期”。
But of course,Americahas just gone through such a period, and union membership barely budged.
當然，美國剛熬過這一時期，但工會成員幾乎沒有增加。
The parts of the American private sector where trade unionism is showing signs of life are those where the working conditions are toughest.
在工會正顯示出生命力的一些私人部門中，其工作條件是最差的。
The Service Employees International Union, for instance, has agitated on behalf of non-unionised workers at fast-food restaurants and Walmart shops, without pressing them to join the union.
比如，服務業(yè)員工國際聯合會沒強迫員工加入工會，卻以快餐業(yè)和沃爾瑪零售店非工會員工的名義發(fā)起煽動活動。
Workers in car factories may not want to sign up, but the UAW has recruited casino dealers, health-care workers, postdoctoral researchers and graduate-student teaching assistants.
汽車工廠的工人可能不想在工會入駐一事上簽字，但是UAW已經招募了賭場交易員、衛(wèi)生保健工作者、博士后研究者和研究所助教加入工會。
“The role of the labour movement has to be about more than representing their current membership. They have to be responsive to all excluded workers,” says Jeffrey Grabelsky, an industrial-relations expert at Cornell University.
康奈爾大學的勞資關系專家Jeffrey Grabelsky 說：“工人運動的角色已經不只是代表他們當前的成員身份”。
Newer labour organisations seem to understand this better than older ones.
新興的勞動組織似乎比以往的勞動組織更明白這點。
The National Domestic Workers Alliance has won much support among people who work in other people's homes, such as those providing care to the elderly.
全國國內工人聯盟就贏得了在他人家工作者的支持，例如：那些為老年人提供護理服務的工作人員。
The Freelancers Union has also boomed, by providing temporary workers with benefits such as health insurance and financial services while avoiding traditional trade-union politicking.
自由職業(yè)者聯盟隨之繁榮，在避免與傳統(tǒng)工會發(fā)生競選活動的情況下，為臨時工提供福利，比如健康保險和財務服務，
Indeed, Sara Horowitz, the union's founder, even moonlights as deputy chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which could not be farther from the picket line.
其發(fā)起者Sara Horowitz甚至兼任紐約美聯儲銀行主席，這幾乎等同于一條警戒線。
