6. Two Paths to the High Road: The Dynamics of Coalition Building in Seattle and Buffalo

Abstract

Union revitalization, coalition building and the high road Labor-community coalitions are not a new concept. Unions approach such coalitions now, as in the past, as one way to enhance their bargaining power with an employer. Such coalitions are temporary and often issue-based. In recent years, however, some local labor movements have begun to look at coalitions in a broader way – as a means of improving their public image and building power in the political arena. This broad-based approach requires the development of coalitions for the longer run, not just for temporary expediency. This paper develops the notion of a high road social infrastructure as a way to understand how union leaders develop and sustain coalitions over time and find the resources they need to succeed in shaping economic development priorities for the region. We define the “high road ” in terms of a path of economic development that provides a high level of worker rights, skill investment, wages and benefits. Ideally, high-road businesses thrive by producing high-quality products and services. In exchange for high productivity and a commitment to innovation, employers have to pay high wages, provide good benefits and invest in training. The low road, by contrast, is a pattern of employer behavior that seeks competitiveness by lowering wages and shifting costs and risks onto workers. Because businesses do not usually pursue high road strategies their own, unions and public policy have to establish a framework of rules and organizational structures to regulate economic development in a way that closes off the low road and builds the high road. Case study evidence suggests that union efforts to promote high road regional economic development are widespread in the global north. David Reynolds, for example, draws on the

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