Richard Bensinger is an author, American labor activist, and labor consultant known for his advocacy of expanded organizing efforts. He is the founder of the

Organizing Institute The AFL–CIO Organizing Institute (best known as "the Organizing Institute," and often as simply "the OI") is a unit within the Organizing and Field Services Department of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. F ...

and was the first organizing director of the AFL-CIO.Whitford, David. "Labor's Lost Chance AFL-CIO President John Sweeney had Big Labor on the move for the first time in a generation. Then he fired his top organizer. Oops."
CNN Money. Sept. 28,1998. He is currently the acting organizing director for the

United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico ...

union.

Life and career

After attending the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

, Bensinger began his involvement with labor as a

Head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...

factory worker, where he helped organize the plant. After working as a volunteer organizer for the Clothing Workers Union, he became the union's regional director. In 1986 he moved to Washington, D.C. to found the Organizing Institute, and in 1994 he became the first person to hold the position of National Organizing Director for the AFL-CIO. While there, Bensinger emphasized the need for unions to rebuild their shrinking base of popular support, and encouraged locals to put more money in organizing efforts. “Two years ago only 15 local unions out of the thousands in this country had moved 20% of their budgets into organizing. … Today, 150 have,” ''Fortune'' magazine reported him as saying shortly before being fired from the AFL-CIO position in 1998. Bensinger was removed from his position by then-president of the AFL-CIO John Sweeney, who replaced him with an SEIU career staffer, citing reasons of ineffectiveness. Bensinger now spends his time consulting for international unions on organizing strategies in the U.S. and Canada, and educating corporations and businesses on ethics in labor relations. He is also the author of ''Reaching Higher'', a guidebook on best organizing practices for non-unionized employees hoping to form a union. In 2002, Bensinger co-founded the Institute for Employee Choice with Dick Schubert, a former president of

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...

. During the political fight over the

Employee Free Choice Act The Employee Free Choice Act is the name for several legislative bills on US labor law (, , , , , , , , .) which have been proposed and sometimes introduced into one or both chambers of the U.S. Congress. The bill's purpose, as taken from the 200 ...

, or “

card check Card check, also called majority sign-up, is a method for employees to organize into a labor union in which a majority of employees in a bargaining unit sign authorization forms, or "cards", stating they wish to be represented by the union. Since ...

” legislation, Bensinger and Schubert suggested a third way to conduct elections that relied not on laws passed by the U.S. Congress but on a voluntary code of conduct that would be upheld by both organizers and management. The “Golden Rule” in this code was “Unions and employers need to behave as they would like the other to behave.” In 2010,

(UAW) president Bob King hired Bensinger to organize Japanese, Korean, and German transplant factories in the United States as part of the UAW's work to increase membership. As of 2020, Bensinger continues to be paid for consulting work by the UAW, as well as Workers United in Rochester, NY and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, among others. In fall of 2021 Bensinger worked with

Jaz Brisack Jaz Brisack (born 1997 or 1998) is an barista. They're also known for leading unionizing efforts at Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Wa ...

and the Workers United campaign to organize workers at 6

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

coffee shops in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

References

External links

Institute for Employee Choice
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bensinger, Richard Living people American trade unionists American male writers University of Colorado alumni Year of birth missing (living people)

Life and career

See also

References

External links