posted on: Monday, March 28, 2011

by Aaron Dorfman

Image: Renjith Krishnan | Freedigitalphotos.net

The events in Wisconsin and the attacks on unions in other states have me thinking about the importance of unions. Although I’ve never myself been a member of a union, I’m proud of my family history with the union movement.

When I was growing up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, my father taught eighth grade English and also served on the executive committee and as president of the Minnetonka Teachers Association Local 7173. The union is affiliated with both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). I remember as a young child making picket signs in our garage when the union was getting ready to go out on strike.

My grandfather, Isaiah Sol Dorfman, who came to this country as an immigrant, was one of small group of attorneys who helped draft the Wagner Act, giving organized labor the right to bargain collectively. The Chicago Tribune noted in his obituary that “Mr. Dorfman was a high official with the National Labor Relations Board under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. He represented the government and defended the constitutionality of labor legislation in landmark labor-relations cases, including the Inland Steel case, which helped establish the right of labor to engage in collective bargaining.”

What strikes me in particular as I reflect about Wisconsin is the interdependence of many of the struggles for fairness and justice in this nation. The union movement is connected to struggles for human rights, environmental protection, women’s rights and other struggles for justice. Those who want to harm unions are often the same folks who want to deny progress in other ways.

That’s why I was pleased to learn that the union movement is sponsoring a series of events on April 4, 2011 – the 43rd anniversary of the day Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. King was assassinated in Memphis where he was standing in solidarity with sanitation workers who were demanding their right to collective bargaining. I hope community organizers, social service providers and philanthropoids will get involved with local events on April 4th. You can get details by clicking here. We need to stick together. We are all one.

In the next issue of NCRP’s quarterly journal, Responsive Philanthropy, Lisa Ranghelli will share concrete examples of how unions and community-based organizations have collaborated to win incredible improvements for families and communities. The stories will be drawn from our Grantmaking for Community Impact Project and the reports we have published examining this work in different parts of the country.  We’ve noted union involvement in passing in the reports, but we want to more explicitly make the connections through this forthcoming piece.

For funders who want to know more about how to support union-community partnerships, I recommend getting involved with the Neighborhood Funders Group, specifically their Working Group on Labor and Community Partnerships. The group includes some of the sharpest funders in the sector, and I’m sure they would be happy to share their wisdom while they also learn from you.

If you know of a successful union-community-philanthropy partnership, I’d love to hear about it.

Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).