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The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), is an independent democratic rank-and-file labor union representing workers in both the private and public sectors across the United States. UE was one of the first unions to be chartered by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and grew to over 600,000 members in the 1940s. UE was founded in March 1936 by several independent industrial unions which had been organized from the ground up in the early and mid-1930s by workers in major plants of the General Electric Company, Westinghouse Electric, RCA and other leading electrical equipment and radio manufacturers. In 1937 a group of local unions in the machine shop industry, led by James J. Matles, left the International Association of Machinists (IAM), objecting to that union's policies of racial discrimination, and joined the young UE. UE withdrew from affiliation with CIO in 1949 over differences related to the developing Cold War. It suffered significant losses of membership through the 1950s to raids by other unions, in particular the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) which was set up by the CIO in 1949 with the goal of replacing UE. The UE and IUE were fierce rivals for many years, but in the 1960s began to cooperate in bargaining with General Electric and other employers. Now representing 35,000 workers in a variety of industries, UE continues actively organizing private and public sector workers, and its democratic structure and practices have attracted several small independent unions to affiliate. Over the past two decades the union has built a strategic alliance with the Authentic Labor Front, an independent Mexican union, and UE is broadly active in international labor outreach and solidarity.〔Hathaway, Dale, ''Allies Across the Border: Mexico's "Authentic Labor Front"'' and Global Solidarity, South End Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-89608-632-6〕 Today UE is regarded as one of the most democratic and politically progressive national unions in the United States,〔Yates, Michael, ''Why Unions Matter'', Monthly Review Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-58367-190-0〕〔Nichols, John ("Most Valuable Progressives of 2008" ), The Nation〕 and its philosophy and principle of democratic unionism is summed up in its longstanding slogan, "The members run this union." ==Democratic structure== The fundamental unit of UE is the local union. Because UE was founded by existing independent local unions, the union is structured to provide a higher degree of autonomy to locals than in many other national unions. Local union members elect their local officers, negotiators, stewards, and delegates to the regional council and national convention; set policies for their local, including financial decisions; suggest bargaining demands and vote to approve the union’s full list of contract proposals; vote to ratify or reject contracts and supplemental agreements with the employer; and decide whether to strike, and when to end a strike, by majority vote. Most UE locals hold monthly membership meetings. Field representatives from the national union assist local unions with bargaining and other activities, but UE’s constitution forbids the staff “to interfere with UE rank-and-file control, including election processes.” Trusteeship of local unions (takeover of a local by the national union) is not provided for in the UE constitution, and has therefore never occurred. From its founding through 2005 UE had an intermediate structure of geographic districts. In 2005 the districts were replaced by three regions, Western, Eastern〔http://www.ue-easternregion.org/〕 and Northeast.〔http://uenortheast.org/〕 Each region holds meetings two or three times a year, composed of delegates from local unions. The regions elect their own officers and representatives to the General Executive Board (the national board of UE), including a full-time regional president. The regions coordinate work among the locals in their area, including solidarity, political action and union education. Several times a year the regions organize training workshops and other educational events through sub-regions – smaller geographic subdivisions. Until 2003 UE held annual conventions, a frequency rare in organized labor; the union's conventions are now biannual. The five-day convention,〔http://www.ueunion.org/convention.html〕 consisting of elected delegates from UE locals across the country, is the highest decision-making body of the union. It discusses and approves policy resolutions submitted by locals and regions, on matters ranging from the union's bargaining and organizing strategies to domestic and foreign policy issues. Convention delegates participate in workshops and other educational and cultural events; elect the union’s three national officers as well as the national trustees; and debate and vote on all proposed amendments to the UE constitution. The salaries of the national officers and staff are specified in the UE constitution, so giving raises to UE's paid officials requires amending the constitution at convention. All amendments to the constitution approved by the convention (including the proposed pay increases) are then sent to all UE locals, to be ratified or rejected by members voting at local union meetings in the weeks following the convention. Every member therefore has a direct vote on whether or not the pay of their national officers and staff will be increased. Between conventions, decisions of the national union are made by the General Executive Board, consisting of the three national officers, the three regional presidents, and 12 additional rank-and-file representatives elected by the regions.〔United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, Constitution and By-Laws, amended 2011〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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