AMFA is a Craft union that finds strength in the skills and knowledge of its membership, and for that very simple reason, AMFA seeks to constantly raise your levels of skill, and knowledge, as well as your working conditions and way of life. An industrial union that relies on a head count for strength seeks only the fact that large numbers of bodies of mixed skill levels are present. There really is no incentive for a huge Industrial union to improve a skilled workers status as it virtually has that worker in a financial hammerlock. This is the basic difference between Craft representation and Industrial representation.

In the past, when unskilled industrial workers were unorganized, the Industrial Union offered a very positive alternative to the exploitation that they labored under. However, the skilled workers, once they were captured by these huge groups, served only as juicy bargaining chips to elevate the conditions of the unskilled workers beyond what they could normally achieve by virtue of market value.

By using the relatively few skilled workers as "sacrificial lambs", for the benefit of the larger numbers of unskilled, the Industrial union can remain popular with the majority. This can only happen as long as the Industrial union can hold the skilled workers in the same class and craft majority. Once the skilled escape the class and craft of the unskilled, they can vote separately, and their values as a "bargaining chip" becomes non-existent.

Therefore a skilled worker could reasonably conclude that as long as he were associated with an Industrial union, that union would actively work to keep him categorized with the unskilled, and as an end result, uneducated, and diminished in his skills. This is, of course, is in sharp contrast to the philosophies of craft unionism that uses its skill levels with which to bargain, and is constantly educating and nurturing its membership to maintain its strength. The end result is a more decentralized and more democratic union that is not dictated to by powerful omnipotent and odious internationals. This can directly be translated to a skilled worker being able to keep his value and the assets generated by his labor. As well, he will enjoy a working environment that nutrias and constantly improves his craft.

I invite you to review an unedited excerpt from the Grolier's Encyclopedia. This is a very simple and generic reference source. Although they discuss the concepts that I am speaking of in different terms, the meaning is the same. If you are a newcomer to the AMFA campaign, I welcome you, and invite you to enjoy this very simple but important example of a Craft union Vs. Industrial union.

"Unions are classified either as craft unions, industrial unions, or public employee unions. Membership in a craft union is limited to those who practice an established craft or trade, for example, bricklayers, carpenters, and plasterers. The major craft unions are composed of workers in the building, printing, metal, and maritime trades and of railroad employees. The primary employers of craft union members are non-factory businesses and small-scale, highly competitive, local enterprises.

The membership of an industrial union is composed of skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled workers in a particular workplace, industry, or group of industries. Industrial unions are primarily found in the more technologically advanced industries and in large-scale national and international corporations. The craft union is likely to be more powerful that the industrial union in relation to employers, and craft union locals are likely to be more powerful than the national organization. However, the industrial union's national organization is likely to be more powerful that the local unions."

Content by Steven Carey SFOMM